sarawak culture - Page 2

Do you know what is the difference between Melanau berayun and berbayoh rituals?

While both rituals were meant as healing ceremonies, berbayoh is performed for minor ailments and berayun is reserved for more serious cases.

At the same time, both rituals are aimed to get rid of the spirit which caused the body to be sick.

Former Mukah district officer W.G. Morison had never witnessed a berayun ceremony during his tenure as even during the 1940s, this type of ceremony was not widely and publicly performed.

However, he did interview the elders of an unnamed kampung in Mukah.

Here is how the berayun ceremony was carried out in Mukah, according to Morison:

The day before the ceremony is due to take place, green shoots and leaves of all kinds are collected; some of these are made into shapes resembling birds and animals and are used to decorate the place where the ceremony is to be held.

At the same time as the decorations are being made, a bamboo and pinang construction is erected within the house of the sick person.

Between the bamboo and pinang posts the ‘swing’, made of rattan sega, is slung. ( The rattan, which was actually shown to Morison, was about five feet long and an inch in diameter).

Also at this time a rabong and nabun are made. A rabong is a model boat made of sago wood or sago fronds and sometimes covered-in, sometimes not; it is in the rabong that the evil spirit of sickness is carried to the sea after exorcising has taken place.

A nabun is a small model hut made of sago palm bark and constructed under the patient’s house.

Preparing for the ritual

The rabong is placed near the house, and a tangga, or ladder, of nipah palm is made from the rabong to the sick person. Another tangga, made of the same material connects the house with the nabun.

The bamboo posts around the swing are linked up by strands of rattan on which are hung the leaf decorations already referred to, and the mayang pinang. Tied to the top of the bamboo posts around the ‘swing’ is a ceiling or langit, consisting generally of white or blue cloth.

The ceremony itself begins at about 7pm. Before that, however, crowds collect at the patient’s house which is brightly lit for the occasion, and those who have taken part in the decorating partake of a meal.

Off and on throughout the ceremony the bayoh is accompanied by a gong orchestra which consists of two drums and a set of small gongs (chanang and tetawak).

The orchestra arrives some time before the start of the ceremony but does not play until the arrival of the bayoh.

At about 7pm, as the bayoh approaches the patient’s house, the music starts; meanwhile the patient is placed close by the swing in readiness.

The Melanau berayun begins

On arrival, the bayoh starts the ceremony by sitting on the swing himself, at the same time wrapping his head up in a sarong but leaving his face uncovered. He then starts to swing himself gently backwards and forwards, at the same time chanting.

As the ceremony proceeds the orchestra plays louder and quicker; the swinging becomes more violent and the chanting wilder.

Finally the bayoh passes or appears to pass into a state of a semi-trance, and while in this state, he often continues singing in languages foreign to his native Melanau.

During this time the bayoh keeps himself balanced on the thin rattan swing; then he gradually recovers from his trance and stepping down the swing, he dances around his patient, accompanied the while by the gong orchestra.

On completing his dance, the bayoh massages the patient’s body with leaves and the mayang pinang.

Swinging the patient

After this the bayoh will request assistance from his helpers in the crowd of onlookers. If the patient is able to walk, these helpers then support him to the swing and place him thereon.

At a sign of the bayoh the patient has been swung backwards and forwards several times.

On the last nights of the ceremony, after the patient has been swung, many of the onlookers will join; the orchestra will work up to a crescendo and the swingers will work themselves into a frenzy, encouraged the while by the continuous chanting of the bayoh. When this chanting ends, the ceremony is brought to a close.

The last part of the ritual

The berayun ceremony is divided into a three periods of five, seven and nine consecutive nights. One of Morison’s informants said that his father had been successfully through the three periods nine times during his lifetimes and that he had, in consequence, lived to a great age.

If, after any one of these periods, the patient is deemed to have been cured, he is taken down by boat to the mouth of the Mukah River.

This would be done early in the morning and the now cured person, the bayoh and as many of the former’s relatives as possible get into one boat which is gaily decorated.

