Bruno Manser (25 August 1954 – presumed dead 10 March 2005) was a Swiss environmentalist and human rights activist. From 1984 to 1990, he stayed with the Penan tribe in Sarawak, Malaysia, organising several blockades against timber companies. After he emerged from the forests in 1990, he engaged in public activism for rainforest preservation and the human rights of indigenous peoples, especially the Penan, which brought him into conflict with the Malaysian government. He also founded the Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO) Bruno Manser Fonds in 1991. Manser disappeared during his last journey to Sarawak in May 2000 and is presumed dead. Early life and education Bruno Manser was born in Basel, Switzerland, on 25 August 1954 in a family of three girls and two boys. During his younger days, he was an independent thinker. His parents wanted him to become a doctor, and he studied medicine informally. Manser later completed his upper secondary school, the first in his family to do so. At age 19, Manser spent three months in Lucerne prison because, as an ardent follower of non-violent ideologies espoused by Mahatma Gandhi (Satyagraha), he refused to participate in Switzerland's compulsory military service. After leaving prison in 1973, he worked as a sheep and cow herder at various Swiss Alpine pastures for twelve years. During this time, Manser became interested in handicrafts, therapeutics, and speleology. He laid bricks, carved leather, kept bees, and wove, dyed, and cut his own clothes and shoes. He also regularly pursued mountaineering and technical climbing. At the age of 30, Manser went to Borneo, looking to live a simpler life. Searching for Penans In 1983, Manser went to the Malaysian state of Terengganu and stayed with a family. In 1984, while learning more about the rainforests, Manser learned of a nomadic tribe known as the Penan. After learning more about the tribe, he decided to attempt to live amongst them for a few years and traveled to the East Malaysian state of Sarawak in 1984 on a tourist visa. In Malaysia, Manser first joined an English caving expedition to explore Gunung Mulu National Park. After the expedition, he stepped deeper into the interior jungles of Sarawak, intending to find the "deep essence of humanity" and "the people who are still living close to their nature." However, he quickly became lost and ran out of food while exploring the jungle, then fell ill after eating