Gawai Dayak

Gawai Day or Gawai Dayak is a festival celebrated in Sarawak on 1 June every year. It is both a religious and social occasion. The word Gawai means a ritual or festival whereas Dayak is a collective name for the native ethnic groups of Sarawak: Iban, Bidayuh, Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, and Lun Bawang among others. Thus, Gawai Dayak literally means "Dayak Festival". Dayak would visit their friends and relatives on this day. Such visit is more commonly known as "ngabang" in the Iban language. Those too far away to visit would receive greeting cards.

It started back in 1957 in a radio forum held by Mr Ian Kingsley, a radio programme organiser. This generated a lot of interest among the Dayak community.

The mode of celebration varies from place to place. Preparation starts early. Tuak (rice wine) is brewed (at least one month before the celebration) and traditional delicacies like penganan (cakes from rice flour, sugar and coconut milk) are prepared. As the big day approaches, everyone will be busy with general cleaning and preparing food and cakes. On Gawai Eve, glutinous rice is steamed in bamboo (ngelulun pulut). In the longhouse, new mats will be laid out on the ruai (an open gallery which runs through the entire length of the longhouse). The walls of most bilik (rooms) and the ruai are decorated with Pua Kumbu (traditional blankets). A visit to clean the graveyard is also conducted and offerings offered to the dead. After the visit it is important to bathe before entering the longhouse to ward off bad luck.

The celebration starts on the evening of 31 May. In most Iban longhouses, it starts with a ceremony called Muai Antu Rua (to cast away the spirit of greed), signifying the non-interference of the spirit of bad luck in the celebration. Two children or men each dragging a chapan (winnowing basket) will pass each family's room. Every family will throw some unwanted article into the basket. The unwanted articles will be tossed to the ground from the end of the longhouse for the spirit of bad luck.

Around 6 pm or as the sun sets, miring (offering ceremony) will take place. Before the ceremony, gendang rayah (ritual music) is performed. The Feast Chief thanks the gods for the good harvest, and asks for guidance, blessings and long life as he waves a cockerel over the offerings. He then sacrifices the cockerel and a little blood is used together with the offerings.

Once the offering ceremony is done, dinner is then served at the ruai. Just before midnight, a procession up and down the ruai seven times called Ngalu Petara (welcoming the spirit gods) is performed. During this procession, a beauty pageant to choose the festival's queen and king (Kumang & Keling Gawai) is sometimes conducted. Meanwhile, drinks, traditional cakes and delicacies are served.

At midnight, the gong is beaten to call the celebrants to attention. The longhouse Chief (tuai rumah) or Festival Chief will lead everyone to drink the Ai Pengayu (normally tuak for long life) and at the same time wish each other "gayu-guru, gerai-nyamai" (long life, health and prosperity). The celebration now turns merrier and less formal. Some will dance to the traditional music played, others will sing the pantun (poems). In urban areas, Dayaks will organise gatherings at community centres or restaurants to celebrate the evening.

Other activities that may follow the next few days include: cock-fighting matches, and blowpipe and ngajat competitions. On this day, 1 June, homes of the Dayaks are opened to visitors and guests.

Traditionally, when guests arrive at a longhouse, they are given the ai tiki as a welcome. From time to time, guests are served tuak. This would be called nyibur temuai which literally means "watering of guests".

Christian Dayaks normally attend a church mass service to thank God for the good harvest.

Gawai Dayak celebrations may last for several days. It is also during this time of year that many Dayak weddings take place, as it is one of the rare occasions when all the members of the community return home to their ancestral longhouse.

Up till 1962, the British colonial government refused to recognise Dayak Day. Gawai Dayak was formally gazetted on 25 September 1964 as a public holiday in place of Sarawak Day. It was first celebrated on 1 June 1965 and became a symbol of unity, aspiration and hope for the Dayak community. Today, it is an integral part of Dayak social life. It is a thanksgiving day marking good harvest and a time to plan for the new farming season or activities ahead.

