In a paper published in the Sarawak Museum Journal in August 1983, former Sarawak Museum director Lucas Chin came up with a list. The list is made of Sarawak traditional handicrafts he had observed would become extinct. It has been almost 40 years since Chin listed down these items. Going through the list, however, we […]
Reverend Edwin Herbert Gomes was an Anglican missionary in Sarawak at the beginning of the twentieth century. During his 17 years of working here, he wrote several books about Sarawak including Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo (1911). He received permission from ethnologist Dr Charles Hose to use his photographs for the book. […]
Before there were doctors and nurses, the people of Sarawak relied on traditional healing ceremonies to cure sickness. Every ethnic group has its own healing ceremony, for example the Ibans have their pelian and the Melanau turn to berayun and berbayoh to heal the sick. For the Bisaya people in the Sarawak, their traditional healing […]
Long time ago, there was a giant man named Temueng and his friend named Pengiran who first lived at Kemaloh in Kalimantan, Indonesia. According to legends, these people were believed to be the ancestors of Lun Bawang people. Benedict Sandin in his paper The Bisayah and Indigenous Peoples of Limbang, Sandin recorded the life journey […]
Where were omens believed to have come from? Get to know the three principal sources of Iban augury In Iban augury, believers rely on different ways to receive indicative omens when making a decision or taking an action. The omens can be deliberately sought or accidentally encountered. According to Clifford Sather in his paper Iban […]
How everyone began speaking in different languages according to a Taman legend. Have you heard of Psilocybin mushroom? Widely known as ‘magic mushroom’, this type of fungi is usually consumed for its hallucinogenic effects. Once consumed, the person may experience euphoria and change in consciousness, mood and even perception. They may even experience visual and […]
In the olden days, Kayan men were renowned as notorious headhunters. Their reputation as fierce warriors spread so wide and wild that they were often mistaken as cannibals. Whenever the men went for headhunting trips, the women were left in the longhouses fending for themselves. These headhunting trips usually took months before they could return […]
Legend has it that in Paku river at Nanga Anyut, there is a stone of three petrified women called Batu Indai Binjut. In ancient times before the Paku region was populated by the Ibans the area sparsely inhabited by an ancient tribe of people called the Baketan. The last of their group who left Paku […]
Here is the Melanau version of a changeling; the legend of Bunga Lawan and the wicked antu sababu. Once upon a time, there lived in Oya a Melanau nobleman with his lovely wife and his sister. This man was Bunga Lawan, the “Flower of Strength of Melanau Warriors”. His wife was Dayang Tri-Ikat-ku Bunga and […]
The name Santubong is widely known among Sarawakians as the name of a mountain located in Sarawak. The common myth is that the mountain takes its name after a celestial princess. But what other origin stories are there behind the name Santubong? The legend of Princess Santubong The common understanding of the legend behind Puteri […]
