Brunei’s largest lake, Merimbun, is located in the Tutong District, some 60km away from Bandar Seri Begawan. It was Brunei’s first national park and it was declared as the first ASEAN Heritage Site in November 1984. It’s quite unique as it is not only Brunei’s only lake, but it is Borneo’s only “black” freshwater lake, with an area of 7,800 hectares. The park’s logo is the “purun” plant, which is endemic in the area. The lake is under the jurisdiction of the Museum Department since 1967.
For the last 500 years, the Deusun people have lived and cultivated in the surruding area of the lake. Dusun in the Malay language means “orchard” (as in fruit orchard) hence they are the tribe who traditionally cultivate the land as opposed to the Melayu Brunei who are fishermen.
According to local residents, Merimbun was named as such after the lake was found by Imbun, a son of a village chief from Merangking, Belait District, while hunting. Liking the place, he and several of his people established a settlement there.
Another version tells of the remains of a ship (tungkang) that belonged to Eng Boon, a Chinese trader, hence the name of the lake. “Rich” ancient Chinese ceramics dated 15th century were found around the vicinity of the lake and its islands, and some claimed the area had trade with Chinese as early as the 12th century.
In Pulau Jelundong, a small island west of the lake, there exisits a burial site of the local people, which practised the jar burial back in the 15th until the late 19th century. An interesting historical fact related to the islands in the lake was that during the 18th and late 19th centuries, it were used as temporary shelter against the invading (ayau) Ibans and Kayan tribes.
Among the fauna which can be observed in Merimbun are the Cloud leopard, banded linsang, white collared fruit bat, Bornean gibbon, Vordermann's flying squirrel, gray leaf monkey, Maroon langurs, pig-tailed macaques, sambar deers, honey bear, slow loris, Western tarsier, argus pheasant, hornbills, purple heron. Oriental darter, pangolin, and reticulated python.
The discovery of the white-collared fruitbat was found in Heritage site, the first living species in the world was one of its famous find in the park.
Beside the endemic Lepironia articulata or "purun" plants in the park, other flora which can be observed are the Dryobalanops rappa, Dactylocladus stenostachys, Gonostylus maingayi, Cyrtostachys renda, Licuala paludosa, Barassodendron borneense, Nepenthes ampullaria, N. bicalcarata, N. gracilis and N. mirabilis.
Back in April 2003, Borneo Bulletin journalist visited the park and saw that the place was not well maintained (http://www.ecologyasia.com/news-archives/2003/apr-03/borneo-bulletin_20030405_01.htm) and took note of the old and dangerous bridge that link to Jelundong Island.
By 2005, Museums Department decided to remove the bridge after it was found that visitors have not only damage the native plant species, but trekking also lead to soil erosion. Visitors are also known to have directly trampling on archaeological remnants hence there was strong concern for not replacing the bridge. No wonder after I visited the site today, I can’t see the bridge. At least I was lucky enough to have crossed the bridge about 10 years ago during one of my school trips.
Nevertheless, the Museums Department should try to make sure that the facilities are properly maintained. The road is already constructed and one can drive to Tasik Merimbun without encountering ANY of those potholes experienced by visitors several years ago. I would have want to go kayaking but I don’t see anyone / business that offer such service there. Maybe a bridge should be constructed in the middle of the lake, but not to the Jelundong Island so that tourists can at least take some interesting pictures of the lake.
I don’t think tour agencies in Brunei would be interested to go to such a far-flung area if they cannot offer anything nice to their tourists. Believed me, we were tourists in other countries and we hope that we could do some water “sport” if we’re going to visit any lake. No souvenirs, no pictures, nothing to buy in Tasik Merimbun…
These are some of the websites which have "old" pictures of Tasik Merimbun.
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