The indigenous tribes of Sarawak gained worldwide notoriety as the fiercest headhunters on Borneo. Back in the old days, an Iban boy couldn't hope to marry a good woman without the shrunken head of an enemy to call his own, and bunches of skulls still decorate the eaves of many jungle longhouses. Fortunately for me, headhunting hasn't been practiced for a while, although some of the skulls date from as late as World War II when, with British support, Iban mercenaries fought against the occupying Japanese.
According to Iban tradition, headhunting started as a religious rite several hundred years ago. At the turn of the 1800s, headhunting was rampant in Sarawak. It was considered “prestigious” to acquire heads in Iban society. The social status of a headhunter as a courageous man would be enhanced if he possessed heads, either taken by himself or acquired by other means.
The weapon used in headhunting is often the
parang ilang — a heavy steel blade with a convex cutting edge, about 55cm long, mounted on a handle made from deer horn or belian (hardwood).
Heads were mainly taken in battle. Following any successful headhunting mission, the Ibans would hold a thanksgiving ritual.
Most of the heads taken by the Ibans were smoked in a manner similar to that in which fish is smoked. In this way, the head (minus the eyes) is preserved, together with the flesh and hair. Sometimes during the process the head is singed black.
It was not uncommon for some of the lesser warriors to sneak up and attack innocent women and children who were bathing at some isolated spot separated from the main tribe to collect their needed heads.
It was also a custom that heads had to be acquired after the death of a member of the family in order to appease the spirits. This custom goes back to the belief that Iban warriors must secure a head before the end of the burial ritual, failing which the burial would be incomplete and mourning would have to continue until a head was found.
After a head is taken it is given the greatest respect. The head, for months after its arrival, is treated with the greatest consideration, and all the terms of endearment… are abundantly lavished on it. The best food is thrust into its mouth and it is instructed to hate its former friends and that having been adopted into the tribe of its captors, its spirit must be always with them.
The tribal inhabitants of the Southeast Asian island of Borneo lived traditionally in buildings known as a longhouse. Most of these are built raised off the ground on stilts and are divided into a more or less public area along one side and a row of private living quarters lined along the other side.
Livestock could shelter underneath the long houses for greater protection from predators and the elements.
In modern times many of the older longhouses have been replaced with buildings using more modern materials but of similar design.
The layout of a traditional longhouse is like this:
A wall runs along the length of the building approximately down the longitudinal axis of the building. The space along one side of the wall serves as a corridor running the length of the building while the other side is blocked from public view by the wall and serves as private areas.
Behind this wall lay the private units, each with a single door for each family. These are separated from each other by walls of their own and contain the living and sleeping spaces for each family. The kitchens may be situated within this private space but are quite often situated in rooms of their own, added to the back or even in a building standing a little away from the longhouse and accessed by a small bridge. This separation prevents cooking fires from spreading to the living spaces, should they spread out of control, as well as reducing smoke and insects attracted to cooking from gathering in living quarters.
Lisa, my homestay host, grew up in a longhouse sharing a room and bed with her parents and 7 other siblings. People still live in longhouses in the villages but as times go by people have been moving out and building concrete houses and living in larger living spaces. Lisa's longhouse burned down from a cooking fire when she was 12 and after that she says most of the family's rebuilt elsewhere their own individual house.
You can still visit the longhouses here in various villages, Lars took us to one that wasn't very frequented by tourists in a small village.
They all have a central circular central house that they use for ceremonies. The one at the longhouse we went to still had skulls hanging from the ceiling. Lars said there were more and no one was quite sure what to do with them so they ended up beimg donated to the library after being passed around for some time between several homes.
