Tom’s Note: This old custom has a much deeper meaning. The Malay, whom the Land Dyaks honour, is half Royal Blood and half land Dayak. I am not sure if the author means Bidayuh or another Land Dayak. Black flags are seen on some fishing boats on the river outside my flat. Malay adat also has beliefs in black flags as a way to keep spirits at bay. They are meant to keep evil spirits, such as storms and waves away from the ship. Early June is the time of the celebration of the rice harvest.
Revival of an old Land Dayak Custom
In early June, a party of thirty Dayaks, both men and women from Kampongs Grogo and Opar, proceeded by boat to Kuching to pay their traditional tribute and respect. They brought a few gantans(2.7 kg) of rice from the last harvest and presented them to the Datu Abang Haji Mustapha as a token of their goodwill and loyalty.
Collections of rice. Each household contributes a small handful. The headman takes the opportunity to collect the rice during an official visit, or they come to district headquarters.
When the Datu (who is half royal) had given consent, they returned to their boats to prepare for the next day’s ceremony at the Datus house. On their arrival, they constructed a stand made of small pieces of softwood, two feet square (sarangan) and planted next to two bamboos. They placed two ties of glutinous rice cooked in bamboo, seven to each link, and seven small leaf packets of uncooked rice with a few pieces of salt fish, sireh, and chopped betel nuts together in bamboo. They are then tied together with pogang (glutinous rice cooked in a bamboo then known as sku’ud). Two fowl and a locally made bowl containing freshwater were also set and ready.
In most cases, a long ladder is attached to the stand to facilitate the descent of the spirit. The two bamboos (buloh gad), a beautiful yellow stemmed plant often found growing near the place where the ceremonies are held.
Sang Gadinis, in Malay legend, is the wife of the black spirit of the earth who bore him seven sons. The plai is very tall and straight like a bee tree where the spirits live and may represent the Black Spirit himself. There is a hill in the district called Gadin where mercury was found. The tree is not usually felled when padi fields are made.
When the preparations were completed, eight women started to sing and dance around the stand to call the spirits of the padi, to pray for the prosperity of their next harvest and fruit season and drive away the evil spirits. This ceremony lasted half an hour. Then the head of the group shook a few bamboos where ten small rolls of human hair, eight small stones and a few seeds had dropped out on the stand. They said they were all given by “Juta”.
The eight women correspond with the eight stones. The shaking of the bamboo represents thunder, so rain, without which the plants will not grow.
The Datu then presented them with three white mats, three fathoms( two meters) of white, three fathoms of yellow cloth, and three small jars of fresh water. They requested the datu to take the cloth they had given them and make two flags, one black and one white, to bring to their villages. The flags were cut in pennant shape, the design of their ancestors, as a conduit for padi to come.
The flags represent lightning in the shape of a pendant.
After being well fed and entertained, the Bidayuh requested permission to leave and invited the Datu to their villages for a feast. (begawei).
Upon their return, they began the busy preparations for the feast. They placed on each cross board two ties with seven packets of glutinous rice and seven small leaf packets of uncooked rice. Chickens and domestic pigs were collected from each house and prepared. They invited the spirits and souls of the padi.
The number seven marks the seven-fold nature of the spirit of the padi, and items of three the Datu are the same number of baskets in Malay reaping ceremonies. The ghosts and souls move among the people.
A few days later, Kampong Grogo began their feast. Several
hundred people, including Malays and Chinese, joined the three-day revelry. The people beat gongs, chanangs(a type of drum) and drums to let the spirits know they did not forget them. An omission of this particular ceremony will anger the gods and bring sickness to the village.
The mats the Datu had given them while visiting Kuching were spread on the floor with a yellow cloth placed over them. They put jars containing freshwater and covered these with a white cloth. In black uniforms embroidered with gold thread and wearing caps, the woman folk sang and danced round and round the jars. The glutinous rice packed in bamboo, padi seeds, cooked and uncooked rice, pork, chicken, fish, sireh leaves, chopped betel nuts and lime were put together on the mats nearby.
The colours are significant in Malays matters, in the sequence of white (or yellow), red and black or blue. The gold embroideries on red against black are said to have been obtained with their wisdom from heaven by one of the ancestors.
As soon as Abang Othman, the guest of honour from Kuching, arrived, they fired the cannons three times in appreciation.
A few days later, at a similar ceremony at Kampong Opar, the ceremony was about the same, except when the Datu left, they fired 18 cannons. The Datu also participated in the ceremony where they waved a live chicken above his head.
It is claimed by the Bidayuh of Bau that this ancient adat is derived direct from the ancestor of the Bidayuh known
as Bondi. His Malay name was Semadik and he was brought to Brunei by Temonggong Dala. There he was called Patik Banduri after he married Merpati, the daughter of the Sultan of Brunei. From this union there followed Datu Kebal, Datu Temenggong Ore, Daut Betong,Datu Pati Kasah,Datu Luang, Datu Kepua, Datu Kesumba, Datu Patinggi Ali, Datuk Bandar Melana, Datu Bandar Buasan and Datu Bandar Kassim.These people are half royal and half Bidayuh from Brunei.
From:
Ngaing Pa’ Nyokim (Orang Kaya Pemancha) Revival of an old Land Dyak Custom in the Sarawak Museum Journal vol 5 no 2 1950
Italics by Richards, A.J.N. Appendix notes on the above custom in the Sarawak Museum Journal vol 5 no. 2 1950
A presentation of BorneoHistory.net
