Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo: A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean JunglesGomes, Edwin Herbert
History
Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo: A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean Jungles
Gomes, Edwin Herbert
Iban (Bornean people); Sarawak (Malaysia) -- Description and travel
(3) _Gawai Gajah_ (the “Elephant Feast”): This feast can only be held by
a war leader who has been particularly successful against the enemy, and
has succeeded in obtaining a large number of heads. It is of so great
importance that the Dyaks say that, after this feast has been held, no
other need be held in honour of any new heads that may be brought into
the house. It is very rarely observed in modern times. The last was
held some fifteen years ago by Kinching, a Skrang Dyak living in the
Undup. Offerings and incantations are made to Singalang Burong as in the
_Tenyalang_ feast. The wooden figure of an elephant is placed on the top
of a long pole planted in the ground, and to this figure offerings are
made.
2. The three principal FEASTS CONNECTED WITH FARMING are the _Gawai
Batu_, the _Gawai Benih_, and the _Gawai Nyimpan Padi_.
(1) _Gawai Batu_ (the “Stone Feast”): This feast takes place before the
farming operations begin, and is in honour of Pulang Gana, the god of
the land, who lives in the bowels of the earth, and has power to make
the land fruitful or unfruitful. In this feast invocations are made to
this god, and he is asked to give them a good harvest. The whetstones
and farming implements are placed in a heap in the veranda of the Dyak
house, and offerings are made to the whetstones with a request that they
may sharpen their tools and thus lighten their labours. After the feast
is over the whetstones are taken to the different farms, and the work of
cutting down the jungle for planting begins.
(2) _Gawai Benih_ (the “Seed Feast”): This feast is held just before
sowing. The seed is placed in baskets in the public part of the Dyak
house, and Pulang Gana is asked to bless it and make it fruitful.
(3) _Gawai Nyimpan Padi_ (the “Feast of Storing the Paddy”): This is held
after the reaping and winnowing are over and the paddy is ready to be
stored in the paddy-bins in the loft of the Dyak house. It is only held
when the harvest is a particularly good one. A blessing is asked upon
the paddy, that it may last a long time, and may not decrease in any
mysterious way. Friends who are invited to the feast help to carry and
store away the paddy.
3. The great FEAST CONNECTED WITH THE DEAD is the _Gawai Antu_ (the
“Spirit Feast”): No definite period is fixed for the celebration of it,
and it may be held one or more years after the death of the person. All
those that have died since the last time the feast was held, and have not
yet been honoured by this festival for the dead, are remembered at the
same time, so that the number of departed spirits commemorated by this
feast is great, especially if it is many years since the last time the
feast was held.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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