A family has its own rituals and its own superstitions.
Tea Obreh, American novelist
On Sept 16, 1995, I witnessed an ancient religious ceremony separating the natives of Belaga from the spirits of their ancestors.
Called “Pela Daleh”, it was practised by the Kayan who invaded one of Sarawak’s largest districts bordering Dutch Kalimantan 200 years ago.
In the days when headhunting was a way of life, the powerful Kayan spared no one, pushing the local indigenous Kajang community down past the Bakun rapids.
I witnessed the symbolic drinking of “human blood” by shamans possessed by the spirit of the female deity of Bungan Malan.
On that historic noon on Malaysia Day, 27 years ago, four of the most powerful Dayong gathered at the highest point of the lofty Ulu Balui mountains over-looking Borneo’s inaccessible virgin forests measuring 19,000 sq km or the size of Perak.
Historic because in 1863, Charles Brooke and 12,000 Sea Dayak conquered Bakun rapids, described as the “greatest obstacle beyond the Kayan confines”.
On a hot and stifling day after a copious amount of borak rice beer, shaman Anyie Awing took the lead facing the altar — a 20-foot high Belawing Urip pole.
Holding a chicken egg high up and facing the sky, he invoked the spirits to join the congregation of about 200 people.
Eight pigs were mounted on a wooden platform and slaughtered and four heads, depicting that of the human enemy, hung on four Bunga Jarau sticks adorning the altar.
After the incantations, chief Dayong Kebing Aran cut the jugular of a 500lb cow and drank a mugful of blood.
Almost immediately, Kebing went into a trance as a crescendo of lilting “Lalo” voices of Orang Ulu participants burst forth.
With bloody lips and glazed eyes, the elderly Kebing, armed with a sword, performed headhunter’s war dance.
Next, Ake Lidak drank the bright red sanguine fluid and was also possessed and the duo danced twirling their “parang ilang” dangerously close to us, prompting paramount chief Temenggong Talek Lisut to order the crowd to retreat.
From the Kajang community and a Lahanan aristocrat, Talek was one of the original Kajang — an ethnic homogenous group of 24 tribes from the upper Rajang who were forced to adopt the Kayan culture and way of life.
Even though Brooke crushed the Kayan in the Great Kayan expedition in 1863, they continued to dominate almost every aspect from culture, business and war well into the 20th century.
With the formation of Malaysia and in the first state election in 1969, aristocrat Datuk Nyipa Bato won the Belaga seat beating the first Kayan Batu Lintang graduate teacher from Long Linau Datuk Tajang Laing.
Rising to become a Sarawak cabinet minister, Nyipa who was also Orang Ulu National Association (OUNA) president, stayed for 10 years but lost to Tajang in 1979.
Since the 2000s, the government of former Chief Minister Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who has Kajang ancestry, promoted minorities such as the Sekapan and Kejaman to hold the posts of “Pemanca” and “Penghulu”.
During the grand Pela ceremony of 1995, Uma Juman Lahanan headman Bit Nyipa said that the Pela Daleh Yuong Hangei was held on a hill which they have named after the famous Bakun dam.
“The cleansing rites were necessary to appease the spirits of the land and rivers and the eight pigs symbolised the highest respect to the deities.
“It was important to hold a large Pela because our ancestral graves and the home of the spirits will be drowned. It was to ensure that in the process of building the dam no one will be hurt, that we will prosper after we are resettled.”
I spoke to Kayan chieftain Avun Imang from Long Murum where Belaga’s third dam was built in 2008 who said he was the last generation of Bungan worshippers.
“We accept the changes as part of my community’s journey after we became Christians. It’s just sad that after we are gone, the art of communicating with the spirits will be lost forever.”
It is significant to note that among the important guests at the Pela Daleh was Sarawak’s deputy chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu, Sarawak’s first Iban state secretary Tan Sri Gerunsin Lembat, Kapit Temenggong Jinggut Atan from Nanga Mujong, Temenggong Kenneth Kanyan from Entawau, seven “Kapitan China” community heads and penghulus from all the other communities.
One of the few VIPs invited to the event was founder of Gawai Dayak in 1965, Datuk Tra Zehnder, the president of the council of native customs and traditions. She and Jabu concurred that the Bungan practitioners were pleased with the outcome.
Even though it was the end of an era for the old folk, it would be new beginning for many of the young Asap-Koyan settlers, a township which has grown from 5,000 to 20,000.
Jabu, who is a staunch supporter of Sarawak’s Dayak naïve institutions, said to commemorate the occasion, the government would establish an Orang Ulu Museum at the Asap-Koyan.
Plans were also made to turn the Pela Daleh site into a garden called “Taman Kelevan Urip” or Garden of the Tree of Life.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune
