“Panggah” is a Bidayuh (a tribe of people who live in Sarawak) term which refers to the house where heads are usually kept. They range between 1.5 meters to about nine meters from the ground. The posts are from belian, (a type of very heavy hardwood tree) whereas the floors and walls are from wood and bamboo. The roof is made from sago palm. The points are tied together with a Tarzan-type thick vine.
The first panggah was said to be constructed by a man named Trauh. Before this, when people returned from a war expedition, they simply kept the head trophies anywhere they wanted.
Legend has it: one day when Trauh came back, a very successful war expedition. He was immediately advised by the spirit, who appeared in his dream, to construct a panggah to house his collection of heads. He obeyed the command from the spirit.
Surprisingly, that particular year, padi grew very well and the harvest was great. There were plenty of animals for food. Fruits in abundance and the number of deaths very much lower. After seeing what happened, the villagers constructed a bigger and proper panggah.
Construction
When the site for the panggah has been identified, many people will then go to the jungle to look for the right kind of wood. However, before they set off, they must wait for the sound of the omen bird. If it is favourable, they may go, or otherwise, the trip will have to be postponed. As they set into the jungle and if the bird makes noise from the front, the party must return home. However, if they hear the omen bird on the left side and later on the right when they set off, they can proceed as this is a good omen.
Certain species of wood can be taken to construct certain parts of the panggah. For example, only matured belian trees are cut for the posts and certain species of bamboo can be used for the walls and floor. This job can be exhausting as they have to go very deep in the jungle to get the right materials. When they have collected the required pieces of wood from the jungle, a meeting is held to discuss who should go to carry it home. Usually, they would carry the wood in rotation. This system is used until all the materials are carried to the proposed site of panggah.
They construct the roof first. When this is completed, a meeting is held to discuss when to put up the floor and walls. Bamboo is usually preferred for the floor. Hardwood (other than belian) is used for the walls. The building must face the sunset, as they believe Kemang (a spirit who lives in the jungle)enters during that time of day. Also, people refrained from standing on the first window on the right side of the panggah. Even during the Gawai festival, one must stand there for fear the knife of Kemang may accidentally strike them, and they could get sick and die.
When the panggah is completed, another meeting is held to discuss rituals to be carried out. As a prerequisite for the new panggah, head trophies must be available. If there are none, their warriors must go out and hunt for a head, or otherwise, they can borrow from their neighbours. When the heads are fresh, they must not be brought direct to panggah, but instead must be kept nearby for a few days until the time has come to bring them in.
Visitors from the nearby villages come to celebrate what they call Gawai Mukah. (gawai means celebrations) Gawai is meant to invoke the kemang (a spirit who lives in the jungle) to the village and stay there to provide protection to the people.
When the guests arrive, they are served with various food and drinks. The hosts must make sure the visitors are well-fed, as the hospitality shown during the occasion will become the talk in the neighbouring villages. Normally, the host will do their upmost to entertain the visitors.
The gawai starts in the morning and will go on until the early hour of the next morning. Before midnight, a warrior is assigned to bring the heads from the jungle into the panggah. This is done at night, as they believe this is the time the spirits are available, thus can participate in all the rituals carried out on the heads. Upon the arrival of the heads in the village, they beat the gongs to welcome them. Those present took turns dancing with the skulls as they make circles around the fireplace, and then they return to the jungle where the heads are kept until morning.
At dawn, the shaman priest, Ketua Gawai, watches. He will be followed by a few ladies, ordered by a priestess, Dayong Boris, who brings along a white cockerel. Later, this cockerel is brought back to the village with the heads. The heads are then cleaned using coconut water poured inside a gong. When they have finished washing them, the skulls are hung from the ceiling. It is believed that these skulls protect the whole village from sickness.
Usage
Among other things, the panggah is used as a venue for religious ceremonies. Usually, the panggah is used by bachelors and elderly men for sleeping. “Here at night in long line lay the villages unwedded, the unstirred but not unstirring young, the adolescents, the eligible, the rejected, and the retired; straight, curled or intertwined, bits of them caught in the half-light, a child’s shoulder, delicately brown, an athletic patch of back, an emaciated calf, an outcropping of soles, gleaming white, new and old but none of them tender, the ole attenuated collection in a slightly restless sleep, testifying to its life by a low cacophony of snorts, snores, coughs and grunts(W.R. Geddes 1961:47)
“The Land Dayak boys go further away, right outside the house. They go at an earlier age, but they are certainly never lonely. While they stay where they are supposed to stay, they have the close companionship of others of their sex. Of this companionship, they are fond, and the attraction of it is the main reason why boys like to sleep away from their family rooms at quite a young age. Eight or nine years is generally the earliest age at which boys leave the parental nest . The young boys learn the intricate art of bamboo carving and weaving from their skilful elders. The teenagers listen to folktales from the elderly men before retiring for the night. Often, this also served as a rare occasion for orphans to seek advice from their elders.
Apart from the need to accommodate people during festivals, panggah is also used to house male visitors who wish to spend the night in the village. Occasionally, it also served a venue for holding meetings and public talk.
Rules
1.Females and children are not permitted except during gawai festival.
2.Bamboo shoots and ferns are not allowed.
3. Nobody is allowed to touch the skulls hanging in the Panggah.
4.Only the males can sleep there at night.
5. The head-trophies must not be hung directly on top of the fireplace.
The Sarawak Gazette Panggah by Clement Langet Sabang April 1992