KUALA LUMPUR: Google is celebrating Benedict Sandin's 102nd birthday today.
The Sarawak-born folklorist and ethnographer had served as curator of the oldest museum in Borneo; the Sarawak Museum.
Sandin earned acclaim as one of the world's foremost experts on the Iban, his native ethnic group, whose culture he had dedicated his life to preserving.
According to Google, the cultural activist was named 'Sandin anak Attat' at birth.
He was born in Kerangan Pinggai in 1918, a longhouse on the Paku river in the Saribas basin of the Saratok division of the Bornean state.
"His father first introduced him to the poetic Iban language, which Sandin went on to master and champion," the search engine added in its tribute to the forgotten figure.
It said Sandin had begun work in the Sarawak civil service in 1941 and his gift for writing eventually led to an assignment as editor of Pembrita – the first news publication in the Iban language.
"His articles attracted the attention of the Sarawak Museum's curator, who recruited him to join the museum's staff in a special post in 1952."
Sandin was then accepted to a Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) fellowship programme in New Zealand, where he studied museum techniques and anthropology.
"He returned home determined to chronicle the Iban history, culture, and language by absorbing and recording the wisdom of local genealogists, bards, and historians. As a testament to Sandin's invaluable ethnographic achievements, he was named the Curator of the Sarawak Museum and Government Ethnologist in 1966, a position he held for the better part of a decade."
"Thank you, Benedict Sandin, for safeguarding and preserving Indigenous tradition and heritage for generations to come," added Google.
The doodle features Sandin with a five o'clock shadow and sunglasses in a suit, surrounded by Sarawakian artefacts.
Sandin died on Aug 7, 1982 at 64. He was buried in an ancient Iban cemetery in Batu Anchau, downstream from the Paku river, 2km from his birthplace of Kerangan Pinggai.
On Sept 3, 2016, Google featured Sybil Kathigasu, a Malaysian wartime nurse, in a doodle on her birthday.
The New Straits Times' series on her courage in the face of torture during the Japanese occupation of Malaya also prompted a social media drive to have her included in history textbooks.