Sunday, September 4, 2016

The historical Mango tree of Bintulu (Malaysia Day article #4)

The only remnant of Bintulu of the 60's and still standing in 2016 is this historical  Mango tree.
Government village is seen at lower
left of the picture, and the
 of Mango tree indicated by yellow arrow
 Picture : circa 1960's
There is a  medium-sized Mango tree that stands alone in Bintulu town having a history not many outsiders or newcomers to the town know.  The tree is located close by the Marco Polo restaurant as you turn the left bend before the restaurant.  I have been researching the history of this Mango tree for quite a while for the simple reason that despite the complete transformation of the town over a series of four economic booms, and resulting in the unstoppable demolition of old physical structures of the old town, the tree remains intact as the only historical outfit left of the town and the government village of the 60's.   To the best of my knowledge the tree is now about 63 years old.  This tree is an enigma of development in Bintulu which started to destroy the original area of " kampung perintah" or the government village in wake of the first boom which started in 1979.   The picture at the inset shows  the government village which is  seen on the lower left of the picture.  This government quarters area and other institutional buildings stretched from the existing traffic light as you enter the Bintulu town proper to the existing town fountain area today.Here the government of the day conveniently accommodated the court house with almost all the other government departments annexed e.g. Land and Survey department, Agriculture , General Administration etc. and towards the direction of the mango tree were spread out the government officers quarters either in barrack-form like the police barracks or in individual units, football field  and the prison which was  next to the football field.The mango tree marked the end boundary of the government quarters area to the north and all those features are now gone, except for the mango tree (see top picture and below). 
Over the years the mango tree has continued to flower and produced fruits. It is my fervent hope that the local authority will spare every effort to retain this historical Mango tree as a heritage tree for  posterity and tourism attraction. Let this old tree be the grand old tree of Bintulu.

Happy Malaysia Day Sarawak!

 Note: This is Article #4 in a series to celebrate Malaysia's national day (Malaysia Day) - 16 Sept  annually)

 The Mango tree in flowering stage, taken on 14th July,2012.















No comments:

Post a Comment