Tom’s Note: When I announced my engagement to my Malay wife, most people wanted to know if was circumcised. I said yes I was, however, the question still kept coming. I finally asked if they wanted to see it. Nobody took me up on the offer. Even after the honeymoon, people asked my wife the […]
Selako Circumcision Read More »
Early Sketch from Camel’s description Tom’s Note: The people of the Indo/Malay islands already knew about the Tarsier. However, when the white men came, they made the animal known to the western world of science. The story of the Tarsier began in 1705 when a person named J. Camel described the animal from the Philippine
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#12 Current research in Borneo Current Research in Borneo Plates Uplifting When did one ocean plate move under another ocean plate and cause it to rise upwards forming a landmass? Scientists have dated the movement of the Sarawak plate under the Rajang plate to 60-36 million years ago. https://doi.org/10.1130/B35895.1 Barbed Wire Law School in POW Camps
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The Kelabit Harvest The Kelabits are a small tribe inhabiting an isolated highland area of 1000 square miles in Sarawak known as the Kelabit highlands. Local oral history states they have been isolated for 500 years (from 1979). Their raiding and headhunting practices necessitated that they have only suspicious and hostile relations with neighbouring peoples.
Bidayuh Head Ceremony-Katang Tom’s note: Probably the thing that strikes me is the amount of preparation it takes to please the spirits before the actual harvest begins. These notes were made during 1963 in Kampong Sudoh, Singghai. Katang is a festival used to placate the spirits of the heads taken in battle. Previously, this was
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How the Kadayan Tells Time Tom’s Note: This article describes, in the first four and a half pages, an incomprehensible (to me) discourse complete with mathematical equations about how the Kadayan tell time. I have elected to use the second half which shows how nature informs the Kadayan. Buna picula the Loofah flower The loofah
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Toms note: The omen birds are a group of birds that figure prominently in the Kenyah culture. Traditional Kenyah Farming Year When the spider hunter bird (Isit) is seen flying to the right, the omen is favourable and when it is seen flying to the left they had to avoid clearing the land that day
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All Creatures Great and Small #11 Plants from South America and onto Southeast Asia Dissochaeteae Melastomataceae is a large group of plants that includes plants that grow on another plant such as orchids. There are 375 species of these plants. Results from the molecular dating analysis suggest that the diversity of Dissochaeteae in the Southeast Asian
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Tom’s Note: This piece was written in 1978 about the Gawai Mpijog Rantau Festival for the first clearing of the padi (rice) fields. It was supposed to be filmed by Professor Geddes who made a contribution of pigs, fish, eggs etc. worth RM1000 but the camera broke down. The article states the celebration was conducted
Former Bidayuh Customs Read More »
Panay in the Philippines: A Sarawak Connection The island of Panay is the fourth largest island in the Philippine archipelago. The prehistory of the island, before the Spaniards is related in a document called the Maragatas. The Maragatas, written in 1221, states the Datuks from Borneo purchased the island from the Negritoes. The negritoes then moved into the mountains of
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