Saturday, December 17, 2011

Gawai Rituals at Kampung Serasot


The two men are preparing the offering for the Gawai Ritual for the night. The rice that is cooked in bamboo is cut into small pieces, while other foods are wrapped in leaves. It is not that they couldn’t afford to provide plate or bowl for the foods, it is the old tradition. Imagine that the foods are served on the ‘Falcon’ dinnerware, won’t it be like celebrating the ritual at the five star restaurant.


The skulls are hanged on the roof of the Dayak Communal Hall 'The Baruk'. In the olden days, the Dayak used to hunt for head as part of the ritual for the young boys to be men, to gain the respect of the elderly and to charm the young ladies of the village. I guess it would be whole lot easier for the young boys nowadays to gain respect and charm the ladies as they only need to have thick wallet filled with money and a 'Proton Inspira'. Back then, they might be considered a hero if they managed to bring back the head, now they would be considered a sadistic murderer which is similar to Jack the Ripper and deserve to be outcasted from the village.


The musicians are seen kept in the cage. The villagers do not want them to disappear during the offering ritual ceremony. They are forced to practice on their musical instruments until its’ perfect. Otherwise, they would be burnt alive inside it.

People are seen attracted and curious to know what the villagers put inside the ritual hut. Some of them posed beside the sliced pork, assuming that would it be nice if the pork be brought back for BBQ. Some look distorted and curious. The hut supposed to be the place for the Dayak Priests to gather around during the Offering Ritual Ceremony, not a site for photoshooting~ i****.



The lady priest is seen waiting patiently for the rest of the crews to hop in and be prepared for their Ceremony.


The cooked and wrapped foods are seen displayed on the verandah of the Baruk, ready to be moved into the Ritual Hut. Hope the foods would still be around when the time comes. The lady priest looked pretty hungry to me.


The offerings are placed in the hut together with the earlier offerings. The offerings are actually part of the ritual in feeding the spirit of the ‘padi’, so the villagers will get better harvests next year. Then again, I'm not certain that it would be relevant nowadays as most of the villagers are no more farmers. Maybe next year they should make offerings for better employment and more work opportunities for the village folks. Sramat Ari Gawai, Kaban!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Gawai Celebration at Kampung Gumbang

The village is situated about 40 km from Kuching, somewhere in Bau District. The village is called Kampung Gumbang. It took us about 15 minutes drive from Bau District to reach the village.

The village folks are busy preparing the feasts for the Gawai on the verandah of the house and accompanied by some uninvited kids.

The round building is the communal place for the village folks. It is called the ‘Baruk’. In the olden days, the  village folks would normally use the building as a place to meet and discuss on the welfare of the village folks. Now, the villagers prefer meeting up at a nearby village's grocery shop while enjoying 'Tiger Beer'. The Baruk had become the remaining heritage of the Land Dayak community.

The caretaker of the ‘Baruk’ is carrying the headless slaughtered pig to the Baruk as preparation for the Gawai Ritual Ceremony.

The chief of the Dayak community (dress in blue/red) is seen discussing with the village folks on matters concerning the welfare of the village folks. He is a retired doctor by profession. I figure that he might advice the villagers to quit smoking and not to drink too much ‘tuak’.


The ‘Baruk’ is built on stilt, higher above the ground. In the olden days the Baruk would be a good place for the village folks to defend themselves from the attack of the enemies and wild animals. Beside that the tall building would be quite cool and windy during the days. Most of the villagers who were making excuses of not going to the farm would hang out at the Baruk.
The design is still preserved till the present time as Land Dayak unique architectural heritage. I assumed even the design of Petronas Twin Towers are inspired by the Baruk.

The old lady is trying her talent in playing the musical instrument the ‘brass gong’. She should stop, it’s horrible. Maybe she should consider attending the music school for the elderly. I think the blinds would play better than her.

The pig is cut to pieces in the Baruk. The slaughtered pig have to be cut in the Baruk in order to show to the Spirit of the ‘Padi’ that the villagers are not cheating on him. The ‘Spirit’ shares will be hooked on the roof and the balances will be brought back by the caretaker to be barbecued for drinking session. The villagers hope that the spirit would grant them a better harvest next year.

I guessed the spirit must be quite greedy. The villagers have to offer extra offerings in order to win the heart of the spirit. The offerings like the rice wrapped in leave and chicken are also hooked on the roof.


The young assistant of the caretaker is seen suspiciously sneaking out for people outside the Baruk. Maybe he planned to take the spirit’s shares.

Most of the houses in the village still preserved its original architectural as in the olden days. They are built on stilt, along the hill slope of the village. It is typical for the Land Dayak to choose the higher ground as in the olden days the Land Dayak often became the victim of head hunting activity among other ethnics like the Sea Dayak which is also known as the Iban. Hence, they will be able to stay away from those ethnics and at the same time easier for them to defend their village. Nowadays, the location helps a lot in getting them stay connected with ‘Digi’ and ‘Celcom Broadband'. I assumed there are lots of bloggers from the village.