Borneo's headhunters enraged by centuries of loss

Dayak youths carrying a spear ride past a burning ethnic Madurese house near Palangkaraya on the island of Borneo Sunday. Indonesian security officials flew into a ravaged district of Borneo on Sunday where up to 400 people have died in a week of ethnic bloodshed and where gangs armed with spears still roam the streets.

For centuries, Indonesia's Dayak headhunters have been cheated and robbed by outsiders, but now they are fighting back.

But their target — mainly dirt-poor settlers from Madura — appear to be more scapegoats than villains.Dayaks — actually an umbrella term covering more than 200 indigenous groups — have killed up to 400 Madurese over the past week after long-simmering tensions erupted into brutal slaughter in the rugged Borneo province of Central Kalimantan.However, the roots of the slaughter lie more in poverty and dispossession than outright ethnic hatred.

"(Dayaks)...are simple and honest and become the prey of the Chinese traders, who cheat and plunder them continually," wrote naturalist Alfred Wallace in the mid-1800s.

Their plight has only worsened since.

In modern Indonesia, the central government joined the plunder, stripping the Dayaks of their lands and shipping in hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

Most of the new settlers came from the tiny, arid island of Madura, off distant East Java. The warrior-like Madurese are renowned for their hot-tempered aggression, which sits at odds with the normally reserved, accepting Dayaks.

"The ethnic Dayaks are very gentle, tolerant and they like to give in," said Sarosa Hamongpranoto, a sociologist at East Kalimantan's University of Mulawarman. "But they can explode in rage to the extreme if their self-worth is constantly offended."

Once stirred, the Dayaks are fearsome — often reverting to the ritual headhunting that was formally abandoned around the turn of the century, and ripping out the hearts of their victims."In a way, they are now going back to basics," said Hamongpranoto. "The fact they are doing it again now indicates the magnitude and the greatness of the problem. This is a culmination of a long, deep-seated conflict."

Their reputation strikes fear into the hearts of even the Madurese, who themselves terrify Indonesia's majority Javanese.

Refugees fleeing the latest violence tell of Dayak hunters saying they can "smell" who are Madurese.

The Dayak lifestyle of hunting and shifting agriculture, centred on longhouses housing whole villages, does not sit well with Indonesia's rush to modernise.

As their lands across Indonesia's three-quarter share of Borneo were snatched for plantations, logging and mining — and bureaucrats from the main island of Java ran the province --they found themselves increasingly at the bottom of the social and economic ladder, usually along with the Madurese.

The Madurese are easy targets for Dayak resentment because they too are largely powerless and because what little economic success they enjoy is usually conspicuous as market stallholders.

Religious differences fan the flames. Madurese are Muslim and most Dayaks still follow their ancient kaharingan traditions — a mixture of animism and ancestor worship.

Dayak-Madurese tensions have long smouldered — hundreds died in West Kalimantan two years ago — but Central Kalimantan is the only province still with a Dayak majority, although no ethnic breakdown of its 1.4 million people is available.

The province itself was born in violence — formed by the fledgling Indonesian government in 1957 after a Dayak revolt demanding more autonomy.

But the immediate cause of the latest savagery is unclear. The police blame two local officials for inciting the bloodletting because they were angry at missing top jobs in a reshuffle under new regional autonomy laws.

"There could also be a third party who fanned the situation and tried to blow out this problem for a political reason," said Hamongpranoto.

