I AM THE BORNEO EXPLORER 婆罗洲探险者

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part six of Seven

My last stop is the Chinese people. When the Chinese first come to Sarawak most of them are farmer, they grow white paper, coco, and vegetables. The Chinese are very hardworking, and very good in doing business. So that’s why until today Chinese are still very calculative.

Chinese like red, red means good luck, and it can scare away the demons. Some of the Chinese did put antithetical couplet on both side of the main door, this is to hope to get a good fortune for the whole year. That day when I visit the cultural village, most of the door was lock. That includes this Chinese home, too bad.

Information on the Chinese culture

A very old style Chinese house

Couplet written in red paper, and stick on both side of the door. And in the middle the word “Fu” means Good Fortune, Blessing, or Happiness.

Shrine

The side view of the Shrine

This got nothing to do with the Chinese culture, I spot this when I’m on my way to the movie.

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part five of Seven

The Melanau village, some facts about them that I copy from the sign board.

The Melanau mainly living along the coast, between the Rajang and the Baram Rivers. They can be boardly sub-divided into a pagan, a Muslim and a Christian group. The Melanau are fearless fisherman and competent boad-builders. Their staple food is sago, the starch of a tall palm that can be grown in the brackish water of river. The villages look very much like the traditional Malay kampong found all over Sarawak. In the past, some Melanau built tall longhouses as a precaution against enemy attacks.

Their daily food is sago, the starch found in the pith of the sago palm. The tall palm is felled at the right stage of maturity. The trunks are floated to the village, stripped and split. The wedges of sago pith are rasped into a coarse, wet mash. The sago mash is pilled on strong mats over shallow troughs. Now it must be trodden to force the starch ino the containers below. Work usually done by women in riverside huts specially built for the purpose.

The starch is left to settle in the bottom of the troughs. Then the water is poured off, the thick starchy paste further drained, kneaded, and dried, into the rough “sago flour”. The product is further refined before it is processed into starch, glue, foodstuffs or condiments. Traditional Melanau sago products include dry pellets, grits, and several kinds of biscuits baked on clay hearths.

Information board on the Melanau people

Tall longhouse, to prevent the attack from enemy and dangerous animals.

This looks like a swing, and a training ground of some kind.

Jing and I went to visit the house, this is the path that lead us to the house

Here a close up look on the house, I can see that the wall is made from bark, there are two entrance, and a lot of windows

The Melanau people must be like swing, as there is another swing on the house.

This is like a traditional dance, two person squat on each end of the bamboo, hold on both end, simultaneously place the bamboo left, right, left, right.... And a dancer will be dancing in the middle while preventing her feet from being clip by the bamboo.

After that we visit their kitchen to see how they made the delicious sago

But unfortunately no one was at the kitchen

I got in to the kitchen and snap a few shoots.

Found out that the clay hearths are still very hot. It looks like they had just finish backing a sago cake.

This might be the tools that they use to get sago from the sago palm

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part four of Seven

Next is the Orang Ulu (upriver people). These people are also found in adjacent Kalimantan, Indonesia. In Sarawak, the Orang Ulu accounts for 5.3% of the population. Formerly animists, but now many Orang Ulu had converts to Christians.

Most of the Ulu people had tattoo on the back. According to traditional this signified that he had taken a head. They believed that a tattoo would serve as a torch in the underworld. They like to tattoo almost all their bodies, with design variously know as “dragon”, “scorpion”, “dog”, or ornamental scroll work. Women usually confined themselves to simple wrist or hand decorations.

The Ulu people are among the most skilled wood carvers in Sarawak. They embellished their houses, boats, tools, musical instruments, and personal ornaments with various kinds of designs. A sculpture called the “dragon dog” with along snout, curling fangs and horns, and bulging eyes plays an important part in the traditional religion for the Ulu people. It is also been used as a tattooing design.

Signboard in front of the Ulu People house

This is the house of the Ulu people, is build in the middle of a small hill.

The house was support by few very long trunk. It holds the house solidly, and serve as a foundation of the house

They painted the trunk with traditional Ulu people tattoo design.

Carve wood statue

They even carved the floor.

The Ulu house

The wall been painted with their own unique design

A view from the corridor of the Ulu house.

Musical instruments made from wood, and if you hit the wood from left to right (long to short) the tone is Do Re Mi Fa So...I’m impress!!!

Another wooden instruments

The back of the house.

The surrounding of the house are trees, so I can’t get a clear shot on the house.

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part three of Seven

Next stop is the Penan, here is some fact about the Penan people.

The Penan are forests nomads living in the Miri and Kapit Divisions. Some have settled near longhuorse in these areas, engaging in barter trade and sometimes working for the settlers. Majority of Penan countinues to live as nomads. They construct temporary shelters of saplings, palm leaf and tree bark near food sources. They abandon a shelter because the food had run out, or because of a death in the family group.

The Penan are skilled at making and using blowpipes and forging swords. Their women folk make beautiful baskets and mats; all these handicrafts are used to barter for their frugal needs: salt, cloth and tobacco. The Penans are skillful trackers and hunters. They live on game and fish and forest plants. Their staple food is wild sago. The State Government’s policy is to persuade the nomadic Penans to settle down. School and longhouses have been build to induce them to settle permanently.

Signboard lead to the Penan house

From the outlook of the house, can tell they live a thrifty and simple life

The blowpipe shooting range, visitor can try blowpipe shooting here. Three darts for RM1.00

A close up on the Penan people bed.

I’m not sure what is this use for, there is a tree trunk ladder link to second floor. and there is a string attach from the roof to the ground.

This is the squirrel and snake skin, it may be killed by the blowing pipe.

Another blowpipe shooting range, with RM1.00 for three darts.

Photo of Jing and Wilson (Me) at the Penan hut

There’s a beautiful lake near the Penan hut

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part two of Seven

Next stop is the Iban house, Iban live in all areas of Sarawak. Many of the Iban live in a longhouse, in a longhouse it can reach 50 or more rooms, each with different family, all live under one roof.