Different beliefs offer different views of the afterlife. In some views, the afterlife takes place in a spiritual realm. Another popular view is reincarnation. It is where the individual may be reborn into this world with no memory of his past life. Meanwhile in Sabah, the Timugon Murut people have their own perception of the […]
If you are not familiar with inoculation or variolation (deliberately introducing the pathogen into an uninfected person), it is the method first used to immunize an individual against smallpox with material taken from a patient or a recently variolated individual, in the hopes that a mild, but protective infection would result. The procedure was most […]
Here is an Iban legend of comedic hero Apai Saloi being a glutton over smoked deer meat: One day, Apai Saloi took his wife and children to stay at their farm hut. There, he went to the edge of his paddy field to catch a deer for its meat. After they caught the deer, they […]
Execution of criminals has been used by almost all societies in the world. If you’ve watched Braveheart you’ll know that there were many painful and cruel methods of carrying out an execution throughout history. One example is keel hauling. This form of execution was carried out on sailors at sea and was usually a torture […]
In the olden days, Sarawak’s capital was also known as ‘Sarawak’. Why did the second White Rajah, Charles Brooke decide to change Sarawak’s capital name to Kuching on Aug 12, 1872? Abang Othman Datu Haji Moasili wrote in The Sarawak Gazette on Aug 31, 1964 that explained the reason behind it. “The story, according to […]
Tungu Rubi is a traditional ceremony organised to reconcile two parties who are in dispute. Here is an example of how a Tungu Rubi took place in 1953 at Kampung Tapuh in Serian as recorded by R. Nyandoh: The story went that some women of Tapuh village considered they had been insulted by a group […]
About a century ago, the Iban from Gaat river, a tributary of the Baleh river, had been a cause of serious concern for the Brooke government. They caused mayhem in the area with their headhunting attacks on their neighbouring tribes living upstream of Kapit. What’s more, this group of Iban headhunters were often helped by […]
The story of petrification is common around the world, the oldest in Western literature probably being the tale of Medusa. Even here in Sarawak, many have heard stories and folktales of how people or buildings have turned into stone. Here is one story of that is actually very similar to the legend of petrification in […]
Poison always plays a role in a legend or fairy tale. The most famous example is in Snow White where the evil queen gave the princess a poisoned apple. Here in Borneo, we have our own version of how poison came about and it came from the mountainous part of this island. According to Gallih […]
The current generation should be grateful that entertainment is so easily available nowadays. Imagine living in Sarawak in the late 19th century with no smartphone, internet or TV… how did people entertain themselves? Like most parts of the world in those days, people turned to music. For the-then Kingdom of Sarawak, having a ruler who […]
