Toponymy The origin of the name "Ranau" comes from the
Dusun word , which means
paddy fields. The Dusun people who live in the highland grow mountain rice on the hills (called ), where the mountain rice is called in Dusun. The people in the lowlands of Ranau use traditional water-filled paddy fields for rice cultivation. Over time, "Ranahon" was shortened to "Ranau." As the central district administration is nearer to the lowland, the name "Ranau" was adopted as the official name for the district.
Early references was called
Mont de Ste. Pierre in this 1710 Ottens map.
Long shan (龍山
lóng shān) means Dragon Mountain and it was linked to Mount Kinabalu because there were dragon legends associated with Kinabalu. Another Chinese source, a nautical
compendium called
Fair Winds for Escort (順風相送
shùn fēng xiāng sòng) composed circa 1430, described a voyage from
Siam to
Mindanao via the west coast of Borneo, where the Chinese ships passed
Sheng shan (聖山
shèng shān).
Sheng shan which means Holy Mountain, was identified as
Mount Kinabalu. References to Mount Kinabalu had also appeared in old maps of the
East Indies made by Europeans cartographers under the names of
Mount St. Pedro or
Mount St. Pierre. The name
Mount St. Pedro was used by map makers such as
Gerardus Mercator in his
India Orientalis map published around 1595,
Nicolaes Visscher II in
Indiae Orientalis map published in the early 17th century, and several other cartographers. In some maps, for example, the 1710 ''Ottens's Map of Southeast Asia
by Joachim Ottens, the mountain was called Mount St. Pierre''. However,
John Pinkerton's
East India Isles map from 1818 labelled the mountain as ''St. Peter's Mountain''. Old geographers believed that there was a great lake at the peak of the mountain on account of the natives's stories. The natives's oral history may have had its roots from the folk memory of these glistening sheets of ice. However, the earliest documented expeditions to ascend Kinabalu in March 1851 and in 1858, led by
Sir Hugh Low and
Sir Spenser St. John, revealed that there was no lake. and J. Rapkin, suggested that a lake existed south of the mountain. Notwithstanding, explorers William B. Pryer and Captain Francis Xavier Witti concluded that there was no lake near Mount Kinabalu when they explored the Ranau plain in the early days.
Under British North Borneo Company During the
British North Borneo Company administration beginning in the 19th century, Ranau was governed under the Province Dent. Later it organised as a substation of
Tambunan with a Government station under the Interior Residency. The Ranau plain and its surrounding hilly areas were historically inhabited by
Dusun farmers who practised
shifting cultivation. Their major staple crops were
upland rice and
lowland wet rice. Natives from Ranau would go to large
tamu (native market) at nearby districts to sell and buy, or exchange goods using the barter system.
Tobacco, a major export item for the company, was successfully cultivated in extensive parts of Ranau district, especially in the highlands. It became an important source of income for Ranau natives. At that time, the tobacco produced from highland Ranau and the Interior proper was of high quality compared to that grown down the coast due to the effect of sea wind even though the plants were similarly obtained from Ranau, according to natives and experts. His first appearance in Ranau on 10 February 1897, gained him many Dusun followers which then increased his influence to as far as
Inanam. The company was aware of this development and launched an attack against his fort in Ranau on 23 February which led to the death of his father. Mat Salleh escaped but retreated back to Ranau in July the same year. After being tracked down by Captain J.M. Reddie and E.H. Barraut, Ranau was attacked again but he managed to escape. Mat Salleh's final movement to Ranau occurred in November 1897. A total of 288
Sikh,
Iban and
Dayak policemen from Abai Bay and
Sandakan led by G. Hewett, George Ormsby, P. Wise, and Adjutant Alfred Jones, were ordered to invade Mat Salleh's fort in Ranau on 13 December 1897. The loyalty oath stone still exists until today.
World War II The
Japanese occupation of North Borneo became official on 16 May 1942, and divided North Borneo into two governorates. Ranau was under the Governorate of the West Coast Territory (西海州 ) and was directly administered by a district officer (郡長 ) with the help of village headmen. At first, the Japanese were not interested in the Interior Residency but soon, demands for the collection of foodstuffs increased. They also realised the importance of the Interior as part of their strategic forces. Village headmen were given orders to gather as many groups of labourers as possible from villages all over the district to work on upgrading existing roads, mainly the one leading to
Sandakan, and also to construct an
airstrip in Ranau near a detention camp of Australian
prisoners of war. Ranau served as an important junction for the Japanese troops from Sandakan heading to
Jesselton and also for the troops from the Interior proper marching as reinforcements towards
Kudat. They were also rescued by Allied
paratroopers later. In June 1945, the Japanese captors moved with the prisoners south of Ranau to a second jungle camp near the Kenipir River to escape from the air raids of
napalm bombs by the Allied planes. By August 1945, all survivors of the marches were killed. Three memorials were erected in remembrance of the marches. The Ranau Memorial, also known as the Gunner Cleary Memorial was constructed in 1985 in memory of the tragic death of Gunner Albert Neil Cleary from the first Death March. The
Kundasang War Memorial built in 1962 is a memorial park dedicated to the Australian and British servicemen who died in Sandakan and on the marches, and also to the locals who assisted the prisoners of wars. The Last Camp Memorial was newly unveiled in 2009 in remembrance of the exact spot where the Death March ended.
Mamut Copper Mine Ranau was the centre of Malaysian copper, gold and silver mining from 1975 to 1999. The Mamut Copper Mine at the slopes of Mount Kinabalu was an open cast mine which was operated by a joint venture of Japanese and Malaysian investors under the
Overseas Mineral Resources Development Sabah Sdn Bhd, later restructured under the name
Mamut Copper Mining Sdn Bhd. (MCM). During the 25 years of operation, the Mamut Copper Mine was responsible for 50% of the gold and 90% of the silver production in Malaysia. In its booming years, MCM was mining an annual production of 25,000 tons of copper in Ranau. Operations were discontinued in 1999, leaving a crater of 1,200 meters diameter and a depth of 500 meters. Filled with water, the crater now forms a huge lake, which - together with the heavy metal legacies of the
Lohan Tailings Dam - made the headlines of several reports on environmental contamination.
2015 earthquake On 5 June 2015, an earthquake measuring at 6.0 on the Richter magnitude scale occurred at 7:15 a.m. MST with its epicentre approximately 15 km north of Ranau. Mount Kinabalu was closest to the epicentre and was affected by massive landslides causing eighteen people to lose their lives, three of which were from Ranau. Another 137 climbers were stranded on the mountain but they were eventually rescued. It was the strongest earthquake to occur in Malaysia since
1976. Following the earthquake, there were reports of damage to the structures of the Ar-Rahman Mosque, fifteen primary schools and eight secondary schools in Ranau. == Geography ==