Gawai Dayak and Ngiling Bidai

Last Saturday 7^th July 2012 we had a hospital level Gawai open house celebration. Pauline was taking part in some pageant for the event as the operating room's representative, so she asked me whether I could go and take some photos.

This celebration marked the end of the Gawai celebrations. It started off at around 7 pm with some speeches etc. After that they invited some of the VIP’s for a Miring Ceremony. What this involved was all the important people sitting on a mat with a bowl of food (intended as an offering to the spirits) and poured tuak (what self respecting Iban wouldn’t have tuak eh?) into a saucer (miring). According to Kak Burak, in the longhouses the food and tuak would be placed on a banister for the duration of the celebration.

Miring Ceremony

Then there were a few dance performances especially Orang Ulu traditional dances and a sape performance. The sape player was apparently invited all the way from Belaga – up the Rajang river. He gladly obliged to come and perform at our hospital especially since his son in law was one of the staff. An interesting thing to note is the fact that his was in fact an electric sape! I didn’t even know such things existed. He didn’t do it, but it kept me wondering whether one could play a proper riff with an electric sape.

Of course this wouldn’t be Malaysia without food. There were several dishes but the most memorable ones had to be the bamboo chicken (manuk pansuh) and palm oil shoots (rebung sawit). The former, as the name suggests is chicken cooked in bamboo; much like a lemang. Tapioca leaves were placed inside the bamboo to seal the flavour in and the taste is amazing. It easily is the best chicken dish I’ve ever had. EVER! There was also fish pansuh and these tasted better but it was a shame there wasn’t as much of these as the chicken.

Rebung sawit

Manuk pansuh being poured from a bamboo

Rebung sawit tasted very much like bamboo shoots however they seemed to have a firmer texture and looked like boiled potatoes. The way they were prepared made them taste rather sweet. I must’ve had 3 plates of these things. They were THAT good.

These sorts of food made coming to Sarawak worth it.

I must’ve missed the early bits of the Kumang Dayak contest as I was too busy munching away but I did get photos that I was supposed to. The contest was much like a pageant, however contestants were judged mainly on their outfits rather than their looks. The most important criteria apparently was to have a complete set of gear depicting traditional Dayak costumes, be it Iban, Bidayuh, or Orang Ulu.

Various traditional gears of Sarawak. The ones with metal head dresses are Iban and the sleeveless ones with colourful non metal head dresses are the Orang Ulu traditional garments. The only one with a Bidayuh dress in this picture is the lady standing furthest to the right

The winner of the Kumang Dayak competition

The winner announced at the end was a lab technician (whose name I forgot) in an Iban dress (although she was actually Bidayuh – Sarawak’s ethnic diversity can be rather confusing sometimes). Pauline got second place. I thought they were all very colourful but the Iban traditional dress did look more extravagant.

Pauline is a Bidayuh 'dayung'

There was also a tuak competition (it wouldn’t be Gawai without tuak) whereby individuals submitted homemade brews for judging. The winner was a ward sister whose tuak was judged to be the best tasting with the best clarity. I later enquired whether it was normal for households to make their own alcoholic beverages and according to Abang Ngitar, one of the OT MA’s, it was. In fact he has a bottle which he made 8 years ago still unopened except to filter off sediments on a yearly basis.

At the end of the event, the VIP’s were invited to cut down goodies from a tree (not unlike a Christmas tree) signifying good harvest. After which the mat on which the Miring ceremony took place was rolled and walked over several times (Ngiling Bidai), symbolic of the end of a month long celebration.

Pua kumbu jackets and a long sword. Maybe I'll get one myself. The jacket I mean.

Sarawak is filled with such interesting cultural events and activities. Do come for a visit if you have the time.