Iban Longhouse Life II
Daily communal life at this traditional Iban longhouse or Rumah Panjang converges around an elongated wooden veranda that serves as an open social area and meeting space.
The longhouse is naturally positioned along a remote rainforest stream about a half day's jungle trek from Kapit, a small riverine supply town that caters to the many Iban and Orang Ulu longhouse communities in the upper Rajang River region of Sarawak (East Malaysia, Borneo).
The wooden longhouse structure and adjoining veranda are raised on tall stilts with separate family apartments sectioned off on the left side of the housing edifice. Notched logs are used as ladders leading up from the stream to the longhouse veranda.
Few traditional wooden longhouses of this kind remain today. Most longhouses are now made from concrete and milled timber with access to electricity, satellite TV, and the perennial corrugated tin roof.
Traditional hand-tapped Iban tattoos on the headman's back are seen as having magical protective powers.
Digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, circa 1973.
~~~
Postscript - The modern era of fast travel and organized tourism now prevail in the region. Today, the upper Rejang riverine region can be reached overland by taxi or bus, also by air on cheap Expedia tourist flights. Express boats with air-conditioning and cushioned first-class passenger seating ply the Batang Rejang daily, cutting longboat travel time from Kapit further north to Belaga by a day or more.
Organized package tours to the longhouses flourish as up-to-the-minute smartphones and credit cards dictate the modern travel experience.
Accelerated contact with the outside world has also contributed to sweeping social changes and a gradual erosion of the region's original charm.
While the legendary warmth and hospitality of the Iban longhouse communities persist, much of the mystery and serendipity of independent travel to this remote region deep in the heart of Borneo is sadly on the wane.
~~~
Context - Around the time this photo was taken (1973), a robust ethnic Chinese-dominated communist insurgency was fully underway in the region. Malaysia's postcolonial government was about to launch an ambitious counter-insurgency operation.
Government agents would travel upriver on longboats or by foot through dense tropical rainforests to remote riverine settlements and indigenous longhouses “to explain” why it was in their interest to support the government in the renewed anti-communist insurgency campaign.
The campaign appeared to have been effective at the time because the Malaysian government soon scored a major victory with the surrender of a key insurgent leader, Bong Kee Chok, along with about 500 of his supporters. With the subsequent capture or surrender of other members in the movement, communist activities in the Rajah river basin began to subside.
The communist movement of Sarawak finally ended in 1990 with a signed peace accord that coincided with the final collapse of Communist Bloc support and the end to the larger global Cold War.
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.
Iban Longhouse Life II
Daily communal life at this traditional Iban longhouse or Rumah Panjang converges around an elongated wooden veranda that serves as an open social area and meeting space.
The longhouse is naturally positioned along a remote rainforest stream about a half day's jungle trek from Kapit, a small riverine supply town that caters to the many Iban and Orang Ulu longhouse communities in the upper Rajang River region of Sarawak (East Malaysia, Borneo).
The wooden longhouse structure and adjoining veranda are raised on tall stilts with separate family apartments sectioned off on the left side of the housing edifice. Notched logs are used as ladders leading up from the stream to the longhouse veranda.
Few traditional wooden longhouses of this kind remain today. Most longhouses are now made from concrete and milled timber with access to electricity, satellite TV, and the perennial corrugated tin roof.
Traditional hand-tapped Iban tattoos on the headman's back are seen as having magical protective powers.
Digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, circa 1973.
~~~
Postscript - The modern era of fast travel and organized tourism now prevail in the region. Today, the upper Rejang riverine region can be reached overland by taxi or bus, also by air on cheap Expedia tourist flights. Express boats with air-conditioning and cushioned first-class passenger seating ply the Batang Rejang daily, cutting longboat travel time from Kapit further north to Belaga by a day or more.
Organized package tours to the longhouses flourish as up-to-the-minute smartphones and credit cards dictate the modern travel experience.
Accelerated contact with the outside world has also contributed to sweeping social changes and a gradual erosion of the region's original charm.
While the legendary warmth and hospitality of the Iban longhouse communities persist, much of the mystery and serendipity of independent travel to this remote region deep in the heart of Borneo is sadly on the wane.
~~~
Context - Around the time this photo was taken (1973), a robust ethnic Chinese-dominated communist insurgency was fully underway in the region. Malaysia's postcolonial government was about to launch an ambitious counter-insurgency operation.
Government agents would travel upriver on longboats or by foot through dense tropical rainforests to remote riverine settlements and indigenous longhouses “to explain” why it was in their interest to support the government in the renewed anti-communist insurgency campaign.
The campaign appeared to have been effective at the time because the Malaysian government soon scored a major victory with the surrender of a key insurgent leader, Bong Kee Chok, along with about 500 of his supporters. With the subsequent capture or surrender of other members in the movement, communist activities in the Rajah river basin began to subside.
The communist movement of Sarawak finally ended in 1990 with a signed peace accord that coincided with the final collapse of Communist Bloc support and the end to the larger global Cold War.
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.