History of Sarawak Cultural Villages

This post will basically show you guys about the history of :

(i) Orang Ulu Long House

(ii) Melanau Tall House

(iii) Bidayuh Long House

(iv) Iban Long House

(v) Malay Kampung House

(vi) Chinese Farm House

• Orang Ulu Long House

The term Orang Ulu is associated with the tribes living in the inaccessible interior regions of Sarawak rainforests. In fact, orang (means "people") and ulu (means "interior or up-river regions") is often useful to signify the "up-river dwellers" who often settle inthe middle and upper reaches of Sarawak's many great rivers.

Traditionally, an Orang Ulu Longhouse was built to last and many of these people practice settled agriculture, and have developed rice field irrigation to a fine art. This makes the search for new farmlands unnecessary. The solid ironwood houses are designed to last for many generations.

• Melanau Tall House

The Melanau people making up nearly 6% of Sarawak’s population, now mostly living in the central coastal region, were once more widely scattered. They traditionally lived near the sea within reach of pirates. As a means of protecting themselves, the Melanaus built massive houses forty feet above the ground.

The Melanaus is different from most other Borneo people such as in one important aspect they eat sago in preference to rice. Sago palms originally grew wild in the coastal swamps, and the Melanaus took it upon themselves to cultivate these plants. The ten-meter high palm trunk accumulates starch. It swells just before flowering indicating the right time for harvesting by felling.

The Melanau is also carves fetishes for good luck in fishing, effigies of those lost at sea, figurines for ritual burial, and other magical paraphernalia. In the past, they also create massive burial posts, usually for aristocrats. These consists of the Kelirieng(burial pole) and the Salong (burial hut). A kelirieng is made of a huge hardwood tree trunk, elaborately carved from top to bottom. It is hollowed at the top to place the jar containing the chief's bones. A heavy stone slab is surmounted on the top of the pole, the size of which is more than six feet in diameter and can be up to 32 feet tall above the ground.

• Bidayuh Long House

The Bidayuhs, known as the land Dayaks, account for more than 8% of Sarawak’s population, comprising of the Jagoi, Biatah, Bukar-Sadong, Selakau and Lara peoples of West Sarawak. They primarily live near the Sarawak and Sadong rivers. They built their houses in mountain fastnesses, tacked to a steep limestone hillside like a gigantic staircase. This was partly for protection against marauding enemies, partly for access to pure, fresh water.

The long house is actually pretty decent. The internals are quite similar to other longhouses you can find in the cultural village with the exception of an open-top sprawling veranda made of bamboo floors which I thought was quite nice.

The special of the longhouse is a demonstration of artistic bamboo and only special types of bamboo are suitable for this dying work of art. The finished bamboo products will certainly make excellent stationery holders or beautiful wall decorations.

• Iban Long House

The Iban race, once known as “Sea Dayaks”, built their longhouses to last fifteen to twenty years, or, until the farm land in the surrounding area was exhausted. Then they packed up their goods and chattels and moved inland, upriver, along the coast, wherever fresh farm lands looked promising.

A traditional longhouse is built of axe-hewn timber, tied with creeper fibre, roofed with leaf thatch. It is nearly always built by the bank of a navigable river, and the visitor approaches it from the boat jetty. The long covered gallery that runs the length of an Iban longhouse is called the Ruai. This is where guest are usually greeted.

Several doorways lead from the outer to the inner verandah under the roof. This is the village street of the longhouse; the individual family rooms or “doors” front the common walkway. A casual visitor is invited to sit down on a mat here for a chat with the longhouse elder; family members enter through their relatives' doors and make themselves at home.

• Malay Kampung Shot

The house of an urban Malay family is built of wood. The Brooke era introduced lofty ideas on columns, stucco, and indoor plumbing. From as early on as the 1860's, a few leading Malay families commissioned professional builders, often Chinese, to construct their stately homes; a few which may still be seen today in Jln. Ajibah Abol in Kuching. 

From the humblest to the highest, Malay houses share certain characteristics. They are built on stilts and a visitor approaching from the front comes up a staircase. This may be quite small, leading along from the front of house. It permits a stranger to wait until somebody welcomes.

The area designated for the men, official occasions and the entertainment of guests, is a front room taking up the width of the house. Windows cut down to floor level admits breeze for the seated people. Much artistic skill is lavished on the decoration of the stair and window railings, fascia boards under the eaves as well as the ventilation grills above or beside doorways.

• Chinese Farm House

Chinese farmers in Sarawak migrated to Sarawak in the early 1900s, at the invitation of the Rajah who wanted to build up a solid farming middle class. Many came, most stayed; one-third of the state's population is now Chinese.

Unlike local dwellings, the Chinese farm house is built at ground level. The house is divided into two main parts; the family room which contains the kitchen, eating and living area as well as a storage area for valuables such as bicycles or agricultural machinery, and the bedroom.

A focal point of the living area of the Sarawak Chinese house is the household altar. A print or statuette of the revered diety is placed here, before it are the joss sticks, candles, cups of tea and other offerings. The doorpost is also divinely protected via the application of strips of red paper with protection verses. 

Name            : Chong Yuin Han
ID                 : 1081102353
Responsibility : History of Sarawak Cultural Villages

(i) Description on the individual ideation of the link

This link is to ensure that the readers understand more about Sarawak Cultural Villages in different aspects. This is to provide better information about the past regarding each different long houses.



(ii) Objectives of the links

• for reader's better understanding about each long houses
• introduce reader some interesting historical places
• to ensure that the historical ethics are not forgotten

(iii) Design of GUI

(iv) Flowchart

References:

http://www.malaysiahotelreview.com/sarawak/destination/rumah-cina.shtmlhttp://www.malaysiahotelreview.com/sarawak/destination/rumah-iban.shtml
http://www.journeymalaysia.com/MCUL_bidayuh.htm

http://www.scv.com.my/melanau.asp

.