An enchanting and mysterious Eden-like garden hidden in the deep jungle of Borneo near the Dulit Range in upper Tinjar surfaced again recently after long forgotten since it was first mentioned by Charles Hose in his book Fifty Years of Romance and Research in Borneo in 1891.
The recent encounter with this mysterious garden was narrated by one 52-year Merang Kaling to a tour operator John Barah recently.
According to Merang, a former surveyor with two timber companies it was in 1992 when he set out to trek the upper part of the Dulit Range in search of the valuable jungle treasure “ bird nest and garo” with one Tajoh Ginat of Long Aton.
After two days of jungle trekking, the two of them camped by a small stream. The following day, they continued their jungle trekking, climbing a sandstone cliff for the most part of the day.
To their surprise, they discovered something strange in the deep jungle-a garden with tobacco and brinjal. The garden was only a stone throw away from the summit of the Dulit Range, said Merang.
“There were tobacco plants planted in neat rows. The leaves were 5 inches wide and about one foot in length. At the edge of the garden we saw green round brinjal plants. I noticed that some of the tobacco leaves had been freshly plucked by someone but there was no footprints. All the tobacco leaves were perpetual evergreen, not a single one appear to wilt. The garden was very clean with not a single leave drop to the ground. But the mysterious thing about the garden was that there was not a trail leading to it and no sign of human activity. The width of the garden was about 12 feet and the length was about 2 chains,” said Merang.
After spending about half an hour in the garden, the two of them came down to their camp. That night they slept peacefully. Merang realised that he had chanced across the garden his elders had talked about in their folklore regarding the Dulit Range.
After interviewing Merang about his encounter with this mysterious garden, John found a similar experience that Hose had way back in 1891 where he wrote about his experience in his book called Fifty Years of Romance and Research in Borneo, “ Early next day I ventured to climb a greystone cliff which was directly above us, using ladders and cords made of rattan, and was rewarded for my trouble by finding many things of interest. First we came upon a large cave with a long ridge of overhanging rock. The soil underneath this ridge was very dry, but to the surprise of everyone, tobacco was found growing in several places. We picked some of the leaves, which measured for 4 to 5 inches across and about a foot long. This wild tobacco, growing at the entrance of the cave, appeared to be flourishing at an altitude which I estimated to be 4150 feet. The Punans, who collected this wild tobacco, believe that it was originally planted by the spirits.”
According to John, Merang would make another jungle expedition to unravel the mystery behind this garden in two weeks time hoping to bring some conclusive proofs of the existence of the garden to the outside world.
"I hope to make the journey before the end of this year," said Merang.
It was reported that any attempt in the past to bring back this tobacco leave was futile as the leave simply dissolve or melt away once it was brought out of the enchanting environment of the garden.
I suggested that he take pictures of the garden supposedly built and guarded by spirits. ENDS.
Caption: TALE OF A MYSTICAL GARDEN IN BORNEO: John Barah.
