Etymology and Flag
AKI NABALU
The beautiful city of Kota Kinabalu got its name from the mighty Kinabalu mountain, which boasts itself as the highest mountain in the south-eastern region of Asia. The word Kota which is a Malay word comes from the Sanskrit word meaning a fort, castle or a city town that is guarded by strong walls. Kota is a formal word that is also used to refer to other Malaysian towns and cities like Kota Bharu, Tinggi and Kemuning. Kinabalu on the other hand derives its name from the Kadazan word “Aki Nabalu” that loosely translates to as the “revered place of the dead”. The direct translation of Kota Kinabalu is the “City of Kinabalu”.
There are older names to Kota Kinabalu, one being Jesselton that was named after Sir Charles Jesselton of the British North Borneo Company that governed that area. Prior to that name, Jesselton was called Api-Api or simply Api, a Malay word for fire. In one of the books written by Wendy Law Stuart she proclaims a Dutch map from the Sabah State museum dated from the 17th Century labeled the current region of Kota Kinabalu as Api. Api was the original name of Kota Kinabalu which was named after a nearby river called Sungai Api-Api. It is the Hakka pronunciation to which the Chinese still call the city by.
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There were few more names it was called in the past, one being Deasoka that means “below the coconut tree” in Bajau language. The locals used this term to refer to a village that was filled with coconut in the southern part of the city. The other name it had was Singgah Mata which meant something that is pleasant for the eyes. This name was given by fishermen who came from the Gaya island to refer to Kota Kinabalu. All these names have been immortalised as the streets and buildings still use these names to refer to parts of their cities, like Lintansan Deasoka, Api-Api Centre and Singgah Mata Street.
KOTA KINABALU FLAG
The Kota Kinabalu flag was created immediately after Kota Kinabalu achieved its city status on 2nd February, 2000. The state officials then decided to represent the flag by its mountain Kinabalu. The mountain is represented in blue alongside vibrant red, green, yellow, and white color stripes. The seal of Kota Kinabalu has a similar visual with the strips in vertical form. It has a golden border and a red ribbon below the emblem. The words Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu is inscribed in white on a green demarcating horizontal strip between the mountain and vertical stripes.