Two or three other boats, one of which is reserced for the orchestra, join in the journey down river where the final ceremonies take place.

Also in the bayoh boat is the rabong in which the evil spirit is now incarcerated. Also in the rabong is an offering consisting of eggs, sometimes a chicken and a little sago.

At the mouth of the river the bayoh sets the rabong afloat; he wishes the spirit ‘bon voyage’ but also requests it not to trouble the patient again.

The practice of actually setting the rabong afloat is not usual, being done generally only on the case of insane people.

In most other places it is the custom to set the rabong on a trestle on a bank of the river below the kampong.

I was informed that this used to be done at Mukah also but owing to the excessive stealing of the rabong and their contents in former times, it was decided that they should be set afloat in the river mouth.

Have you witnessed a Melanau berayun ceremony before? Share us your experience in the comment box.

The berbayoh ceremony is a type of traditional healing ritual practiced by Melanau pagans.

Since many Melanau have embraced Christianity and Islam, such ritual is rarely in practice.

According to the former Mukah district officer W.G. Morison, the berbayoh ceremony is performed for minor ailments while the berayun is reserved for more serious cases.

The purpose behind these rituals is to cure the sickness by exorcising the spirit which is supposed to have entered the body of the patient.

Even those days, only few Europeans had witnessed a berbayoh ceremony, Morison was one of the few who managed to observe one.

Here is the account of the berbayoh ceremony in which the former district officer witnessed in Balingian:

A group of relatives of the patient were seated at one end of the room; one of these, a woman, was the drum (gendang) beater who beat her drum in quick time on and off throughout the performance.

At the other end of the room by herself, except for the bayoh and the bayoh’s assistant, lay the patient.

In this case both the bayoh and her assistant were women, as also was the patient.

First of all a candle was lighted and at the same time the bayoh and her assistant knelt down by the side of the patient and moved the lighted candle backwards and forwards over her body searching for the cause of the sickness.

The light was then put down on the floor and the bayoh and her assistant knelt down and sat back on their heels.

Up to the present the drummer had been silent but she now started playing her drum; quickly and softly at first, but getting louder as the movements of the bayoh became wilder.

As the drum commenced, both the bayoh and her assistant started to sway from side to side, at the same time emitting a “hissing” sound through their teeth; this was barely audible at first but increased in volume as the swaying grew more pronounced.

Finally the bayoh, withe her eyes closed, rose to her feet and began to dance round the room, slowly at first but rapidly increasing in vigour and speed.

At the height of the dance the bayoh burst into snatches of wild singing, then suddenly the drums stopped and the bayoh, equally suddenly brought her dance to an end.

Drawing the poisons out of the body

The bayoh opened her eyes and walked slowly over to her patient. Having reached her, both the bayoh and her assistant sank to their knees and began to chant, invoking the spirits to help her exorcise the evil spirit inhabiting the body of the patient. After awhile the chant was brought to an end and the massaging was taken over by the bayoh herself.

The bayoh had apparently now found the root of the sickness for, placing her lips over the supposedly affected part, she started to draw out the poison of the spirit inhabiting the body.

Every few movements she would cease this operation and crawl away to spit out the poison and then return for further efforts.

The whole process from the swaying and hissing, the dancing, chanting and massaging was repeated two or three times.

The use of parang in the berbayoh ceremony

Finally, after one period of dancing, a chopper or parang was produced, the bayoh first held it by both hands above her head (one hand held the blade and the other the handle), then in this manner, she approached her patient.

The parang was then held in the bayoh’s right hand and passes over the patient were made, from the head down to the feet, the handle of the parang being an inch above the patient’s body; at the same time that this was going on the bayoh’s assistant was massaging the patient.

Having done this once or twice the bayoh took up the candle and swathed her head in a skirt or sarong; then, holding the light close to her head, she pulled the sarong down over her face.

This was done twice and then she extinguished the light by putting the flame into her mouth. This ended the ceremony.

The berbayoh ceremony in Mukah

In Mukah the performer is also known as a bayoh. Here the patient may be at a distance from the other people in the house or may actually be surrounded by them.

