Rentap (born Libau anak Ningkan; c. 1800–1863), also known as Libau Rentap, was a warrior and a recognized Iban hero in Sarawak (now a state of Malaysia) during the reign of the first White Rajah, James Brooke. His praise name, translates from the Iban language as 'Earth-tremor, World-shaker'. His famous and frequently quoted slogan was "" which translates into "Still alive, still fighting".
Birth and becoming a warrior Rentap was born in the Skrang area in the Second Division in Sarawak (then part of the Sultanate of Brunei). He was named Libau anak Ningkan by his father and mother, Ningkan and Imbong. They had five children, including Rentap. Not much is known about Rentap until he was appointed as a (lead warrior, literally 'fighting rooster' due to roosters being seen as strong and mighty by the Iban) by Chief Orang Kaya Pemancha Dana "Bayang" (commonly known as OKP Dana Bayang or simply Dana Bayang).
Rentap was mentored by Dana Bayang and accompanied him on major (headhunting) expeditions from south of Sarawak to the Kapuas River in what is now West Kalimantan, Indonesia. When Dana Bayang grew old, Libau Rentap took over as the commanding officer and led several similar sea war expeditions to raid Sambas and Pontianak, Indonesia. During one of these raiding voyages, Rentap attacked and killed a boatful of Sambas people including the nephew of Sultan Sambas. Rentap took the nephew's (Malay dagger) which was distinguishable by its golden handle and gained fame from the incident, recognized by the Iban-Dayak Skrangs as their great war chief.
Rise of the White Rajah James Brooke (1803–1868) was born in India and served as a cavalry lieutenant in the Bengal Army during the First Anglo-Burmese War, before retiring to England to recover from a serious wound. In 1833, he used an inheritance to purchase the schooner Royalist and began trading in the Far East. In August 1839, Brooke arrived in Kuching, Sarawak and assisted the Sultan of Brunei in crushing a Malay rebellion. In 1841, the Sultan gave Brooke the governorship of Sarawak and the following year ceded complete sovereignty of Sarawak to Brooke, the first White Rajah.
Brooke reinstalled the Malay chiefs into their former positions to help him administer their people in the state, and was highly successful in suppressing the widespread piracy of the region. While Brooke was fighting pirates in Sumatra, his enemies were emboldened. Sharif Sahib gathered Arab adventurers along the Batang Lupar river and invited the Skrang Dayaks to meet him at the entrance of the Sadong River, gathering two hundred Dayak bangkongs and Malay war boats. They raided along the coast, though Brooke returned to surprise one expedition and captured several war boats.
Later, the H.M.S. Dido arrived, accompanied by the East Indian Company steamer Phlegethon. It was decided to begin operations by attacking the Arab sharifs in their strongholds on the Batang Lupar river and then the Dayaks on the Skrang River.
War between White Rajah and Ibans of Saribas According to the account of Captain Henry Keppel, on 4 June 1843, Brooke and Keppel organised a war expedition to attack the Iban Dayak of Saribas to take the land along the coast.
OKP Dana Bayang's longhouse at Nanga Padeh was the strongest and most important, defended by two forts and a barrier of fallen trees that blocked the Batang Saribas River from being entered easily by their enemies. Brooke's forces took the longhouse and burnt on 11 June 1843. Dana Bayang, who was already old, had delegated the fighting to his three sons: Nanang, Luyoh, and Aji.
Brooke's forces proceeded up the Saribas to Karangan Pinggai and on 14 June attacked the fort of Linggir Mali Lebu, a chief mentored by Dana Bayang. They then attacked the Sungai Rimbas river forts at Sungai Tawai belonging to chiefs Rekaya Antau "Linggang Neneri" and Rekaya Gun "Mangku Bumi".
The defeated chiefs of Saribas and Linggi from Skrang went onboard Brooke's ship to sign the peace treaty of Saribas. The treaty forced them to stop headhunting ( in the Iban language), but they refused to sign it.
On 14 June 1843, Brooke's forces went up to Sungai Paku, the branch of the Saribas River and attacked Linggir Mali Lebu fort at Karangan Pinggai. On 17 June, Brooke's forces went up the Sungai Rimbas which is another branch of the Saribas River. They attacked the fort belonging to the Dayak Iban leader by the name Rekaya Antau "Linggang Neneri" and Rekaya Gun "Mangku Bumi" at Sungai Tawai.
Later, James Brooke summoned the Iban Dayak chiefs Dana Bayang, Linggir Mali Lebu and one Linggi representing Libau Rentap of the Skrang to his ship to sign the peace treaty of Saribas. It would have forced them to stop headhunting. Although, they had surrendered during the fighting, they refused to sign it.
Battle of Batang Lupar and Undop In August 1844, Brooke and Keppel forced out the Arab sharifs, destroyed Sharif Sahib's stronghold at Patusin, forced out Sharif Muller at Nanga Skrang and Sharif Jaffar and Pengiran Indera Mahkota (deposed governor of Sarawak) at the upper Undop. Sharifs Sahib and Muller fled across the border to the middle Kapuas while Makhota was later captured in a mud at Lingga. The battle at upper Undop deposed Sherif Jaffer of Lingga, bringing relative peace to the coast. First Lieutenant Charles Wade was killed in the action, making Wade the first white man to be slain by the natives of Sarawak. With this settled, Brooke was then determined to squash the Iban Dayaks of Skrang and led a strong troop to attack Rentap. Battle of Kerangan Peris
On 19 August 1844 at Karangan Peris in the Skrang area was where Rentap first fought against Brooke's forces. He ambushed the advance trackers of Brooke's reconnoitering troop with a formidable array of war boats and thousands of men on either bank of the river, placed to effectively use spears and blowpipes. With boats and bamboo rafts blocking their retreat, the troop's white leader Mr Stewart, a Malay chief Datuk Patinggi Ali and 30 of his men were killed, and 56 others were wounded. This was the first time the Brooke officers saw how devastating the fighting and war with the Iban were.
