Simunjan District


The Simunjan District is a district in the Samarahan Division of Sarawak, Malaysia, located between Serian and Sri Aman. It borders Sebuyau and Samarahan and lies approximately east-south-east of the state capital Kuching.
Most of its inhabitants are made up of Malay and Iban people.

Etymology

There are a few deviations regarding the origin of Simunjan's name. The first being when a Chinese merchant went to dry tobaccos during cloudy weather. Based on this folklore, a Chinese merchant came to Simunjan on a boat known as Wangkang to rest. While at Simunjan, he tried to dry his tobaccos in the sun, but the weather was cloudy. A local told them that his "Jan" will be "Semun" ; "Semunlah jan kau kelak" Since this encounter, the place have been known as "Simunjan."
Another oral tradition speaks of Simunjan coming from the word "Semun" and "Hujan" In this version, the Simunjan people originated from an area known as "Ensengei" that migrated to Simunjan. Most of them worked as miners. While trying to start a match, the match was damp due to the frequent rainfall. Because this area was still unnamed, people combined "Semun" and "Hujan" to refer this place, hence "Simunjan."
Based on another source, Simunjan got its name from "Burung Munjan" Burung Munjan was to believe a bird native to Simunjan that was abundant within Gunung Ngeli forest. Simunjan derived from the phrase "Si Munjan" hence its name. However, there are limited resources that provide additional details about this version, except for a few mentions from locals. A statue of Burung Munjan was erected around 1990 at Padang Sentral before being moved to Majlis Daerah Simunjan. It is believed that Burung Munjan went extinct due to rampant human activities in Simunjan.

Notable people

Simunjan has a tropical rainforest climate with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round.