The Bhuket People of Sarawak

Within the people of Austronesian descent were the Bhuket people of Sarawak. They were studied by Shanthi Thambiah for her doctorate at the University of Hull in 1995. 

The Bhuket people could have sailed up the Rejang River to where they were studied or hunted and gathered across from east Borneo to Sarawak. Their early oral histories don’t seem to shed any light on their origins.

They come with many names including Halangi, Sivo, Koyan, Metevulu and Ukit to name a few. They spoke the same language yet their names were different probably derived from the rivers and streams they inhabited. To avoid confusion, I have lumped them all under the name of Bhuket. To break them out, I refer you to the original paper. 

The Bhuket people were widely dispersed between west Kalimantan, east Kalimantan and the headwaters of the Balui River. There was a vast distance between the groups of Bhuket but they continued their interaction between the similar groups. 

The Bhuket people were said to originate from a tributary of the Rejang River, the headwaters of the Balleh River. They must have entered the Rejang, proceeded north and filtered into the forests. There they lived for hundreds of years.

Described by Baring-Gold and Bampfylde, two European explorers, they were the “wildest races of the island”. “They were light in complexion and better looking than the other inland tribes.”

Like all tribes of Borneo, the past blends with myths of the past. In the Buket people, the origins begin with the Balui River. The next part of the Bhuket story tells of how the Buket people became different by choosing the nomadic way of life as opposed to their farming neighbours. Here, we see the Buhuket moving past the farms and fields of their neighbours and into the interior. Therefore, there must have been a presence of farmers before the Bhuket people arrived along the Balui River. It is quite obvious there must have been people before them as they found artefacts on their journey. 

The Bhuket people at first resisted the incursion of the Ibans but then developed a symbiotic relationship with them. They acted as guides and allies and gradually assumed the farming habits of the Ibans. Eventually, they learned to cultivate rice and to live in rudimentary longhouses.

When the Bhuket people pushed further inland, they settled down and began to farm in the ~1830’s. While farming, the Bhuket people found many artefacts. 

 Then in ~1879, the Bhuket people returned to their nomadic way of life because of famine caused by attacks by the Ibans. 

Each group of Bhuket seemed to form a band and divided themselves into the Sivo, Koyan and Metevulu. These three groups were united with each other through marriage and a common language.

The present (1995) group of Bhukets have settled along the Ayek River, a tributary of the upper Balui. They still spend much time foraging and hunting in the forest.

The current population consists of 60 souls their numbers vastly reduced by Iban attacks and several epidemics. The census of 1941 showed only nine kajan longhouses with only 60 people. Current older people tell of people dying younger mainly because of addiction to alcohol plus the addition of sugar to their diets.

The early myths of the Bhuket begin in the headwaters of the Rejang River. Minang (the creator) fashioned people out of stones when a mouse deer appeared and helped him to add blood to the stones from the liquid root of a pengahang tree which was red. From these stones and blood, the first Bhukets evolved.

As for the finding of artefacts, the Pa Halngi saw a beautiful flower. He went home and put on all his fine clothing and returned to the flower. After some time he decided the flower was more beautiful and cast off his clothes and jewellery. These castoffs were the artefacts left over from when the Bhuket returned to the nomadic lifestyle.

Before the 1850’s the Bhuket stretched from the Ulu Balleh across to the Ulu Kapuas in Kalimantan. They lived in peace but were attacked by the Kayan in the late 1700’s. This attack dispersed them. Iban migrations dispersed them further and resulted in them moving further down the Kapaus and Makham Rivers. 

The Bhuket and the Iban were involved in hostilities against each other from 1850 on. Food was scarce in 1879 and the Bhuket people attacked the gardens of the Iban. Two Bhuket heads were brought back from the conflict. Later, an Iban head was secured along with a five-year-old girl.

The Brooke Raj, possibly fed up with inter-tribal warfare, ordered the Bhuket to collect themselves and report to Balleh to make peace with the Iban. The conference did not stop the battles between the two groups. A Bhuket was killed for taking Iban rice from the field. A group of Bhukets killed three Ibans. The situation worsened when an Iban man killed his Bhuket wife. 

After the incident with the wife, attacks on the Iban increased. Three Ibans were murdered on the Baduli branch of the Mengiong. A European observer noted the war between the two groups was that of extermination.

On November 9 1883, a group of Bhuket attacked an Iban longhouse but were unable to take it. The Ibans followed the Bhuket but were unable to engage because of the fear of an ambush. 

The situation worsened. Eight Iban men went into Bhuket territory and returned with eight heads. The Bhuket retaliated with the deaths of three Iban, one man and two boys. Three different groups of Ibans marched into Bhuket territory and they were driven into the headwaters of the Kapuas River and beyond. 

In January 1886, two more Ibans were killed. In December 1887, several Iban boats had gone up the Katibas River and crossed over to the headwaters of the Kapuas River. The Bhukit counter-attacked. This brought a halt to the Iban expansion. The Iban were attacked by the Bhukit from upriver and by the Kayan downriver who were armed with cannons provided by the Dutch. 

After this war, there were many attempts to provide a peace treaty with the Bhukit. They were not successful.

Although the Bhuket were massively outnumbered by the Iban and Kayans, they refused to admit defeat. There was great fear among the Bhuket people. Ibans, collecting gutta spotted strange footprints and kept a watchful eye out with huge fires burning throughout the night.

From1889-1892 violence flared anew. The Bhuket were accused of killing 10 Malays. In 1891 they took three heads and in the following year took another two from the Iban. 

From 1892-1901 there was a long period of peace between the groups. In 1901 the Bhukit came to Kapit to learn to plant paddy(rice). Sometime after this, Iban Bhuket relations deteriorated again due to further Iban expansion and the Bhuket people refusing to move out of Ulu Balleh. They began to range into the headwaters of the Kapuas and Balleh. The Bhuket allied with the Aoheng and Iban heads continued to be taken. 

In 1908, Rajah Charles Brooke wanted trusted Iban chiefs to begin peace negotiations among the warring tribes. The Brooke government moved them out of their areas and allowed them to settle in the Kapit area and along the Sarawak border. In 1915 they were settled along the Belagas rapids but were immediately attacked by the Ga’at Iban rebels. Ga’at Ibans attacked the Bhuket with the Sarawak Gazette reporting three Bhuket dead with Bhuket “putting up a very good fight”. 

From 1900-1930 Bhuket had very strong leaders. A Bhuket served the Brooke government at Kapit and participated in one of the last major wars of the campaign. They served as a buffer between the Kayan and their traditional enemies the Iban and the Kenyah.

Being further upriver served the Bhuket well. They began a sedentary life farming and decimating the rhinoceros population. They sold the horns and hoves to the Chinese. 

Four years later, they moved further upriver and formed three settlements. However, the leader was not strong enough to keep the groups together. An epidemic struck in the mid-1930s with leaders recording up to 10 deaths per day. They broke down into even smaller groups and quietly retreated into the mists of the rainforests.

From:

Culture as Adaptation: Change among the Bhuket of Sarawak, Malaysia is a thesis submitted to the University of Hull by Shanthi Thambiah, in July 1995 

BorneoHistory.Net