In Mukah, apparently the bayoh is generally the sole performer- without an assistant and without a drum beater other than himself.

He, or she, starts off by beating the drum in the same quick time as mentioned above in the description of the ceremony witnessed at Balingian.

As the bayoh beats the drum he or she also begins to sing, invoking other spirits to help come and cure the patient.

The bayoh then stops the drum beating and a candle is lighted.

A search is then made of the body of the patient, first with the aid of a candle and then by massaging the body with the hands.

At the same time the spirit causing the sickness is asked which part of the body it is inhabiting.

Having located the source of the trouble the bayoh will then begin to remove the poison from the infected spot by drawing the flesh between his two hands.

As he does this he will make a loud ‘sucking noise’ with his mouth. This operation will continue for a few minutes, after which the bayoh may get to his feet and walk round his patient, sometimes singing but without the accompaniment of the drum.

In Mukah this part of the ceremony does not appear to be essential and is, I understand, frequently left out.

Its inclusion would appear to be entirely a matter for the bayoh to decide.

The next stage of the ceremony is always included and consists of another bout of massaging and smoothing the body over with leaves of tuba, tebwawa and flowering stem (mayang) of the pinang palm.

After this the bayoh may again start his drum to call up further if considered necessary. The whole process may be repeated several times before the ceremony is brought to a close.

Have you observed the berbayoh ceremony before? Share us your experience in the comment box.

Every culture has its own customs and taboos during childbirth.

These customs and tradition mainly have one sole purpose; to protect the mother and her newborn baby from harm.

Here are Iban childbirth customs as per recorded by Rev William Howell:

When the time of delivery is come and while she is in travail, two or three midwives are called to her assistance to accelerate the birth of the child.

As soon as the child make its appearance into the world, a signal is given by beating a bamboo receptacle with a stick, or a brass gong is struck or maybe a gun is fired to announce that a child is born in the house.

Immediately follows a religious ceremony, a fowl being waved over the heads of all present, including the infant and its mother. The fowl is then killed and the blood is smeared on the foreheads of those present.

After the mother and the child are washed and dressed, the afterbirth is deposited in a plaited bag and hung on a tree either in their cemetery or in their tembawai (the site of their former house). The infant is sprinkled with a compound of pinang (betelnut) and lawang, is bandaged and made to lie on the spathe of an areca palm, a cloth is put round it and a Dayak sheet hung over it.

The husband or whoever takes away the afterbirth to bury or hang on tree is solemnly warned by the mother not to look to the right or to the left as he leaves the room, or the child might squint.

One of the women who assisted at the birth washes the child and cuts the umbilical cord.

She is afterwards with a parang, an entadu plate, and a long piece of the black tina (black split rattan worn around the waist).

The mother is seated with her back against the blazing fire; she drinks freely ginger tea to facilitate her discharge.

The bathing of the newborn

As soon as the umbilical cord has dropped off, the infant, for the first time, is taken to the bathing place.

The man who carries the child takes a fowl with him. As soon as they come to the bathing place the fowl is killed and a wing is cut off.

If it be a male child this wing is tied on with a piece of red thread to a spear, and if the child be the other sex this wing is tied on to an implement used by Dayak women in weaving (lelatan). On the fourth day the spear or the lelatan, as the case may be, is taken to the house.

As the mother sits with her back to the fire in the room holding in her hands the handle of a native adze (bliong) she presses it to her stomach to assist the course of nature.

For twenty-four hours she is not allowed to drink water, but if she does, it must be very little and first warmed lest fever should set in.

Her first food is light and simple. The husband goes out to get certain kinds of fish which is first smoked before it is eaten.

The mother is not allowed to sleep for twenty-four hours after giving birth to a child, not is she even allowed to lie down. One would think that after such a fatiguing time, a rest was most essential and to be deprived of it would be detrimental to health. Strange to say it is not so.

Can you imagine for the woman not being able to lie down or sleep for twenty-hours after giving birth?

Let us know what other Iban childbirth customs that you know more about in the comment box.

