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Category: Culture

Kelabit Harvest

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

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June 5, 2021 No Comments

Head Ceremony Bidayuh

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

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May 30, 2021 No Comments

Time and the Kadayans

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

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May 26, 2021 No Comments

Kenyah Farming Year

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

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May 24, 2021 No Comments

Former Bidayuh Customs

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

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May 15, 2021 No Comments

Panay in the Philippines: A Sarawak Connection

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

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May 9, 2021 No Comments

Wild and wonderful Iban Women

Tom’s note: I own several pua kumbu, (cloth woven by Iban weavers) and have always wondered how the Iban ladies managed to turn out such beautiful and wonderful items.  The Ladies One is not born into Iban society with a position. Rather he or she must earn it during their

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May 3, 2021 No Comments

Mission Schools in Sarawak

Toms Note: I continue with the history of the mission schools in Sarawak St. Mary’s In 1882, only one girl was being educated in St. Thomas, the Anglican school at Kuching. At the efforts of Mrs Hose, a day school was started in 1883. However, it was the efforts of

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April 29, 2021 No Comments

Early Schools in Kuching

The Anglican Mission Schools The mission schools were used by the missionaries as a source of converts to Christianity. The Rajah James Brooke used the schools as a source of English language graduates to work in the civil service and local European commercial houses. The Chinese viewed them as a

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April 22, 2021 No Comments

Headhunter and Solo Dance

Borneo Dance Editors note: Many of us from the West have sat through a dance performed by natives without having a clue of what they mean. They look interesting but the symbols of the movements escape us. Here, we attempt to explain those movements. Most of the literature asserts the

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April 15, 2021 No Comments
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