Visited a school mate (Lip Su) in Likas and both of us plan on having some "pau" for our afternoon tea. While waiting at Lip Su's home, i chance on some very old magazine which his father collected over the years. In one of them i noticed a very familiar photo which turn out to be of my great grandfather - Lo Tat Yen @ Miao Hin. The accompanying article written in Chinese (Translation later) which gives a fairly good description of the early years in Sabah, which of course is North Borneo then. To summarise, Mr. Lo Tat Yen born 21 November 1869, originates from "Gong Dong", China and travelled to Sandakan, North borneo in 1911. He served in the Basel Mission Church, Sandakan till 1914 when he travelled to Inanam Basel Mission Church, then just established. Within months the First World War started and European missionaries left for home leaving Mr. Lo Tat Yen to lead the Inanam congregation. He served at Inanam till 1922 and returned to China leaving a few of his children at Inanam. In 1940 he decided to return to North Borneo and travelled with one of his grandson- Mr Lo Yung Fah. Then again the World War broke out and he is forced to leave the young grandson Yung Fah in Hong Kong while travelling alone on his journey to North Borneo. The war and and occupation ended after three years and eight months. Mr Lo Tat Yen have been serving the Bassel Mission Church till his death at the age of 85 on 25 July 1955.
Note: The grandson (Yung Fah - my uncle) is well and now reside in Vancover, Canada.
The article in Chinese
Image file - 1.2MB
Thomas Lo
Manage to dig out one of these old photos taken in Kampung Darau, which i think is around 1974. Me on the right with the "gang" is going fishing for prawns along the Darau River. Catch then used to be plentiful - fresh water praws weighing a kilo each is common. You can easily catch crown fish for your home aquarium and during high tide, you can see puffer fish swimming upstream with the tide. A recent check with the kampung friend revealed that the river have been dead for years since agriculture and poultry activities upstream poisoned the river in the late 70's. The catchment area for this river is also lost to development and thus it now only serve as an outlet for rainwater. Sad case.
