Borneo

Present-day travelers visiting Borneo to see the marvelous buildings pictured in books are liable to wonder if they somehow ended up in the wrong place. Much of the architecture of Borneo and other areas of the humid tropics was never intended to last and, built as it is of wood and other organic materials, last it has not. Among Borneo's spectacular indigenous buildings, the longhouses, mortuary monuments, and other architectural forms of the interior are some of the most outstanding, and much of the renewed interest in indigenous architecture has focused on the rapidly vanishing or now extinct traditional forms of a small number of surviving examples or recreations. Drawing on the author's extensive research and travel in Borneo, this impressive and original study offers a more comprehensive account of this architecture than any previous work. Organized into two sections, the book first documents and explains traditional built forms in terms of tools and materials, the environmental context, village organization and social arrangements. This section includes a full discussion of architecture designs and symbolism, especially those dealing with life and death. The author next look

"Wild Borneo is a beautifully photographed and eloquently written celebration of Borneo's gorgeous scenery, vast wealth of plant and animal life, and fascinating local peoples. Also featured in depth are efforts to protect the island's rainforests - world hotspots of species biodiversity - and to build a long-term global approach to conserving the multitude of natural treasures found on this unique, spectacular island." -- dust jacket.

‘We’ve left a lot of men in Borneo – know what I mean?’ With their SAS trainer’s warnings ringing in their ears, the naturalist, Redmond O’Hanlon, and the poet, James Fenton, set out to rediscover the lost rhinoceros of Borneo. They were loaded with enough back-breaking kit to survive two months in a steaming 95° (in the shade) jungle of creeping, crawling, biting things. O’Hanlon could also rely on his encyclopaedic knowledge of the region’s flora and fauna, and had read-up on how to avoid being eaten by anything (stick your thumbs in a crocodile’s eyes, if you have time). And yet they proceeded to have an adventure that neither O’Hanlon, nor his friend, nor even his guides were remotely prepared for... ‘Consistently exciting, often funny, and erudite without ever being overwhelming’ Punch.

From the steamy highlands and sapphire watered islands of Sabah and Sarawak, to the mesmerising mosques and mysticism of the Sultanate of Brunei, the island of Borneo is a wonder world of colourful tribal cultures, exotic rainforest creatures. Straddling the Equator, and swept in by various Seas and Straits, it is home to the orang-utan, long-nosed beer-bellied proboscis monkeys, and otherworldly carnivorous plants straight out of Lord of the Rings. The latest edition of the Bradt Travel Guide to Borneo provides fully updated insider information for touring the island including regional capitals, rural outposts and National Parks.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "British Borneo" (Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo) by W. H. Sir Treacher. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Since the 1960s, Southeast Asia's agricultural sector has experienced phenomenal growth, with increases in production linked to an energy-intensive capitalization of agriculture and the rapid development of agrifood systems and agribusiness. Agricultural intensification and territorial expansion have been key to this process, with expansion of areas under cultivation playing an unusually important role in the transformation of the countryside and livelihoods of its inhabitants. Borneo, with vast tracts of land not yet under crops, has been the epicenter of this expansion process, with rubber and oil palm acting as the spearhead. Indonesia's Kalimantan provinces and the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak have all undergone major changes but the time frames have varied, as have the crops involved. Agricultural expansion in Borneo is both an economic and a political process, and it has brought about profound socio-economic transformations, including deforestation, and development of communication networks. There has also been rapid population growth, much faster than in either Indonesia or Malaysia as a whole, with attendant pressures on employment, housing and social services. Until the end of the 20th century, agricultural expansion in Indonesia and Malaysia was largely state driven, with the goal of poverty reduction. Subsequently, as in Borneo, boom crop expansion has been taken over by private corporations that are driven by profit maximization rather than poverty reduction.