Sarawak Cultural Village

The Sarawak Cultural Village is located at the Pantai Damai (Damai Beach) resort area, about 40 minutes’ drive from the city of Kuching. The village contains examples of the types of houses that are characteristic of those built by the ethnic groups that inhabit Sarawak. Upon entry to the village, visitors are given a “Village Passport” which contains information about the local people. This passport has a section in which tourists can collect stamps from each of the village houses that they visit.


A map of the Sarawak Cultural Village and Damai Beach
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The current population of Sarawak consists mainly of the indigenous Iban people, and immigrant Chinese and Malays. The Iban traditionally lived in groups in the lowlands, in longhouses that were built to last around twenty years. Although they were farmers, the Iban gained notoriety among early European travelers as head-hunters. In some social groups, Iban men were not considered worthy for marriage until they had brought home the head of an enemy from battle. The descendants of the Iban account for around 30% of the current population of Sarawak.



Longhouses were a kind of miniature “village within a house”. Limited privacy was afforded by segmenting the longhouse into rooms that were used for different activities. The effort expended in constructing the longhouse could thus be shared by all of the people that would inhabit it. In particular, providing shelter from the rains of Borneo would have been a great incentive for cooperation in the construction of the common roof.

In more mountainous regions, another ethnic group, the Bidayuh, also traditionally lived in longhouses. The Bidayuh consist of several sub-groups; namely the Jagoi, Biatah, Bukar-Sadong, Selakau and Lara peoples. The Bidayuh were often more gentle than the Iban, although they still collected the heads of their enemy in battle and hung them to smoke above the fire. Among their technological achievements, the Bidayuh invented indoor plumbing! The mountainous terrain on which they lived allowed them to dam rivers up-stream from their houses and use a gravity-fed system of bamboo conduits to supply water. The Bidayuh account for around 8.4% of the current Sarawak population.

The Melanau people built large houses in coastal regions that were supported about 12 m above the ground. They preferentially ate Sago palms, instead of the rice that was usually eaten by most of the other ethnic groups. The remaining indigenous people are often categorized under a single name: the Orang Ulu, which means “up-river dwellers”. The Orang Ulu comprise the Penan, Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit and Lun Bawang. Among these groups, the Penan, who live in the dense jungles of Central Borneo, are often noted for their use of blowpipes in hunting.

The Cultural Village has an auditorium, at which dance performances are held twice each day. These dances are quite varied and show off the spectacular traditional dress of each of the ethnic groups. Having done some jungle trekking, I often had pause to wonder whether the long, elaborate traditional costumes were worn during daily life or only for special celebrations. Unfortunately, I never had that particular question answered. We visited in the late monsoon season, and the wet weather had apparently scared away most tourists from the village. The houses themselves were quite empty for most of our visit, with the exception of the very friendly Bidayuh longhouse, at which we were warmly welcomed.

My impression was that the Cultural Village was very much set up to cater to tourists. I think that it represented a good attempt to convey a superficial sense of the culture of the region, but that it was lacking depth in some areas. Aside from the village passport and some posters which were hung in each of the houses, there was little educational material available.

European culture was forced upon Sarawak by James Brooke, an unsuccessful trader, who arrived there in August 1838 after inheriting a sum of £30,000. When he arrived, a Bidayuh uprising was in progress against the Sultan of Brunei, who ruled Sarawak at that time. He helped to induce a peaceful settlement to the uprising and was granted the title of Rajah by the Sultan; thus becoming the first White Rajah.

Don't forget that more pictures of my journey are available online at my Flickr Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28808691@N05/

Arrival in Borneo!

The first thing that I noticed when coming to Malaysia from Australia was the tropical weather. It hasn’t been extremely hot by Australian standards; maximum temperatures have been around 38°C. However, the humidity has been close to 100% during this first part of my trip. The high humidity means that it’s like living in a sauna. If you sweat, it doesn’t evaporate. The sweat just stays there, soaks your clothes, and makes you feel like you’re wearing a wet-suit. Difficult though it is to spend long hours outside, I've been forcing myself to, and I think that I’m gradually acclimatizing.

My girlfriend and I arrived in the city of Kuching, on the western coast of the island of Borneo, at 11:30 am yesterday. Borneo itself is split among three nations: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. There are two states in the Malaysian portion; Sabah in the south west and Sarawak (of which Kuching is the capital) in the north west.

Literally translated, Kuching means “cat” in the Malay language. There are several cat monuments on traffic islands in the city, some complete with whiskers! The city also hosts many stray cats who seem somewhat more outgoing than those that inhabit Kuala Lumpur.

When we arrived at Kuching Airport yesterday, my girlfriend and I were met by a friend of her family; Mr Pei. We visited Mr Pei’s house to have lunch, and were serenaded by some of the family with an impromptu karaoke performance in Hokkien Chinese. From there, we went on to check in at the Harbor View hotel, situated near the Kuching waterfront on the Sarawak River.

Yesterday afternoon, we were met by another family friend, Uncle Loo, who is a native of Kuching. He took us to visit the weekend market on Jalan Satok (Satok road). Uncle Loo informed us that many of the stall-holders at this market are native river-dwelling people who live further inland than Kuching, and travel to the city only for the weekend market. They sleep on the streets of the market or in their cars. It would be interesting to follow some of these market gardeners back to their homes to see how they live, but that will probably have to wait for a future visit.

Today we visited the Kuching waterfront and collected some supplies for later in the week. We had planned to visit Fort Margherita, which lies across the Sarawak River from Kuching. Unfortunately, though, we caught the wrong boat across the river and landed at a place from which it wasn’t possible to reach the fort. The river boats are very small—maybe 3 m long—and lie low in the water. On the way back to Kuching, the captain of our small boat, with its complement of around 10 passengers, was unable to start the motor, so he paddled the boat by hand across the wide Sarawak River!

Kuching, like much of the rest of Malaysia, has extreme economic juxtaposition. Affluent, western-style shopping centers, complete with Starbucks cafes, are situated beside alleys full of crumbling houses. Dotted among the poorer houses are makeshift mounts for the dishes of satellite TV receivers. New construction work is also happening everywhere.

This year, Kuching has suffered unseasonally-long monsoon rains. The areas surrounding the city have been flooded, and local newspapers have reported that around 800 people have been displaced from their homes due to the flooding. It has rained almost continually since we arrived yesterday, but the city of Kuching itself doesn’t appear to have any flooded areas. We have also not seen any sign of the problems that the flooding has caused, but that may be due to our staying in the most affluent part of the city.

As a caucasian here, I draw some attention as a relative rarity. The Kuching population seems to be comprised of three main groups: native people, Malays, and Chinese. Caucasians are called Gwei Los by the Cantonese-speaking Chinese and Mat Salleh by the Malays.

Finally, this evening, we had dinner at a seafood area near to our hotel. I ate fried fern fronds and various other local vegetarian dishes, which were all very tasty. I eat garlic quite a lot, and the locals here also make very enthusiastic use of it in their cooking.

Tomorrow, we are going to the Sarawak Cultural Centre, and hopefully I will have time to write about it in the evening. Don't forget that more pictures of my journey are online at my Flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28808691@N05