Read more about Iban pregnancy taboos here.

An ice machine, ice maker or ice generator is an appliance to make ice. Today, you can find a refrigerator in every household in Sarawak to store food and make ice cubes.

However in the olden days, an ice machine was even rarer than an endangered animal.

Have you ever thought who bought the first ice machine in Sarawak?

Here are five things you need to know about Sarawak’s first ice machine according to archivist Loh Chee Yin:

1.The second White Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Brooke was the first one to make an enquiry of an ice machine.

Charles wrote to the Borneo Company Limited London asking them to make an enquiry about an ice machine while he was in Singapore.

Here is the content of the letter which dated on May 27, 1897:

Dear Sirs,
I should be much obliged if you would make inquiry about an ice making machine for Sarawak capable of making from half a tonne to one tonne a day. Should Mr Ellis the Civil Engineer not have left, he might give you an opinion about such a machine and examine and see one in action, and have explanations how to work it from the makers.

I have long contemplated setting up such a machine to supply ice to the community at as cheap a rate as possible, and as the government have control over water, land, and also have competent engineers, we can do it more reasonably than any other party.

Three days later after writing this letter, Charles wrote another letter to his London agent, The Woodhead & Co.

He wrote, “Would you find out what kind of ice machine would us in Kuching to supply from half to one ton of ice a day. Mr Ellis, if he meets our terms could look out for the best kind and could information about working it, and also could information about working it, also could see it worked. If the Sarawak Government purchase, it would be under his superintendence. Please send a telegraph price etc.”

2.The Brooke government even announced the purchase of ice machine in The Sarawak Gazette.

Apparently, buying an ice machine in the 19th century was such a big deal that it had to be announced in the paper.

This was what was written in the announcement which was published in October 1897:

“The Government have ordered an ice machine from England, which will produce a ton of crystal ice per diem. This machine, which will be a great boon to the community, should be in working order by the end of this year.”

3.Sarawak’s first ice machine finally arrived about A YEAR after it was ordered.

Again, the Sarawak Gazette reported in September 1898 the arrival of the ice machine.

“The long expected Ice Machine arrived on the 26th June and the first tonne of ice was turned out on the 18th August.

The temperature of the brine was 30o at 9.30am on the 18th and 1½ tonnes of ice were made by the same time on the 19th. The machine was running for 28 hours to obtain this result, which must be considered very satisfactory in view of the fact that it was the first run and that, in consequence, several stoppages had to be made for adjusting the machinery. The lowest temperature reached on this occasion 19o or 13o of frost, but, we understand, that later observations show that a temperature of 11o or 21o of frost, was obtained.

Everyone in the country is to be congratulated upon this acquisition, not only for the comfort of having always iced drinks but far more for its invaluable aid in sickness and accident.

This came home to all when its value was seen in the most unfortunate accident which occurred to Mr Gibson, when ice was at once applied to the fractured part and the inflammation and pain of a broken limb very much reduced.”

4.Who maintained the ice machine?

In the beginning, the Public Works and Survey Department was in-charge of the ice machine’s maintenance.

As years passed, there was an increase in demand for ice in Sarawak.

Then, a new four-tonne ice machine was ordered in 1926 and started operations in 1927.

On the Jan 1, 1937, Sarawak Electricity Supply bought the ice plant for $30,000 and took over the ice production.

5.How much did the ice cost?

Ice was sold to the contractor at $1.00 per 100 lbs. In 1933, the figure was increased to $1.05 and again to $1.10 in 1934.

In 1935, the price was $1.13 and $1.19 in 1936. In the meantime, the sale price to the public remained at $1.25 per 100 lbs.

The selling of ice provided for a decent amount for the Brooke government in those days. For example from 1929 to 1933, the government earned $24,296.76 in profit for selling ice.

Refrigerators for home domestic use were first invented in 1913. However, the world only saw the mass production of refrigerators after World War II. As technology had become more advanced and Sarawakians, including services such as eateries and hospitals, began to afford their own refrigerators, there was no need to have a government-operated ice machine anymore.