Context (CMS Context)
(Bio): Liana C.L. Chua, female collectorMade to order by Tabut Siyor, Kpg Benuk. Tabut Siyor is an amateur artist who produces sketches and murals, including a mural outside the Kampung Benuk community library. He was asked to produce for CUMAA a piece of art depicting anything that was quintessentially Bidayuh. He created a generic village from the past, featuring what he perceives as important Bidayuh motifs and physical features, as well as one or other suggestions by villagers and the collector. His choice of words on the label in the lower right-hand corner indicate his awareness of the drawing’s destination (or rather his intention to locate the Bidayuh geographically for a foreign audience). Key aspects mentioned during a conversation about the sketch: - the Bidayuh are also known as the Land Dayak, hence the mountains in the background. The bamboo bridges are typically Bidayuh, linking places across rivers and mountainous land. The people in the foreground are a family of farmers walking in the morning to their farm, where they plant hill padi (the classic Bidayuh form of agriculture). They carry tamboks (generic term for Bidayuh baskets): the man has a ranji on his back, the woman a raga filled with bamboo (bru, for carrying water, cooking, etc) and a small bubut for holding betel nut and sireh leaf. The woman also carries a brigua, or hollowed out gourd which held drinking water in the past. The man sports tattoos, which nyamba ja (old people in the distant past) used to have. In the upper right-hand corner is a durian tree – a reference to the old durian tree near the entrance to Kampung Benuk. At its base are clumps of local herbs, including bunga brumbang and bunga kunyit. The longhouse consists of two branches and a panggah (meeting hall and important adat Gawai ritual site; also ‘head-house’). In front of the panggah is a small shed (beri yua) where pigs were kept. Pigs and chickens used to roam freely around the longhouse and village in the past. There are several boats by the river; up to the late-20th century most Bidayuh villages were only accessible by water. The banks are lined with palm trees and betel nut trees. In the past there were many animals around; they did not flee (as they do today?). In the upper left-hand corner is the hornbill (manug kuan), the symbol of Borneo and Sarawak (‘Sarawak, land of the hornbill’), though very seldom seen in Bidayuh areas today. The butterfly furthest to the right in the lower right-hand corner is the Rajah Brooke butterfly, named after the First? White Rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke. Perched on the bamboo handrail in the lower right-hand corner are two tiny birds, the kusah (added after a query by the collector). These were important omen birds for Bidayuh farmers in the past, and their calls and trajectories were very carefully heeded when farming. The bamboo holder is Tabut’s take on similar holders carved by Bidayuh in the past (‘envelope ja’; the old version of the envelope), and was included as a protective measure during shipping. It is sealed on both ends and opens near the middle. The designs were made in pencil and marker pen.Bought 07/08/2005
Event Date 1/6/2006
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
A: Pencil sketch in a decorated bamboo holder. Titled ‘Ancient Bidayuh Ways of Life in Borneo’; tripuak (holder). Pencil on paper; drawing of a generic Bidayuh village in the past. Artist’s signature is on the bottom right-hand corner, but is obscured by a printed label which reads ‘Ancient Bidayuh Ways of Life in Borneo / Draw by / Mr Tabut Siyor / Km 34, Kampung Bunuk, Borneo Height Road / 93250 Kuching, Sarawak, East Malaysia’. B-C: Stored rolled up in a custom-made bamboo (tring) holder (tripuak), with rattan (wi) binding, decorated with designs in pencil and marker pen. ‘holder has 2 parts, both accessioned. R.Hand 08/01/2008’
Event Date 1/6/2006
Author: maa