How Simanggang got its name, according to local legend
KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s proposal for Sri Aman Division to be renamed as Simanggang Division proved to be a hot topic of discussion, but how did the name Simanggang come about?
While there are many variations on the origin of ‘Simanggang’, they are generally the same and involve the Iban word ‘magang’ which means ‘all’ and ‘si’, which in the Hokkien dialect means ‘dead’.
A widely-shared story says that according to legend, there once lived a Chinese family who traded along the bank of Batang Lupar River and who did not get along with another Chinese family who traded from a boat along the same river.
The story goes that one day, an Iban who was the friend of the Chinese family trading on the riverbank, went to look for his friend.
Seeing the door to the house closed, he asked the Chinese trader in the boat where the family staying on the bank was.
Unable to properly converse in Iban, the man in the boat replied: ‘Si magang! Udah si magang!’ (All dead! All dead already!) – owing to the less-than-cordial relations between the two families.
Legend has it that each time the Iban returned to look for the family on the riverbank, he was told the same thing and came to the conclusion that his friend had gone to a place called ‘si magang’, which gradually evolved to ‘Simanggang’.
And, according to legend, the name stuck.
Modern history has it that Simanggang was known as Second Division during colonial times, an administrative area formed by Sarawak’s second Rajah, Charles Brooke, in 1873.
On Oct 20, 1973, a historic declaration of peace was signed in Simanggang town that marked the end of the communist insurgency in Sarawak with the surrender of Bong Kee Chok, who was the director and political commissar of Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara, and his comrades.
Given the significance of the event, the town and the division were renamed Sri Aman, as ‘aman’ in Malay means ‘peace’.