Borneo plants used in medicine and ritual

Each plant description has an accompanying detailed drawing like the above. Now swept away by modern medicine, these plants were used by the Borneo  people. The indigenous groups and the coastal Malays  knew which plants to collect for a wide variety of illnesses. However, the plant is a fickle creature producing its’ cures at various

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Santubong Iron

Iron Work and Santubong The Santubong delta iron working industry began in 615 AD at the earliest and 900 AD at the latest and stopped around 1380 AD.  They used a single Carbon 14 date and  associated Chinese stoneware and coins and some religious artefacts of the Buddhists era to date the iron. Both of

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Why So Many Ibans ?

Why so many Ibans? The author of this article attempts to explain why there are so many Ibans compared to other groups. He says the Ibans, relative newcomers to Sarawak, predominate in the State. Increase in children does not explain the phenomena. The Iban are below average in natural fertility. They have fewer babies per

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Melanau Poison Tale

Melanau Tale On the Oya river, a few bends above Tamin and just below Skuau, there once lived two brothers whose Chieftain father had died. Both were still young, kind to everyone in the village and good at every undertaking. The elder of the two was elected to succeed his father and was acclaimed by

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