Borneoartifact

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What did the Iban headhunters on Borneo do with their trophies?

No surprise; they did what the winners of any competition do: took their trophies home and showed them to their wife or mother. And the women on Borneo did just as proud wives and mothers of Olympic gold medalists do—or those of a member of the team that won the FIFA World Cup. As an eyewitness report in The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (1912) explains in the chapter titled “War”:

“In the course of the feasting the women usually take temporary possession of the heads, and perform with them a wild, uncouth dance, waving the heads to and fro, and chanting in imitation of the men’s war-song.”

The “wild, uncouth dancing” and “chanting in imitation of the men’s war-song” may have milder, modern interpretations, but sports champions these days have not been in a life-or-death competition. Also, modern champions and their women do not have a cultural tradition for celebrating victory, as the Iban did.

The Iban women wove a ceremonial, multicolored textile called “pua kumba” that was used for lifecycle events, also for “receipt of an important item to a longhouse”, as one website discreetly explains. The Iban warriors did not fly home and straight into their loved one’s arms with their trophies. For a few days, they camped within earshot and the trophies would be smoked and dried, the hair combed. When they then did return home, it was important that the pua kumba was properly place on the tray held by the woman to receive the trophy (or trophies) so that it/they touched the most potent motif of the pattern.

Iban women are still weaving pua kumba, a warp ikat textile, but it is assumed that they are no longer used to receive captured heads.

Rafflesia

The largest flower in the world,reaching a diameter of about three feet,Rafflesia is found in forests in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. Seven out of fifteen species worldwide of Rafflesia can be found in Malaysia.
Because the Rafflesia flower is located in specific areas, and little is know about its methods for pollination and seed dispersal, it is difficult to find conservation methods. Residents in Malaysia are encouraged to save the flowers on their private property, and are encouraged to charge small entrance fees to see the flower. This little income goes a long way in conserving the flowers. In peninsular Malaysia, flower buds are sold as traditional medicines. These buds are seen as a sign of fertility, and are given to help mothers recover after birth. The over collection of these buds has not helped with conservation efforts, and has drastically reduced the number of Rafflesia in the wild.
All of these factors lead to decreasing numbers of Rafflesia. Many species of Rafflesia are vulnerable to deforestation and development, and as populations grow, Rafflesia becomes more threatened.
In Sarawak,Rafflesia can be found in Gunung Gading in Lundu,not far from Kuching,the capital city of Sarawak.
In Sabah, the flower and host vine Tetrastigma are protected under the state's Wildlife Conservation Enactment of 1997. In 2002, 44 of 83 Rafflesia found in the area were outside of designated conservation places. The beginning stages of conservation call for finding, monitoring and protecting the flowers that appear. Conservationists are hoping that complete habitat protection will come, but there is no sign of complete habitat protection in the near future.

Traditional Iban food

The Iban tribe are from Sarawak, Borneo. Their traditional foods are called Pansuh food, which simply means the cooking of food or dish in a bamboo stem. It's naturally clean, easy and simple. The food (meat, chicken, fish, vegetables and even rice together with the spices) will all be put together into the bamboo stem, then directly placed over an open fire to be cooked. The uniqueness of using the bamboo stem to cook is that the bamboo will give a special aroma and texture to the food where it's impossible to have using other methods such as using woks.

Since they settled in the Malaysian state of Sarawak over 400 years ago, the Iban have made the surrounding rainforest their supermarket and hardware store, tapping the tremendous variety of plants, animals and raw materials for their food, medicines, dwellings and rituals.

Sarawak’s forests and rivers largely influence the lives of the indigenous people, who have a history of being very reliant upon the forest for food and medicines, as well as much of their building materials. Their forebears lived in or at the forest fringe, usually along rivers, fishing, hunting and foraging for food.

Forest ferns have a special place in the diet of the people, with the two most popular ferns used as vegetables being midin and the fiddlehead fern (pucuk paku). Midin grows wild in the secondary forests and is peculiar to the state. It has curly fronds and is very crunchy even after it has been cooked. Rural dwellers have always considered the fern a tasty, nutritious vegetable and the jungle fern’s rise from rural staple to urban gourmet green occurred in the 1980s with the increased urban migration of the Iban. Aromatic leaves from trees, such as the Bungkang, are also used in cooking to flavour food.

The Iban still live by the river and forest fringe, and cook over open fires using implements fashioned from Nature. Commonly found in the forests, the hardy bamboo is an essential cooking utensil. Rice, meat, fish and vegetables are stuffed into bamboo logs and stand in wood fires to cook, the bamboo infusing the food with a fresh aroma.

One of the best known Iban dishes is pansoh manok (ayam pansuh), which features chicken and lemongrass cooked in a bamboo log over an open fire. This natural way of cooking seals in the flavours and produces astonishingly tender chicken with a gravy perfumed with lemongrass and bamboo.

A visit to the longhouse will usually see guests welcomed with a glass of tuak, a home-brewed rice wine. The brew has a sweet fragrance and is highly alcoholic – a small glass is enough to send the unaccustomed to euphoric heights.

The numerous riverine areas of Sarawak provide the state’s inhabitants with abundant fresh water fish, with the Tilapia being the most widely cultivated. There are sago grubs, bamboo clams and temilok (marine worms) to try. The bright yellow, round eggplants and turmeric flowers are also found in Iban foods