 A typical Land Dayak’s houses would often have the verandah, as to enable the villagers to dry their harvested padi. Now, it remained there for the villagers to spend time playing poker.

On our way back home, a friend of mine asked me to shoot few more photos of the Baruk. However, it is not due to his appreciation of the building but just to check out for the good looking ladies up there.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Gawai Dayak Feasts

While the ladies are busy decorating the house for the Gawai Celebration, the men are busy preparing delicacies for dinner which consists of barbecued pork, wings, fishes and sausages. Of course the favorite would be the pork head, which had been skinned from the skull. During Gawai, none of the pigs’ parts were spared ~ they will be mutilated from head to tail. The barbecue mixes are marinated for few hours with some salt, pepper, garlic and oyster sauce. Though the ingredients were very simple, you will be surprised that the taste will be extremely good. The taste should not be overpowered by the taste of the mixed ingredients. The pork should still have the smell and taste of the pork in order to maintain the authentic flavor and taste of it.

The Dayaks nowadays are mostly Christian. A typical Dayak's family of a devoted Christian background would normally say their prayer before the meals. The less devoted one would have to pretend that they too are praying.



Look at the foods. You can choose what you want and best of all, its' free. Real yummy and irresistible. Pick up the small sliced and simply dip in the extra hot sauce mixed with bird-eye chilies and garlic. You will break to tears out of happiness and spiciness of the chilies.


Even the young kid and grandpa could not resist but to hop in.


 
Guess what? It’s the pig’s brain. Bizarre food challenges. Nobody dare to try. Too nasty for the Bornean palette. It will be kept frozen until the arrival of Andrew Zimmern to try.


The man is a pilot with a domestic flight agency. He showed us how he shot the flying fox in a single shot. He claimed that he loved shooting animals with wings. Won’t it be like coincident?

The flying fox will be stewed tonight for late night supper. The fox needs to be cooked with lot of spices such as the lemongrass, garlic, onion, some salt and pepper in order to remove the strong odors of the fox. The Chinese believed that fox would be good cure for those with asthma. However for Dayaks, the fox is just an ordinary rare exotic meat that would be eaten occasionally as it is a seasonal hunted animal that are only available during fruits season.


The last delicacy for the night would be the 'pansoh', which is the chopped chicken stewed in bamboo and mixed with some salt and pepper. The bamboo is used as substitute to cooking utensil. It is not like the Dayaks could not afford the expensive 'Falcon' kitchenware. They simply enjoyed the hardwork and troubles in preparing the 'pansoh'. It is an old typical exotic recipe inherited from the older generations.

The tapioca leaves are used to cover the bamboo and at the same time to add the extra flavor to it. Only a little water is added as the stewed ‘pansoh’ will produce its own juices as it is cooked. The taste of the mixtures will be extremely aromatic after cooked. The stew would have the strong aroma of the bamboo and the tapioca leaves, that you would refuse delicacies served by Martin Yan.


At 12 sharp, few gunshots are being made as to mark the beginning of Gawai Festival. The next morning we heard that a plane was found crashed at a nearby village. It is reported that there were few gunshots' holes spotted on the wing of the plane. Oops!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

The Dayak Cultural Heritage

The Head of the Ritual Ceremony beats on the drum as to greet the welcoming guests during the Gawai Eve Dinner. Though the dinner is held in an exclusive hall, we still maintained the old traditions in our festivity rituals. Then again, it seems like a good opportunity for him to flirt around, looking for good looking chick.

The young ladies greet the visitors with some rice wine called 'tuak' which are made from fermented rice with yeast. The wine is the typical liquor produced by the Dayaks for generations. However, the "Tuak' has become less popular as the younger generations preferred imported liquors. Maybe we should do massive promotions to promote ‘Tuak’ and compete with Japanese ‘Sake’. Most of the Dayak Liquor Entrepeneurs from the Longhouses would become the Multi-million Liquor Tycoon.

The dancers consist of various Dayak tribes in Sarawak. However, they shared the common ground in their annual festivities such as the harvest festival, which is also known as the Gawai Dayak in Sarawak.

The climax of the ritual ceremony is the chanting prayer by the Dayak Priests as to officiate the beginning of our fest. The chanting prayer is made while circling the invited guests as to bless those who are celebrating Gawai and at the same time to prepare their vocal for 'Karaoke' session at 'Meligai Keling' tonight.

The rituals stated above are part of the rituals that are still preserved to date. However, we scared that the next generation might not bother to preserve it as they are more influenced to 'hip-hop' and 'hardcores' in the urban areas; and 'dangdut' in the semi-urban areas. We scared that the chanting prayer would be converted to hip-hop, hardcore or perhaps to dangdut version.

Hence, I have made up my mind and determined to keep on publishing on our existing and dying heritages; for the future Dayaks' generation of Borneo to share and appreciate. Idup Dayak! Long Live the Dayaks!

By the way, I heard that 'Snoop Doggy Dogg', 'Metallica' and some Indonesian's Dangdut singers will be on tour to Kuching next week. Be There!