The group of visitors wearing the custom clothing.
A tourist experience in Long San
To the Kenyah, one of the indigenous people on Borneo island, child
naming or pusau anak is an important social occasion. A child's name has
to be chosen carefully, and the elders recite the family genealogies to
review all the names of the ancestors of both parents. In this way, family
names are kept for generations, and this helps in maintaining the social
class.
Traditionally, the child is given a proper Kenyah name when he is one to
ten years old. However, in cases due to rural-urban migration among the
Kenyahs, a child can reach his late teenage or adulthood before he or she
receives his or her proper Kenyah name.
The common Kenyah names for boys are Lian, Lawai , Katan, Jau, Keling, Ngau, Bilong, Lisu, Ajang, Ullok, Nawan, Tinggang, Apoi, and Wan. Female Kenyah are named Suling, Usun, Ubong, Long, Puyang, Ulau, Tuyan, Bungan, Sinan, Bulan, Madun, and Tipong.
Recently, the Kenyah community at Long San, about five hours drive on four wheel drive vehicles along logging track from Miri, Sarawak, hosted the pusau anak festival, the first of the modern day. About 300 over boys and girls from the 23 rooms (amin) at the longhouse were given their Kenyah names during the festival.
Traditionally, after a child is given his or her name, the parents are given new teknonym - tama so and so for the father, and tina so and so for the mother. If the child's name is Jalong, the father is called Tama Jalong, and the mother Tina Jalong.
Preparations Great amount of work goes into the preparation of the feast
for the festival. The merrier the occasion the better for the family because
it helps to enhance their social standing.
In the old days young men in the longhouse would go fishing and hunting
for wild animals, bringing home plenty of wild boar meat and fish for the
feast. Women at home collected a type of wild leaves for wrapping cooked
rice. Hundreds of packets of soft-packed rice were served to the guests
at the celebration. They also brewed rice wine, burak. The burak had to
be fermented at least one or two weeks before the festival. In the feast
the longhouse people assist the family with all the necessary preparations.
Today in the modern Kenyah community in Long San, home bred pigs is the main food served at the feast and in the Patu Bun ceremony. It takes about six months to breed a pig big enough to be slaughtered. For families who have no time to breed pigs, they buy the beasts from their neighbours. A well grown pig ( 50 kg to 60 kg ) costs about RM500 to RM600.
Free flow of burak were served to welcome guests and visitors throughout the festive period. Plenty of burak was brewed weeks before the festival and kept in jars and bottles. Today, carbonated and packet drink and liqueur were also served. Plenty of gingers were meshed and squeezed to obtain their juice to be used in the ritual of the naming ceremony.
Several weeks before the festival, women in each household in Long San had begun tidying up their respective rooms to welcome their relatives and friends from near and afar. Ample space was cleared up to accommodate their visitors during their short stay. Walls are colourfully decorated with traditional art and artifacts. Each family clear up their section of the verandah or usay and cover it with bamboo mats. Well off families place sofa sets on the usay to seat guests. In fact, the renovation work on the whole longhouse had also commenced years ago and was completed in time to usher in the festive occassion. Relatives and family members working in the urban areas and living overseas would make try to return to the longhouse weeks before the festival to help in the preparations.
Ceremonial items
Among the maren or aristocrat Kenyah, the family constructs model
house or kubo and model rhinoceros hornbill or tebengang and cover them
with locally grown tobacco or jako sigup. The house is for girl and the
rhinoceros hornbill for boy. The commoner may build a model longhouse but
not the rhinoceros hornbill. In the past, a model house and a model rhinoceros
hornbill is construct for each boy and girl to be named in the festival
but today only one of the models is required. At Long San, the families
also built models of boat, sword and war coats and covered them with tobacco.
Some models were covered with chocolate biscuits and sweets and also toys.
Ceremonies
On the festival day, families woke up early to get ready for the
naming ceremony. Children and adults were all dressed up in colorful traditional
costumes completed with beautiful headgear and beadwork. Families hung
up their models in a straight line in the verandah. Jars of borak were
also arrayed in the common corridor. 350 children with their Kenyah names
tagged on their dress and accompanied by their parents and relatives, were
seated orderly along the length of the verandah, waiting for their turn
to be blessed by Father Jacob, a priest from the Roman Catholic mission
in Long San.
