Miri
Miri /ˈmɪriː/ (Jawi: ميري; Chinese: 美里; pinyin: Méilǐ) is a coastal city in north-eastern Sarawak, Malaysia, located near the border of Brunei, on the island of Borneo. The city covers an area of 997.43 square kilometres (385.11 sq mi),[2] located 798 kilometres (496 mi) north-east of Kuching[6] and 329 kilometres (204 mi) south-west of Kota Kinabalu.[7] Miri is the second-largest city in Sarawak,[8] with a population of 356,900 as of 2020.[5] The city is also the capital of Miri District, Miri Division.
Before Miri was founded, Marudi was the administrative centre of the northern region of Sarawak. Miri was founded in 1910 when the first oil well was drilled by Royal Dutch Shell. The discovery of an oil field in Miri has led to rapid development of Miri town. Miri became the administrative centre of the northern region of Sarawak by 1929. During World War II, the Miri oil fields were destroyed by the Brooke government to sabotage Japanese operations in Southeast Asia but to no avail; Miri town was the first landing point of Japanese troops in Borneo. The subsequent Japanese occupation led Miri to become a target of Allied air raids which caused the destruction of oil refinery facilities in Miri. The petroleum industry continued to be a major player in the city's economy after the war. Oil exploration has moved offshore since the 1950s, but subsequently new inland oil fields were found in 1989 and 2011. In 1974, the formation of Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas led to co-operation between Petronas and Shell on oil exploration in the Miri region. In 2005, Miri became the 10th city in Malaysia to be granted official city status, the first non-state-capital city to be bestowed such status.
Miri is the main tourist gateway to the world-famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, Gunung Mulu National Park; Loagan Bunut National Park; Lambir Hills National Park; Niah National Park and Miri-Sibuti Coral Reef National Park.[9][10] The Gunung Mulu National Park with its Sarawak Chamber, which is the largest known cave chamber in the world by area, remains one of the favourite ecotourism destinations in Miri.[8] Miri is also the birthplace of the Malaysian petroleum industry. Other major industries in the city include timber, oil palm and tourism.
Miri town is named after a minority ethnic group called "Jati Miriek"[11] or simply "Mirek",[12] or "Miriek". This ethnic group is the earliest settlers in the region of Miri Division.[11] Europeans who later came to the region for oil exploration mistakenly pronounced "Miriek" as "Miri", and this name continues to be used today.[13]
The first foragers visited the West Mouth of Niah Cave – located 110 km (68 mi) southwest of Miri city[14] – 50,000 years ago when Borneo was connected to the mainland of Southeast Asia. The landscape of Niah Cave was drier and more open than it is now. Prehistoric Niah Cave was surrounded by a mosaic of closed forests with bush, parkland, swamps, and rivers. The foragers were able to survive in the rainforests through hunting, fishing, mollusc collection, and plant gathering.[15] The earliest evidence of human population in the area dates back to 40,000 BC in Niah Cave at Paleolithic period. This is evidenced by the discovery of a Homo sapiens skull nicknamed "Deep Skull" in a deep trench uncovered by Tom Harrisson in 1958,[14][16] which is the oldest modern human skull in Southeast Asia.[17] The skull probably belongs to a 16- to 17-year-old adolescent girl.[15] Unfossilised Manis paleojavanica (Asian giant pangolin) bone dated back to 30,000 BC was also found in the proximity of the "Deep Skull",[18] as well as with the Mesolithic and Neolithic burial sites inside the Niah Caves.[19]
