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Category: Story

Dayak Ghost Story

Kumang Kidundung by Sunga Tom’s Note: This tale comes from the Bidayuh in the Serian district. Kumang, in the Dayak world, are spirits among the people. This story tells an interaction between one of those spirits, Antu Puah, and a Dayak named Kidungdung. Kumang Kidundung One day Kaleng went out

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August 6, 2022 No Comments

Datu Merpati: A Fable?

Tom’s Note: Here is an oral history of Datu Merpati. He is a person who, it was said, ruled Sarawak sometime in the 1700s and who many of the current and past rulers have traced their lineage. Much of it is fantasy except for one item the Sultan of Brunei

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July 17, 2022 No Comments

Bidayuh Birds Nest Fable

Tom’s Note: The fable is from the Bidayuh living around Bau. It tells who owns the caves in the area and why. Enjoy! A Land Dayak Girl Explorer  Many years ago, there lived two land dayak children. They were brother and sister, and the boy was the elder. They were

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July 10, 2022 No Comments

New Brunei Word Origin ?

Toms Note: I try to read all the literature that could have a historical fact or two. In this essay by Dato Maha Rajah Lela, much of the story is fantasy. However, when he stated Brunei got its name from the word Punay I had to take a closer look.

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July 6, 2022 No Comments

Orangutan Stories

Greetings! Happy Gawai to all. I am presenting these six old stories about the Mias and the people to celebrate the holiday. Six Mias (orangutan) Stories by Gaun anak Sureng Balin anak Salau accompanied by Sanjat anak Rayang went out hunting with guns to Bukit Menuku on the upper Mentu

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June 2, 2022 No Comments

An Iban Story

Comic Tales of Api Salui by Benedict Sandin Sarawak Museum Journal July-December 1960 Tom’s Note: The below story has been passed from generation to generation among the Ibans. It tells a tale of a wise wife with her stupid husband. The Malays in the kampongs across the river also have

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May 11, 2022 No Comments

A Ladies Perspective of the 1859 Revolt

The Chinese Revolt by Rev. Brian Taylor SMJ 1969 The first woman, other than women with their husbands, ever sent abroad by the Society for the Propagation of the Bible was Sarah Coomes. Miss Coomes was left behind in the first evacuation of the town after the Bau Chinese had

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May 7, 2022 No Comments

Pleiades Creation Story by the Iban

The Mother of the Pleiades A Mythological Story of the Iban Almighty God made a golden stone in the eastern corner of the sky known as Tangkulas Batu Mas. Many years afterwards this stone changed into a very beautiful girl whose eyes and skin shone and glittered like a lump

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April 16, 2022 No Comments

A Mouse Deer Story

Salam The Mouse Deer- Second Evening Old Abdullah picking his way homewards through the deep forest one evening at sundown by following the narrow winding Wild Beast tracks that criss-cross it in every direction but which to him were as familiar as our town streets to ourselves, had picked up

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March 31, 2022 No Comments

Iban origins, floods and rules for sex, war and kitchens

Notes from Benedict Sandin Sources of Iban Traditional History published by the Sarawak Museum Journal 1994 Sumatra Suriani and I have maintained the Iban came from Sumatra. On page 140 n.2 “The question of where the Iban originated is largely unanswerable. On linguistic grounds, it has been frequently argued, that,

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January 7, 2022 No Comments
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