Catholic Memorial Pilgrimage Centre 3 Feb 2014

It is the 3rd day of Chinese New Year and I was forgotten it was whose ideas is that to visit this holy place. And it is really new to me as well too as I was never heard or gone to this place at Kuching past few years ago.

Mount Singai, situated between Bau & Batu Kawa, about 550m high, is located about 40 minutes drive from Kuching. This is where the Catholic Memorial & Pilgrimage Centre to be found.

We reached at the foot of the Mount. Singai and it is located in the village, there is a small stall selling coconut drinks and other soft drinks.

Going to this special place is like a renewal of faith. Not only one needs to walk uphill for more than 30 minutes, when I saw the steep timber staircase with most of the walkways are covered by moss, my mind was thinking like, “It would take all my energy to climb up to the top, oh dear…”

With Daddy and I were taking care so many children with us, as Brother Andrew and Minah did not follow us due to his health, both of them waited us at the stall at the foot of the mountain. We often stopped to catch a breath and take photos along our way up to the mount.

Plank-walks and staircase were built at some of the steep places thus provide convenient to elderly visitors. Halfway up to the Centre is a clearing providing a good view of the Kampung below and also Batu Kawa township in the distance. There are altogether fourteen station of the cross along the track.

But once we get to the centre the feeling of fresh air and lush, green scenery that surrounds the place greets you with a calm and peaceful feeling. All you hear is the sound of the small jungle creatures that was left to live undisturbed.

The area surrounding the Catholic Memorial Pilgrimage Centre is also a good site for Jungle trekking and also wildlife sighting.

There are abundance of fruit trees, palm ferns, wild flowers along the path and also wildlife. A jungle path leading to the top of Mount Singai located just beside the Longhouse.

A brief history of Catholic Memorial Pilgrimage Centre. Over a hundred years ago, a small Catholic Chapel was built among the Bidayuh on the slope of Mt. Singai, Bau, Sarawak in 1885.

Today this majestic ancestral home of the Bidayuh of Singai is no longer inhabited following the migration of the people to the surrounding lowlands.

The site of the first chapel at Mt. Singai however has been turned into a Memorial and Pilgrimage Centre with the building, completion and blessing of the Centre in November 1999.

The Centre has attracted a lot of Catholics and other Christian Pilgrims and has become very popular with the local Catholics and other Christian denominations and those from other places, so much so that the existing living quarters, especially the washrooms and toilet facilities could no longer cope with the increase in the number of visitors there.

Today the ancestral home of the Bidayuh, other than devoted Catholics and other Christian denominations, has become a popular weekend destination from the urban dwellers nearby especially Kuching, and also a tourist attraction.

The centre now has new Church which a 300 maximum seating which in the form of the Bidayuh Ceremonial House, Baruk. Below it is an open air prayer space with wooden seats.

Other facilities including dinning cum community hall, hostels, chalets, public toilets, washrooms, caretaker house and ten doors longhouse. We took some time visited the areas and took some photographs. It was really amazing that I can’t imagine there is a holy place like this at this height of the mountain, and it is really took great faith to build it.

After a while, we started to come down from the hill through the same stairways again, this time was faster compared to our hiking up to the hill.

On the way down hill, we have more time and energy to see the surroundings of the hills, the jungle was so virgin as untouched. We were almost exhausted when we were at the foot of the mountain again.

Overall, it was a great experience to us!

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