Many people are skeptical about the effectiveness of traditional Iban faith healers, shamans or medicine men locally known as ‘manang’.
Perceptively this is due to the changing longhouse environment whereby most youths and their parents have embraced Christianity, making this traditional healing method in glaring conflict with their belief as well as their conventional weltanschauung (a German word for world view).
However, there still exists a small portion of longhouse folks who still cling to the idea that a manang is preferable to modern medicines and healthcare.
Part of this choice has been attributed to failures of doctors in curing a member or members of their families. This has been reinforced by the fact that a ‘belian’ (curing or treatment) session with the medicine man phenomenally ended with the patient getting completely cured.
For example, in the recent case of my female relative from our Kedap longhouse in Saratok, she was reportedly brought to see no fewer than three private hospital doctors in Bintulu and later another doctor in a Sibu private medical centre where her children had to pay over RM500 for just one treatment session. All of these failed to cure their mother who, in a period of three months, suffered no less than 10 kilos of weight loss.
Her three children who are both gainfully employed then decided to look for an alternative and were told that one manang in Suri longhouse, near Debak town about 15km from Kedap was available for a reasonable fee.
Manang Tupa, in his 50s, was reportedly ‘sidi’ (has high percentage of success in curing patients). He was also said to be our distant relative as Suri in Rimbas (a tributary of Saribas River) was the birthplace of our ancestor Anya ‘Lebur Menua’, the pioneer of Kedap and Burui basins.
Tupa is among the last few of these shamans still around and actively practising healing using the traditional Iban way by performing a ‘belian’ (a chanting session in a sing-song pattern over a period of few hours with intervals in between).
During the ‘belian’ session performed by Tupa last April in Kedap for my cousin Endat (her pet name), 65, I was informed about it and made a quick and brief trip back home.
“This ‘belian’ is historic in a sense that it is the first to be held in our longhouse in as many years. Better for you to come and probably write about it later,” my elder brother Edward said to me on the phone in mid April.
During the ‘belian’ session we all gathered at the open gallery of Endat’s family. Her three children serving in Bintulu and Sibu were also around and were happy to see my presence.
According to Tupa, during his trance, Endat’s soul was high up among the tree tops which he managed to catch and return to her. So at the end of the “soul-catching session” during a trance the manang returned the caught soul to Endat by symbolically placing it on her forehead.
“Don’t worry, you will be cured,” he told Endat confidently. And now after more than seven months Endat is back to her old self and has reportedly regained her weight.
In the case involving me in 1966, an unexplained phenomenon occurred. The ‘belian’ performed by a very ‘sidi’ and experienced Manang Chundi (now deceased) was called ‘belian nampung seput’ (literally to increase one’s life span) – this was done following a dream by mom that I only had a few years to live.
So Manang Chundi, dad’s childhood friend, was tasked to perform the belian at our farmhouse further up the Melupa River above Kedap. Only a few people were in attendance at the event that started with me using my right thumb and middle finger to do a ‘jengkal’ (measure) on a special bamboo called ‘buluh bala’.
The ‘jengkal’ was marked by a 6B pencil on the bamboo and later put up high at the ceiling undisturbed. After some hours of the belian session, the bamboo with the pencil mark was taken by my brother in full view by everybody present.
When the ‘manang’ asked me to do the ‘jengkal’ again, it easily outdid the pencil mark by more than an inch, witnessed by all. In another word, it meant my life span was increased or made longer. Nevertheless, I consider such occurrence defies logic and still astounds me till now.
Earlier than Chundi, there was one weird ‘manang’ in Kedap. Manang Imong, also known as Apai Intih, whom I had no chance to encounter as he was no longer around when I arrived in this world, was said to have aqua phobia – he seldom bathed and tried to avoid crossing streams enroute to farms and orchards.
At night he used to go ‘hunting’ with the so-called giants or demons. He could and would tell whether their hunting trips bore any catch (meaning humans who would die for being the games caught in their hunting episodes).
According to his wife Indai Intih (I remember her quite vividly as our lives overlapped for at least ten years) their bed was always sandy because the husband never cleaned himself after his weird nocturnal ‘hunting’ activities.
There were also moments when he was very sad after coming back from the hunting trip as their caught game was somebody he knew – meaning that person would be dead soon. He would remain tight-lipped for days, Indai Intih reportedly told others.
Despite his weird character, most of the elders in my longhouse agreed that Imong was a ‘sidi’ manang.
Now that these ‘manang’ are on the edge of extinction, the ones with ‘sidi’ curing power like Imong, Chundi and Tupa will be forever remembered especially by patients and family members indebted to their healing services. Endat and family are among this group of believers.