After the blessing, the colourful and fun-filled Patu Bun ceremony began. involving hundreds of men and women, kinsmen or visitors, clapped in traditional costumes with brightly coloured designs. A warrior led a group of women lined up according to their social class in the community, moving in a procession serving small slices of lard and ginger water to visitors seated along the verandah. Traditionally, a child from the high class group will be followed by eight women while a child from the commoners is accompanied by four women. Line after line of women and men emerged from the Ketua kampong's room feeding visitors with ginger water and lard.
According to the elder Kenyah, they used to compete in eating lard in the past. Today, plastic bags and leaves were distributed to visitors before the ceremony began. They are useful for collecting the unconsummated lard and ginger water. By the end of the ceremony, most of the lard and ginger water served ended up in the plastic bags.
The ceremony was fun filling for merry-makers. As the long procession moves around the longhouse, roars of laughter broke out from time to time from all corners of the verandah when mischievous young women tried to smear lard on the face of visitors and to push the lard into the mouth of their unwilling targets. For an outsider, the whole event is too fascinating and bewilding.
Two rituals are carried out in Patu Bun ceremony, the Pasat Sungai Lia
and Pasat Nyak Buin. In Pasat Sungai Lia, plenty of gingers were squashed
to obtain its juice. The ginger juice or water in pusau anak, to the longhouse
folk, symbolises the end of a period of hardship and suffering. The hot
ginger juice is believed to chase away evil spirit from disturbing the
children and the community as a whole. Those who drink the ginger water
served during the festival are believed to have a peaceful and prosperous
life. In the ritual, the elders would say poetic lines of blessing, "epet",
before the ginger water was served. It sounds in Kenyah in the following,
"Iko Liye itu, bara apan iko mede' pa' mede jela'
Dulu ia ti kimet keret kimet jaat,
Kimet kebang kelatang,
Apan dulu kimet liba kimet laya,
Kimet sak pemanak,
U-o ame nesep sungai lia itu.
It means in English in the following,
After drinking this ginger water together
We shall become brothers and sisters
We shall forgive and pardon one another
We are no longer enemies but friends
No longer keeping anger, hatred and resentment
We are now one happy family
We shall live in peace, love and joy forever
In Pasat Alut, a group of strong young men lifted and carried a wooden boat filled with cooked pork and lard prepared in short and long strings from one end of the longhouse to the other. They distributed the food from the boat to the visitors. The strings of pork signify unity, prosperity, and integrity among the villagers under the leadership of their chieftain, ketua kampong.
Marriage ceremony
According to Kenyah custom or Adet, couples must be married in a traditional wedding ceremony so that their children could be named in pusau anak. To facilitate the need of such couples, a wedding ceremony was held at Long San prior to the festival.
As in pusau anak, the family made model longhouses, and model rhinoceros hornbill for the couple and hung them in the verandah. The wedding ceremony was carried out in the presence of elders acting as witnesses and longhouse folks and friends. The couples dressed up in traditional wedding costumes took their seats on a tawak (gong). Each couple firmly placed their hands on top of each other with their palms clutching the handle of a ceremonial sword. The blade of the sword is pinned down to the floor. While sitting down eight bridesmaids carrying a sun-hat or sa'ong each, placed them on top of one another above the head of the bride to symbolically protect them from the sun and rain. Each bridesmaid is given a sarong, batik designed cloth as a gift by the couple after the ceremony.
Aristocrat or maren couple have to act out the scene of "going to farm" during the ceremony. Each couple, accompanied by eight men and eight women, walk in a single file from the bride's amin to the ground outside the verandah. A man who led the line carried a small gong beating it as he walked along. At the end of the procession was a woman carrying a woven rattan basket on her back where she put eight pieces of firewood. The procession walked from the amin to the ground and back to the longhouse eight times. Each time the procession got to the ground a wood was placed in the basket of the last person.
