EPICS OF THE GA’AY, THE MOST HEGEMONIC KAYANIC SUBGROUPS IN EAST AND NORTH KALIMANTAN

The epic poem is very long, with over 200 footnotes.  It is a fantastic tale which provides insight into the lives of the people. My sincere congratulations to the author for this major contribution to Borneo history. We cannot even begin to relate the beauty of the epic in this space. Please get in touch with me for a copy.

This explanation hypothesises that the Long Gelat people could have migrated from Vietnam to Borneo. The author makes an intriguing case that they did indeed come from the Indo-Chinese area.

The Epic of the Ga’ay People

The Ga’ay people are a subset of the Kayan. They migrated from the Baram River basin in Sarawak to the Kayan basin in North Kalimatan.

In the epic, “Takna’ Po’ Jenyan”, our hero Jenyan, is described as an unbeaten warrior. He was allied with 18 villages in the Baram and Balui basins whose inhabitants consisted not only of the Ga’ay but also Ken’yah and other Kayanic subgroups. These people as well as other inhabitants of the region were under the power of the female paramount chief living around the mouth of the Baram, which was a trading centre at that time.

Jenayn lived among the Long Gelat people. They originated from the Busang tributary of the Baram River. Jenayn probably lived at a tributary of the Julan River in the Upper Baram. The Long Gelat eventually moved to the Kayan for a while, but soon migrated further to the headwaters of the Mahakam (East Kalimantan), dividing themselves into small villages.

The epic can be divided into four sections. The first part is the story of the female chief who held a competition among warriors as to have the most supernatural power. Jenayn participated in this competition.

The second part of the epic describes the war exploits of Jenayn.  Jenayn boasted of his war experiences with 18 villages where he went undefeated as well as with 15 spirits.

The third part deals with Jenayan and the kidnapping of his two friends, Beli:ng Leju and Lòwng Beli:ng. They were seized by the divine Dlay Kenay and secreted in a distant secret valley, Long Semtuyñ.

The final part of the epic starts with a headhunting raid by Jenyans grandson in some foreign country, together with the sons of Tensòwk, Lòwng Beli:ng, and others. In fact, the outline of this story is almost the same as the Vietnamese legend of three women with magic cloths that they used to beat down enemies. “There were apparently more stories in addition to this adventure, but unfortunately the details are lost.”

Were the Long Gelat people from Vietnam? Below, please find several possibilities.

• Notes 8 and 9 demonstrate the connection with some Mon-Khmer terms
• Note 15 “The term pǝteh seemingly came from the Khmeric words pteah, ‘house, residence; building; shop, store; establishment’ (Headley 1997) and ptiah, ‘house, home’
• In note 20 “On the other hand, Vietnamese historical records from the end of the 15th century, Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư (大越史記全書), suggest that the daughter of the spirit of Lake Dòngtíng was just a shepherdess, regarding historical records of Tang dynasty (Chen 1984: 97-100). In any case, many Vietnamese myths and folklore suggest that Lạc Long Quân taught Chinese culture (e.g., agriculture, house-building, and cloth-making) to the people of North Vietnam.
• In note 21 of the essay, the author suggests the Long Gelat people could have migrated from Vietnam because of similarities in the oral tales.
• In note 61 the author relates some words in the Long Gelat dialect are directly related to the Khmer language.
• In note 166 the Kayanic people make rice cakes similar to those in Vietnam.
• Note 183 states the long sticks were made from bamboo similar to those in ancient China
• Note 185 informs they could not last without a female noble. A similar notion is expressed by the Cham women of Vietnam.
• Note 199 tells where the three women defeat the enemies with their magic cloth is very similar to one of the Vietnamese legends.

The Vietnamese influence also follows in the text.

• In section 2.1, We can see that the Long Gelat myth is modelled on that of ancient Sinicized Vietnam, but the details were readapted to the local culture.
• From the linguistic aspect, we can speculate that the Ga’ay first brought the myth of Dlay Long Melieng into Kayanic societies to rank themselves by showing the prestige of Indo-Chinese culture.
• The belief in a spirit living in the cooking hearth (竈君, 炊母神母, 竈王節 etc.) flourished in ancient China, and there were also beliefs in Taoism in combination with the Chinese sexagenary cycle (gānzhī, 干支), namely, staying up or performing a vigil (守庚申 in Chinese, 庚申待 in Japanese) to avoid dying young and other misfortune. Such new year rituals are still seen today in parts of Vietnam, China and Korea.
• In section 2.2, This highlight of the Long Gelat rice-harvesting ritual clearly shows remnants of East Asian new year rituals and the Taoist vigil.
• The traditional singing of some Mon Khmer groups is similar to the Long Gelat

 The article has been published by the Borneo Research Bureau. Efforts to find copies past 2010 in the three libraries here in Kuching have been fruitless. I also have been unable to find PDF copies on the Internet.

Please contact me for a copy I received from somewhere on the Net.

Mika Okushima Tenri University Nara 632-8510, Japan (e-mail) okushima@sta.tenri-u.ac.jp