On 26 August, a Skrang chief arrived, deputed by the other chiefs of Skrang to assure Captain Keppel of their submission and desire for peace. Battle of Beting Maru In 1849, the Iban of Saribas and Skrang combined forces to attack those living near the Batang Rajang river mouth. Brooke quickly employed his warship to surprise them upon their return. When the Iban troop reached the Maru sandbar, they were bombarded by cannon fire. Sensing danger, some of the Saribas boats stopped at the sandbar and disembarked to escape overland to Saribas while two main boats made daring attacks on the schooner but were defeated, and tried to escape into the Saribas River. Brooke's force chased after them upriver. At the Battle of Nanga Peka, the Paku Iban and Malay troops enticed Brooke's force into a fight after which Brooke's force suffered casualties including three sons of their Iban chief, Jugah of Lundu. After this defeat, Brooke's force returned to Kuching and sent a captive home to bring Brooke's message requesting the Iban to surrender at Kuching at once to avoid further attack. Meanwhile, the Skrang boats tried to escape by paddling to the Batang Lupar river mouth where they were unsuccessfully ambushed by Brooke's schooner, the Nemesis, which was lying in wait for their return.
Sarawak expansionism Nanga Skrang fort In 1850, after Linggir's defeat at the Battle of Betting Maru, Brooke had a fort built at the junction of the Batang Skrang and the Batang Lupar rivers. The establishment of Fort James at Skrang prevented Rentap's warriors from joining those under Linggir and Aji (Dana Bayang's son) and blocked their passage to the South China Sea where they might raid the people living along the coast. While primarily a defensive measure to keep the peace, this was effectively an embargo against those who had not submitted to Rajah Brooke's rule, preventing them from collecting sea salt and other essentials.
Rentap and his followers responded by moving farther up to the headwaters of the Saribas and Skrang, where they established a stockade on a mountain ridge at the Sungai Lang River.
Battle of Lintang Batang In 1853, Rentap gathered his men intending to attack the fort at Nanga Skrang and push his way to the South China Sea. In command of the fort, William Brereton learned of Rentap's approach and sent word to Alan Lee, who quickly arrived with a scratch party from a nearby fort. Lee urged Brereton to defend the fort rather than face the Iban-Dayak warriors in the open, but Brereton had built a small stockade a few miles upriver and insisted on defending it.
Brereton was lured out onto the open river, followed by Lee, but their boats were swamped by Rentap's heavy war boats. Brereton's boat capsized and he swam to the riverbank, while Lee fought on and was killed, beheaded by Rentap's son-in-law, Layang. Lee's head was nicknamed (Lee's head who died lost). Heavy fire from the stockade then forced Rentap's warriors to retreat upriver, where they came under attack from a rival chief who had sided with the White Rajah. Twenty longhouses belonging to Rentap and his followers were burned.
Peace talks Brooke managed to entice Orang Kaya Gasing and the lower Skrang Iban to support him. In December 1853, Rentap and Bulan Apai Jelani agreed to meet with Brooke for a peace talk on the Skrang River. While Rentap was strongly opposed to the presence of white men, Jelani was the figurehead of a party that did not support either side of the conflict but watched to see which side would win. Brooke was accompanied by his nephew, Charles Brooke the Tuan Muda (heir presumptive to the White Rajah, literally 'young lord'), who would become Rentap's opponent in upcoming battles. Despite several meetings to discuss matters between the two parties, they did not reach any satisfactory results, and Rentap, the chief of the upper Skrang Iban swore that he would never again meet the white men to talk about peace or anything else.
Continuing confrontations
Battle of Sungai Lang Rentap and his followers continued strengthening his fort in Sungai Lang. This fort at the headwaters of the Skrang River, on a hill cleared of jungle, was surrounded by steep slopes with high stakes driven into the earth forming a thick stockade.
In August 1854, Rajah James Brooke proceeded up the Skrang River with a large group of warriors, about 7,000 from the Dayak and the Malay community from Kuching. Due to poor health, Brooke stayed with a strong force to protect their war boats and baggage at Enteban, the navigable extent of the Skrang. Captain John Johnson-Brooke (Rajah James Brooke's eldest nephew), was placed in command of the war expedition, accompanied by his younger brother Charles Brooke, Brereton, and five other English officers.
They marched for four days to reach Rentap's fort and began their attack. A four-pounder gun and rockets were fired at one end of the fort while three-pounder guns were fired at the other. Rentap's forces returned fire with a small cannon and shouted their war-cries: and ('Still bleeding, still fighting' and 'Still living, still fighting). Early that afternoon, there was a commotion inside the fort and the women and children were seen fleeing from the opposite side.
The Malay Chief Panglima Seman, a Kalaka Malay of the White Rajah's forces, advanced on the fort as the sun set. His warriors opened the stakes with their hands and jumped inside the fort, drawing swords to attack. 50 to 60 of Libau Rentap's warriors were seen racing away over the open ground, covering their bodies with shields as they fled. Rentap was said to have been wounded and carried away by his warriors to a second and much stronger fort located on the summit of Sadok Hill (a.k.a. Bukit Sadok or Mount Sadok).