Copyright 2001, Reuters February 26, 2001 By Terry Friel

Dayak of Indonesian Borneo

Dayak of Indonesian Borneo  Focus of traditional culture

In the pre-colonial time, the Ngaju in the catchment area of the Kahayan, were more open to technological and cultural influences from outside than most other Dayak. With the arrival of the Dutch and - in 1835 - the missionary Rheinische Mission (later followed up by the Basler Mission, many converted to christianity. The missionaries founded very good schools, so that the christianized areas nowadays have a lot illiteracy rate. Education stimulated a 'national awakening' among the Ngaju and Ma'anyan Dayak. This development was even more encouraged by the Dutch rule, aimed at the ban of islam from the inlands. Already long before the Second World War, the Dayak founded (nationalistic) political parties. During the Indonesian battle for independence against the Dutch, the Dayak from KalTeng fought under major Tjilik Riwut, a Ngaju Dayak which practiced the traditional religion. After the proclamation of independence, Jakarta decided that the islamic Banjarmasin and mostly Dayak area west of it, should be one province. The plan got resistance from the Dayak - the Ngaju in front - which demanded a sole province. Under Riwut, which had become big during the revolution, the Dayak began a small guerrilla. The Indonesian army limited escalation of the conflict, probably because Riwut had been a loyal soldier. In 1957, the province of KalTeng was officially formed by Presidential Law. The government was lead by the Ngaju, and Rawit became governor. The 'battle' was about a sole province, together with a revaluation of the traditional Dayak culture, especially the religious part - a reaction on the worsening missionaries. The traditional religions of the Ngaju, Ot Danum, Ma'anyan and other Dayak was named kaharingan ('power of life'). After the communist party was declared illegal in the 1960's, the subject 'religion' became very sensitive. The state ideology saw religion as believe in one God and the membership ow a 'acknowledged' world religion with a holy book. The Dayak were seen as 'atheists' (a synonymous for communist) and had the choice: converting to a world religion or being pressured by local authorities to do so. With this in your mind, it's fairly clear why the missions (with their schools, hospitals and lighter pression) had much more success after the 1960's. Different than in the 17th and 18th century, christianity offered more possibilities for social progress than islam. Over time the ban on local religions was abandoned. In 1980, kaharingan was officially recognised as religion, but only as a part of the Hindu Dharma, so in fact it was placed under hinduism. In KalTeng, a small minority does practice this religion. The carnival in the Jungle In the religion of the Ngaju, the supernatural world is important, in which also the souls of ancestors have their place. Just like among other Dayak, the Ngaju known ritual re-burial, which usually takes place several months (sometimes several years) after the initial burial. This re-burial is very important for the soul of the deceased, so it can reach the highest point in heaven. With practicing the rytes, they protect themselves against bad supernatural powers. The first funeral takes place just after someone has died. During this ceremony, masked dancers protect the deceased against the bad spirits. Guided by drums, the kaharingan-priests start singing, which will send the soul to heaven. On it's journey in the traditional ship of souls it is accompanied by spirits. Once in heaven, which consists of several 'layers', the soul has to wait in the lowest layer until the re-burial takes place. Image Sandung During this second ritual (tiwah), the remainders of the deceased are excavated, cleaned and put in a special grave. These woodcarved and decorated graves often have the shape of a bird or watersnake and are decorated with images of the hereafter. Too bad sandung from the factory replace the traditional tombes. The tiwah is a big, complex and long lasting event. The cost vary between US$6,000 and US$12,000. It's common that several families hold a tiwah together, so they can spread the cost of sacrificed animals like a big number of waterbuffalo's and pigs. Once there were more than 200 souls brought to a higher level in one ceremony. But a tiwah also is a happy event. In the open air, foodstalls and shops are put up, and at some distance, there is also some gambling. The tiwah is the carnival of the jungle. Adaptions Sandung made of concrete are not the only changes in the kaharingan religion. To make the religion acceptable for the government a council was set up, which had to control the theological and ritual activities of the about 330,000 supporters. None of the about 78 basir upu (top specialists about rites) are part of the council and also the about threehundred kaharingan priests are not in there as well. The council reflects aspects of the religion which are also known in other big religions. It also organises weekly meetings in specially built kaharingan-communal rooms, complete with speeches, prayers and psalms. Furthermore, the council registrates and coordinates all tiwah (there are two to ten every year), before giving an advice to the police, which can eventually give a permit.

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