Semporna is a town located in Tawau Division

Tawau Division

Tawau Division is one of the five administrative sub-divisions of Sabah, east Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. It occupies a total of 14,905 square kilometers or 20% of Sabah's territory...

, in the east coast of Sabah

Sabah

Sabah is one of 13 member states of Malaysia. It is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo. It is the second largest state in the country after Sarawak, which it borders on its southwest. It also shares a border with the province of East Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south...

, Malaysia on the island of Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

. Its population was estimated to be around 133,000 in 2006.

History

Semporna was founded soon after the British North Borneo Company

British North Borneo Company

The North Borneo Chartered Company or British North Borneo Company was a chartered company assigned to administer North Borneo in August 1881. North Borneo became a protectorate of the British Empire with internal affairs administered by the company until 1946 when it became the colony of British...

 established Sandakan

Sandakan

Sandakan is the second-largest city in Sabah, East Malaysia, on the north-eastern coast of Borneo. It is located on the east coast of the island and it is the administrative centre of Sandakan Division and was the former capital of British North Borneo...

, and initially settled by Chinese

Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....

 traders. The name Semporna means place of rest and was given after the British quelled resistance from the local Bajaus in the mid-1880s, changing it from Tong Talun. Another story is that Semporna was called place to settle or meeting place by four admirals – Panglima Kabogan, Panglima Bum-Bum, Panglima Simunul and Panglima Abdullah.

Details

The majority of the population is Bajau

Bajau

The Bajau or Bajaw , also spelled Bajao, Badjau, Badjaw, or Badjao, are an indigenous ethnic group of Maritime Southeast Asia...

, many of whom live in sprawling stilt villages over the water on the outskirts of town. Semporna is located at the tip of Semporna Peninsula around Lahad Datu Bay (also known as Darvel Bay

Darvel Bay

Darvel Bay or Lahad Datu Bay is a bight on the east side of Sabah on the island of Borneo. It is the largest semi-enclosed bay on the east coast of Borneo and faces the Sulawesi Sea...

), and is visited by tourists as a base for scuba diving

Scuba diving

Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....

 or snorkeling trips to Pulau Sipadan

Sipadan

Sipadan is the only oceanic island in Malaysia, rising from the seabed. It is located in the Celebes Sea off the east coast of Sabah, East Malaysia . It was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct volcanic cone that took thousands of years to develop...

 (Sipadan Island), some 36 kilometers southeast of town.

Marine products are still the mainstay of the local economy. Pearl

Pearl

A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...

 culturing is a major component of this industry.

Activities

Semporna is also known for the Regatta Lepa traditional boat races which occur annually in April. Semporna was also the location of the finish line of Eco-Challenge: Borneo, held in 2000. Off the coast is a marine park called Tun Sakaran Marine Park

Tun Sakaran Marine Park

Tun Sakaran Marine Park, also known as Semporna Islands Park, is a marine park located off the east coast of the state of Sabah in Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. It consists of the islands of Bodgaya, Boheydulang, Sebangkat, and Selakan, the sand cays of Maiga, Sibuan, and Mantabuan, and the...

 also known as Semporna Islands Park. It was gazetted by Sabah Parks

Sabah Parks

Sabah Parks is a conservation-based statutory body established in 1962 with the purpose of conserving the scenic, scientific and historic heritage of the state of Sabah, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. The organisation is also responsible for the management and promotion of the various protected...

 in 2004.

Languages

Semporna is unique in that it boasts of the only Zamboangueño Chavacano-speaking community in Malaysia, a Spanish-based creole

Spanish-based Creole languages

-Chavacano:Chavacano is a Spanish-based Creole language and the name of the Six Dialects of Spanish evolved words turned into a Creole language spoken in the Philippines...

 whose speakers can mainly be found only in the Zamboanga area on the neighbouring Philippine

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 island of Mindanao

Mindanao

Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...

.

External links