IDNO

DG.102001.PAO

Description

Paka anak Otor (standing with his back to the camera) stands in the panggah (meeting and ritual house) in Kampung Benuk with a group of four men in military uniform and a man in a batik shirt and trousers. He appears to be talking to them about the skulls hanging from the rafters to the left.
The panggah has wooden floorboards and a low, sloping thatched attap roof. The skulls are suspended from a wooden beam together with clumps of strips of palm leaves and small bamboo ‘feeding’ devices.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Bidayuh [historically Land Dayak]

Named Person

Paka anak Otor

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paka anak Otor

Date

21 August 1968

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 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”. Benuk’s present panggah was constructed by a Malay army regiment in 1972, to replace the older attap-roof building, which is seen in the photograph.
Local accounts of the origin of the 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 30/8/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Liana Chua 30/8/2007]