IDNO

DG.101913.PAO

Description

A scene during an adat gawai ritual at the longhouse in Kampung Benuk. In the foreground, behind the split bamboo partition that separates the awah (inner verandah) from the tanju (open gallery), is the sangar, or bamboo ‘altar’. It consists of a rectangular structure made of freshly gathered young bamboo poles and leaves, to which a ritual staff and various offerings have been tied At its base are more offerings and ritual objects, mostly stored in woven rattan baskets (bubut and busok). Two sticks of glutinous rice cooked in bamboo and wrapped in banana leaf stick out of one of the baskets. A panyut (wood and batik ‘candle’) can be seen, probably sticking out of an offering tray (tarai), behind the baskets.
An elderly male tua gawai (ritual chief), possibly Otor anak Sunjam, wearing a ritual vest, stagan (leopard teeth necklace), band of grunung (hawk-bells) around his right wrist, and headscarf, squats in front of the sangar.
Next to him, on the right, are seated two dayung beris (literally ‘chanting women). The woman on the left, Sanyun, wears a sepiya, or round cloth cap with red, black and white stripes and a long flap down the back, a patterned blouse, a stagi (elliptical bead necklace), sembun (string of large beads and canine teeth), black skirt and band of grunung around her right wrist. The woman on the right is partially hidden. She wears a patterned blouse and Iban bidang (warp-ikat skirt). The women are chatting and probably preparing offerings in leaves.
The floor of the awah, where the ritual takes place, is covered in kasah (rattan and bark mats).
A group of people, probably a combination of Asian tourists and villagers, stand in the background, mostly on the tanju, looking to the left, possibly at other adat gawai practitioners. One man, probably a tourist, stands behind the tua gawai against the partition, taking a photograph.

Place

SE Asia Borneo; Malaysia; Sarawak; Penrissen; Kampung Benuk [Kampung Segu Bunuk]

Cultural Affliation

Bidayuh [historically Land Dayak]

Named Person

?Otor anak Sunjam; Sanyun (Sumuk Rigai)

Photographer

?Paka anak Otor

Collector / Expedition

Paka anak Otor

Date

2 June 1978

Collection Name

Paka anak Otor Collection

Source

Paka anak OtorChua, Liana

Format

Print Colour

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Source: A selection of 185 prints from Paka anak Otor’s larger collection of approximately 500 prints was made by Liana Chua during fieldwork in Kampung Benuk, Sarawak, Malaysia, in 2005. The purchase of non-exclusive reproduction rights [RM 1845, £250] by the Museum to the family of Paka anak Otor [82 Kampung Benuk, Jalan Puncak Borneo, Kuching 93250, Sarawak, Malaysia], and digital copy photographs of the collection [RM 869, £125] were paid for by the Museum Acquisition Fund [£250] and part of a Crowther-Beynon grant [£125] for the collecting of Sarawak objects. The digital scans were made by Fung Huang Colour Photo Centre [153 Padungan Road, Kuching, Sarawak] in 2005. [Liana Chua 2/8/2007]

Context: Adat gawai is a generic term for the complex of indigenous rituals practised in Bidayuh villages prior to widespread Christian conversion from the 1970s and 1980s. Today (2007) it is still observed by rapidly diminishing handfuls of elderly people in various villages. Most rituals revolved around the cultivation of rice, taking place throughout the year at major stages of the rice cycle. Other rituals were held, for example, to mark various life stages, such as adolescence, marriage and death, and to cure illnesses. Adat gawai is premised on the existence of a rather remote ‘Supreme Being’, Tapa, and more importantly, a variety of different spirits – the most important of which is the rice spirit – to whom offerings are made and invocations chanted. Such rituals entangle adat gawai practitioners and spirits alike in webs of obligations and strict protocols, including lengthy ‘taboo’ periods (pantang) which impose restrictions or demands on people’s movement and dietary habits. The key aim of adat gawai is to maintain a state of modud (‘coolness’) in the world: of stability, safety and wellness.
This particular ceremony would have taken place during the most important ritual period of the adat gawai calendar, Gawai Sawa, the post-harvesting festival marking the new rice crop and the turn of the ‘rice year’. Since around the 1960s, the date of this festival has been officially standardized across Sarawak as 1 June, giving workers a few days’ public holiday to return to their home villages. This photograph, taken on 2 June 1978, was possibly of a daytime ritual which involved ‘fetching’ the rice spirit to the longhouse from the river and surrounding area. [Liana Chua 23/8/2007]

Tourism: Kampung Benuk has been a small-scale tourist attraction since the 1960s, being particularly famous for its longhouse. Its first visitors were often members of the British, Australian and American armed forces stationed nearby during the Confrontation years between Indonesia and Malaysia (1963-1966); later visitors included civilian tourists, foreign dignitaries, UNESCO representatives, film crews, and government officials. Benuk’s visitor numbers appear to have peaked around the 1970s and 1980s, especially with increasing domestic and Asian tourism and the state government’s tourist promotion efforts. Today it remains a fairly popular attraction despite its much diminished longhouse. [Liana Chua 23/8/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Liana Chua 23/8/2007]