Sarawak Cultural Village

[khiemtran]

At the foot of Mount Santubung lies the Sarawak Cultural Village (otherwise known as the Kampung Budaya Sarawak).




The village featured a series of houses from each of the major ethnic groups in Sarawak, arranged around a lake in roughly the same order they are distributed about the state. As you enter, you are given a passport to be stamped as you visit each one.

First were the Bidayuh. This round house is a special structure for the unmarried men and boys, whose role was to protect the village.



And here's the interior. There were wide benches all around the walls, were the warriors would sleep (and potentially, I suppose, shoot out at attackers below).



The rest of the villagers lived in wooden longhouses. With wooden fireplaces, of course.



Next came the Iban, the largest ethnic group in Sarawak, once known (by the British at least) as the "Sea Dayaks".



A lady demonstrates weaving a traditional fabric.



After the Iban came the Orang Ulu. The name really just means "upriver people" and ulu is something of a derogatory term in modern Malay meaning something like "the sticks". As is often the case, they aren't actually a single ethnic or linguistic group, but a band of different peoples who self-identified as orang ulu to fight for their rights.

This is the Orang Ulu Tall House. The traditional access was via a tree trunk with a series of steps carved into it, but there was also a more accessible set of steps added behind for the benefit of visitors. The tree trunk steps would be normally be retracted to protect from attack.



Playing requests on an amplified sapeh. This guy even knew some old Chinese tunes.



Tattoo designs in progress on a sapeh.



Next came the Melanau, the Melayu (Malays) and the Chinese. But first, we had to hurry back for the cultural show.

This was a "mortar dance" where the warrior demonstrated his strength by picking up a 10 kg mortar with his teeth.



This dance featured acrobatics from the men and dancing between clapping pole by the women. There were also impressive displays of blow dart shooting.



Back to the Malay house. I didn't really grasp it before, but the Malays really looked like cosmopolitan sophisticates compared to the orang asli (indigenous people).



As with all the stilt houses, this was nice and cool inside with the breeze blowing.



Making "love letters" over a fire. The round irons contain little sweet pancakes which are folded or rolled into tasty snacks.

Comments

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Interesting; thanks for posting these.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what to make of these indigenous villages preserved in aspic to amuse the tourists. Part of me is pleased that these cultures are being kept alive in perpetuity, but there's an uncomfortable of voyeurism. Something along the lines of 'oh! How quaint! I'm so glad I don't live that way... I suppose it's the same with archaeology - it's easy to be judgmental - but at least then these other cultures have vanished back into the haze of time.

The craftsmanship involved in building those houses is incredible - that's what kind of irritates me. We often shiver and say 'How uncivilised is that! No electricity, no running water, no supermarkets, no digital telly.' And yet these guys are the ones who run out and hunt dinner, and rustle up a house or two without having to hire a specialist in to do our dirty work for us... In a similar situation, most of us would just shuffle into a corner and starve...

Thanks for sharing!!!

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Another subtle aspect here is that the houses also have quite modern aspects. They might be traditional, but there have also been changes and innovations over the last two hundred years. There was an interesting exhibit in the Sarawak Museum showing a room divided into two halves with each half from a different era. You could see how the tools and ornaments and even construction changed as new influences arrived ("Nails? Of course we have nails, we've had them for centuries!")