Merry making commenced days before the festival day. Men and women, boys and girls entertain the guests with long dance ( datun julut), one-woman hornbill feather dance ( sagah lato ) and one-man war dance ( Sagah Ngayau) with the accompaniment of the group song or liling as a normal signature tune. Guests are also invited to join in the dancing and singing. Welcome song or suket was also sung to welcome guests to the village.
The pusau anak at Long San attracted visitors from all over, relatives and friends from nearby villages and other parts of the country, and also photographers, journalists, and song composers who are invited to witness the grand occasion which is never held in such a grand scale in the past twenty over years.
The preservation of the Kenyah naming ceremony is vitally essential as it keeps the identity and purity of the community by maintaining the names of the ancestors of both couples. It should be preserved as part of the cultural heritage of the community as well as of the state. Today, pusau anak still remains an integral part of the Kenyah culture in the Baram area despite of the social economic changes experienced by the people over the years end.
The group of visitors wearing the custom clothing.
Origin
The Lun Bawang bamboo flute and bass band or Yup Suling-Bas in Lun Bawang, originated from "Telingut", a traditional musical instrument of the Lun Bawang which can only produce three notes. It is later modified to six notes and become the "Suling" or flute used in a bamboo band of the Lun Bawang today. In order to create more harmonious sound, the bass instrument with three notes was also introduced as a back-up sound in the bamboo band.
Other instruments like "Tinor", "Tubung" (drum), "Angk'long", and "Res" are also added to produce back-up sounds.. From 1945 until 1965 a bass instrument produces only two notes, "Do" and "Sol", by inserting a small bamboo into a bigger bamboo with two holes, that creates a unique feature and design.
By 1966, pastor Yohanes Saai, a Lun Bawang from Indonesia modified the instrument by introducing a new sound so that all the bass instruments has three notes as it is today, for example the "Do" bass has the 1, 4, and 5 sounds; for Me bass, the 3, 4, and 5 sounds; and for Sol bass, the 5, 6, and 1 sounds. This new change was introduced in the state by a school teacher Jerry Samuel Daring in 1968 when he was teaching in a primary school at Long Semadoh. The set has been used until today.
Jerry started to play in a bamboo band since 1958 when he was in school until 1961. In 1964 he led and conducted for the SMK Limbang bamboo band. Today he plays, conducts, and teaches the art of bamboo band. He is in fact the person-in-charge responsible for the formation and development of the art in the Lun Bawang areas.
The beginning
The bamboo band introduced to the Lun Bawang in the state during the British rule was first practised by the Lun Bawang or Lun Dayeh among the missionary school students in Kalimantan Indonesia. The art was brought to the state as early as the 1942 by two Lun Bawang Christian pastors, namely, Labo Tai, in Long Beluyu and Riong Betung in Ba'Kelalan. In Long Beluyu, pastor Labo Tai used the bamboo flutes as teaching aids in his Bible school as well as playing the instrument as a pasttime for the local people.
The art continued to be developed and passed on to the younger generation in the Lun Bawang community through the theology and the goverment schools in the Lawas area during the 1940s until 1960s. In 1946 Paster Bonnel Pantulusang, a Bugis from Indonesia, replaced Paster Labo Tai and continued his work to promote the art of bamboo band among the Lun Bawang at Long Beluyu and Long Semadoh. George Yudan Daring from Long Semadoh introduced the bamboo band to the people in Long Tuma in 1957, Long Tukon ( 1958 ), and Ba'Kelalan (1960).
In 1963, George's sister Alice Daring continued his works in Long Tuma. (Meanwhile, Paul Kohan introduced the bamboo band to the Kelabit at Pa' Main, Bario, in 1946. Tadem Baru taught it in Long Lutok in 1960; Bonnel in Belaga in the 1950s; and Henry Semuel Sia in Long Luping (1969).) By 1968 a government school teacher Jerry Samuel Daring, George's younger brother, already began teaching the modified six-hole flute which is used until today at Long Semadoh.
