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Heritage Snippets of Sarawak
By Jutta Kelling
ON 8 OCTOBER 1912, a strange party arrived in Upper Sarawak. The American Gilbert W. Kriesz and his companions arrived from Sambas on their walking trip around the world, admitting the Borneo jungles were the worst places for walking in their experiences (Sarawak Gazette, 02 December 1912). But, nearly 70 years before, a German missionary took the same route travelling from Sambas to Kuching on an adventurous journey!
Some of you may have read the signboard at the old Courthouse in Kuching. It memorializes the German missionary, there called “Father Rupe”, who built a two-storey wooden building at the same place in 1847.
Not much is known about him, but his true name was Johann Michael Carl Hupe (1818–1861). He was born in the German town Halle and attended the school of the Francke Foundations (https://www.francke-halle.de/en/). This educational institution was founded in the 18th century by the famous German theologian August Hermann Francke (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Hermann_Francke).
After his exam, Hupe was sent to Borneo to help other missionaries to establish mission stations in Southeast Kalimantan. He arrived in May 1844 in Banjarmasin.
Johann Hupe was a young and enthusiastic missionary. Soon there were disputes between Hupe and the other men. He left the station and decided to travel to Sarawak to build a mission station. The story of James Brooke and how he achieved Rajahship had spread like a wildfire in Europe and Hupe was fascinated by the White Rajah. He hoped that he would welcome him as a missionary in Kuching.
He set out on his journey to Sarawak on the other side of the island of Borneo. In August 1844, he embarked from Banjarmasin on a ship that delivered fabrics to Pontianak where he arrived on 5 September 1844. There he spent some days with the American missionary William Youngblood and visited the mission station in Karangan, about eight miles south of Landak and a six-day trip from Pontianak.
In Karangan, Hupe tried to find out whether there was a route overland to Sarawak, but he couldn’t locate a guide. As there was no chance for a return trip, he and his servant repaired a rotten prahu and travelled back on the rivers to Pontianak, often risking their lives.
From Pontianak, Hupe sailed on a Dutch ship to Sambas, arriving on 11 November 1844. The Dutch Resident Baumgart and the Sultan of Sambas, Omar Aku Mudin, found him a guide, a Malay pangeran named Urei Menap. Hupe had to pay 120 guilders for the assistance.
They started their journey into inner Borneo and proceeded through the rainforest on the river Sambas and its tributaries towards Sarawak. At first, they passed some Dayak villages but then they didn’t see any humans for many days.
The pangeran was addicted to opium and slept most of the time. Out of discretion towards Hupe, he refrained from smoking opium by day and behaved respectfully and obligingly. They travelled on the inland rivers to Siding which was part of the Dayak dominion of Urei Menap on the Kumbeh River. The pangeran organised Dayak carriers for the boats, cases, and bundles so they could journey overland, hiking in the northeast direction over the mountains and Bukit Anggas.
Crossing into the watershed of the Sarawak River they passed through the village of Gumbang and finally arrived at the Tepong tributary of the Sarawak River on 1 December 1844. They went on by boat and visited an imposing cave, called Lobang Angin (windy hole) which is today better known as Wind Cave. There, Hupe hurt his leg when he climbed into the cave.
On 3 December 1844, they spent the night in Siniawan and arrived in Kuching the following day. When they arrived in Kuching, Urei Menap gave Hupe one of his servants who was dismissed by Hupe shortly after due to his obsessive gambling and opium smoking.
Only a few Europeans were living in Kuching at that time and Hupe, the “little German missionary” ( https://archive.org/details/privateletterss00tempgoog/page/n48/mode/2up?view=theater) was soon integrated into this small society.
Hupe left Sarawak for Singapore after a one-month stay because he wanted to bring his belongings from Banjarmasin. More than a year later, in August 1846, Hupe returned to Sarawak and met James Brooke. He explained his plans for the mission in Sarawak, but Brooke denied the support Hupe had asked for as he was waiting for missionaries he had recruited from England.
Hupe continued to pursue his plans on his own. He wanted to build a solid house as a school and church house. He started the construction in October 1846. The place where the house was constructed was close to the river, where the Old Courthouse is situated today; Malay kampongs nearby and it fell between the Chinese and Malabar traders’ residences, just opposite the residence of James Brooke on the other side of the river.
He had to dig new trenches to dry the ground and he hired ‘coolies’ to fell the timber for construction in the jungle about a day’s trip away from Kuching. It was quite expensive to build the house and Hupe had to borrow money from a German shipowner in Singapore. Furthermore, his health took a turn for the worse due to the climate. He was allowed to return to Halle.
He sold his two-storey timber school building to James Brooke and travelled back to Europe. After his return to Halle, he worked as a teacher. He died on 24 May 1861.
Today, cultural artefacts and natural history specimens from Borneo collected by Hupe on his adventurous journey can still be found in the Kunst- und Naturalienkammer or Cabinet of Artefacts and Natural Curiosities, the museum collection of the Francke Foundations (https://www.francke-halle.de/en/exhibition/cabinet-of-artefacts-and-natural-curiosities).
Jutta Kelling is a Ph.D. candidate in history from FernUniversität Hagen in Germany. Her study explores the history of indentured labourers who were brought from South India and Ceylon to Sarawak in the second half of the nineteenth century to work on the plantation at Mount Matang.
“Heritage Snippets of Sarawak” is a fortnightly column.
