IDNO

DG.101929.PAO

Description

View of the longhouse and panggah (meeting and ritual hall) at Kampung Benuk, from the front lawn of Paka anak Otor’s house overlooking them.
On the lawn are a few trees and shrubs, including a palm tree and possibly an aloe plant with outward-fanning leaves and white tips. Below them can be seen the sloping thatched attap roof of the longhouse on the right, the bamboo slatted tanju (open gallery) with lines of washing hanging out to dry, and the conical, panelled wood-shingled roof of the panggah in the distance.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Bidayuh [historically Land Dayak]

Named Person

Photographer

?Paka anak Otor

Collector / Expedition

Paka anak Otor

Date

circa 1972 - 1980

Collection Name

Paka anak Otor Collection

Source

Paka anak OtorChua, Liana

Format

Print Black & White

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]

Place: The panggah seen in the photograph was completed in 1972 by a Malay army regiment as a replacement for the older attap-roof building. The panggah was traditionally a meeting-hall, sleeping place for visitors and bachelors and men’s ritual space in various Bidayuh villages. It was also where the village’s collection of skulls was kept, hence its identification by 19th century European writers and administrators as the “head-house”. Local accounts of the origin of Benuk’s ten skulls vary; but most seem to agree that they belong to enemies from Singai (another Bidayuh area) who carried out a severe raid on the village. In retaliation, the men of the village killed them and hung their heads in the panggah, at which point their spirits were inveighed to guard the village from misfortune. Every year (as of 2007), the skulls are ‘bathed’ with ritual substances and ‘fed’ with offerings in a ritual performed by the few remaining adat gawai (pre-Christian rituals) practitioners in the village. [Liana Chua 24/8/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Liana Chua 24/8/2007]