Padawan municipality


The Padawan municipality is a collective name given to a subset of the Kuching District area which is not administered locally by the Kuching South City Council and the Kuching North City Hall. It has an area of 1771.3 km2, covering the suburbs of the Kuching Proper subdistrict and Padawan subdistrict. The area is currently administered by state-based internal government, Padawan Municipal Council. Kota Padawan exists 16 kilometres south from the centre of Kuching. The centre of Padawan is Batu 10 with it being the seat of the Padawan Municipal Council.

Etymology

The origin of the name "Padawan" came from the combination of Bidayuh words namely Padja and Birawan. There is a story of a Bidayuh village elder named Kinyau stayed in an area named Sibanyai 900 years ago. One day, he discovered white beads which has mystical healing power and they called it Birawan. These beads can also bring peace, prosperity, and tranquility to the area. The village elder has an eldest son named Padja. Therefore, the village elder decided to rename the area as "Padawan" in memory of his son and the mystical beads.