The Instruments
The suling or flute used in a bamboo band is made from a bamboo called "bulu sebiling". A standard six-holes suling measures 42 centimeter in length and the small suling is about half of that length. The bass instruments are made from bigger type of bamboo called "bulu talang" preferably those from hilly areas which are of better quality and can last longer as compared to those from the riversides which are easily attacked by insects.
The bamboo used for suling and bass must be carefully selected so that they are not too thick or old as they will not produce good sound. To turn a bamboo into a bass instrument, it is first dried completely so that the sound it produces will not change as the bamboo shrinks if it is not well dried, he said. Once the bamboo are dried they are categorised according to their size which determines the bass sounds they are suitable for.
After their best bass sounds have been identified, the bamboo will be tuned. To make the "Do" bass, for instance, first, a small bamboo of the size of a suling is inserted to the selected bamboo for the bass, then we blow the sound "Do" so that it is the same as the "Do" sound of the suling. If the sound produced is not the same the bass bamboo is cut bit by bit until it produces the correct "Do" sound. Similar tuning process is done for other basses. The bass sound will be re-tuned from time to time until the sound is perfect.
The band
A bamboo band requires at least 25 players with a minimum of five flute players to form a band. There is no specific number of flute players required for a bamboo band. However, the more players the better is the band and the merrier the atmosphere. Two types of flute are played in a bamboo band, the big and the small ones. The latter produces high sounds. Their presence in a band are optional. They always come in two in a band.
There are nine basses: "Do" high, "Do" low, "Re", "Me", "Fa", "Sol" high, "Sol" low, "la", and Si" high. In a standard bamboo band, the bass "Do" low and "Sol" low can only have three players while the other basses can have more than three with a minimum of five players. A bamboo band can only play music or songs of major chords. Each bamboo band has only one key that is decided by the length of the suling and quality of the bamboo used.
Functions
Bamboo band is played by church choir during special occasions like Easter celebration and wedding ceremony, and it is a subject taught in the theology schools in the Lun Bawang area. The band is also played to the outside community since 1945 during auspicious occasions like the celebration of British victory over the Japanese rule; visit of VIPs like the head of state, chief ministers and ministers; Independence Day celebration; TYT birthday; Malaysia Festival 1990 in KL; and Hello Malaysia programme.
Future challenge
The traditional art of bamboo band today face its greatest challenge from the other sophisticated modern musical instrument like guitar and piano and organ which become very popular among the younger generation today. The younger people do not like to play the bamboo band as they find "no glamour" in doing so.
Not many of them show the same interest in learning the traditional art as they do for guitar and piano. In view of this lack of interest, the Lun Bawang Association has initiated bamboo band classes specially for Lun Bawang children attending the government schools in the Lawas area. Bamboo band teachers like Jerry volunteer to conduct such classes and parents are urged to encourage their children to attend such classes. (Presently Jerry is teaching the art to students at SMK Lawas on weekends.)
In churches in the Lun Bawang areas like Long Temarub, Trusan today we can seldom see bamboo band being played; they have been replaced by guitar and keyboards during church services and choirs as " these modern instruments have become more popular among the younger generation," commented Paster Jerry Baru of the church. The bamboo band are now rarely played even during Christmas time, he added.
The art was almost completely stopped in the 1980s where no bamboo band survived the stiff competition from the modern musical instruments, recalled Jerry who has been in charge of the bamboo band for the Sarawak Lun Bawang Association since 1993. It was revived by the Association in the late 1980s through its effort to help set up bamboo band at the different parts of Lawas and Limbang areas.
Today eight bamboo bands are formed. They are the bamboo band of Long Tuma, Long Semadoh, Lawas bandar, Pengalir, Long Luping, Ba'Kelalan, Perusia, and Long Sebangang. In the 1970s, the bamboo band became a contesting event in the Pesta Lun Bawang with the aim to preserve the art of bamboo band. The participation bands are judged in three aspects, playing, tuning and conducting. In the recent Pesta in Lawas, the bamboo bands of Long Tuma, Long Semadoh and Lawas Bandar contested in the bamboo bands competition. Long Semadoh bamboo band with 74 members won the contest for its melodious and harmonious sounds produced by the finely tuned instruments.