Heritage Snippets of Sarawak
By Monica Janowski
Tales from the Heart of Borneo
This is the third of a four-part series titled ‘Tales from the Heart of Borneo’. The other parts can be read here, here and here.
BEFORE they adopted Christianity from the middle of the twentieth century onwards, the closely related Lundayeh and Kelabit people of the highland area in the part of Borneo that is now known as the ‘Heart of Borneo’ were, like other people living in the interior of Borneo, animists. They respected and related closely to the spirits— ada’—inhabiting the natural environment in which they lived. They relied entirely on that natural environment, and a good relationship with the spirits was essential both in order to ensure both that humans had enough to eat and that they remained safe. The most important of these spirits was the Great Spirit—the Ada’ Rayeh or Derayeh.
Nowadays the Kelabit and Lundayeh belong to the SIB church, a charismatic and evangelical church that regards all nature spirits as seitan—devils. In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I lived in the southern part of the Kelabit Highlands, however, anyone over 35 had grown up as an animist, and some were willing to speak about the beliefs and practices with which they had grown up. One of these was the late Balang Pelaba, born in about 1920, who in his youth had had a friendship with the Great Spirit. I have also had conversations in more recent years with Kelabit and Lundayeh who have had occasional encounters with avatars of the Great Spirit.
Although they say that they no longer interact with the spirits of nature, Kelabit and Lundayeh still believe that the spirits are present. Co-existing with the material world, there is, they say, a parallel spirit world, which contains more cosmic power or life force—lalud (see my article for the DayakDaily ‘Stone and cosmic power in the highlands’). The spirit world exists in the same space as the material world, but is not perceived in the same way. Rather than seeing the spirit world with your eyes (ne’ar), you perceive it through what can be described as whole-body perception (kelit). One can kelit (to be aware of, to perceive) spirits but not ne’ar them (to see them with the eyes). Until the 1960s/1970s, spirit mediums (dayong) were able to kelit this spirit world and entered it to cure the sick, retrieving their ada’, which had strayed into it.
There was not, it is said, always such a clear boundary between the spirit and the material world. There was a time long ago described as a time of getoman lalud (‘linking to lalud’—cosmic power) when the boundary was much more porous. At that time, the ancestors of the Kelabit and Lundayeh were more regularly in contact with spirits and had more of the lalud now associated with the spirit world. Powerful heroes living at this time, such as Tuked Rini and Upai Semaring (see my article ‘Tuked Rini Cosmic Traveller: A Kelabit Culture Hero‘ and article for the DayakDaily ‘Upai Semaring/I-Pai Samar Yang and Awang Semaun: Culture Heroes linking the Lundayeh and the Brunei Royal House‘), are said to have been ‘partly children of Derayeh, partly children of humans’ (opa-opa anak Derayeh, opa- opa anak lemulun). This meant that they were only partially visible, perhaps because they flickered back and forth between the material and the spirit world.
At the apex and origin point of the cosmos was the Great Spirit, the ultimate and continuing source of life force and cosmic power—lalud. The Great Spirit was both male and female—in the context of rice-growing she was female and was described as Derayeh, and it was women who carried out rituals to Derayeh to ensure a good harvest; while in the context of forest activities he was male and was described as the Ada’ Rayeh, and men prayed to him for success in hunting. People would also pray to Derayeh in situations of crisis and ill health, and the term ‘Derayeh nok ngimat’—‘Derayeh who holds/supports’) was used in prayers.
The Great Spirit as the male Ada’ Rayeh is associated with high mountains and big forest, and with nature in general. Among the Kelabit and Lundayeh, it is men who venture into the natural world, into the forest beyond the cultivated areas dominated by rice. In the natural world, the Great Spirit occasionally manifests himself to men, even nowadays.
Among the Lundayeh, the Great Spirit has manifested as an old man and as a kamekar dragon (see my article for the DayakDaily ‘Nooh Dawa and the Dragon as Great Spirit: A Lundayeh Tale‘).
Among the Kelabit, the Great Spirit manifests to humans as Pun Tumid—Grandfather Heel. Pun Tumid is said to have once been a man called Pun Ngera’, belonging to a race that came before the Kelabit themselves—the Lun Rabada. Pun Ngera’s heels were twisted round in a rock fall so that his feet faced backwards, and he became the spirit Pun Tumid—in the spirit world, things are inverted.
As a spirit, Pun Tumid is an avatar of the Great Spirit. He appears to people who venture into the forest and he imposes certain behavioural rules—for example, one must not dry clothes by a fire in the forest, and one must not throw orange peel into the fire.
In animist times, young Kelabit men sometimes became friends with Pun Tumid. The late Balang Pelaba, my neighbour in the longhouse in Pa’ Dalih in the 1980s and 1990s, was a friend of Pun Tumid’s. Balang Pelaba told me that Pun Tumid would come and call to him to come out and meet him in the forest, and that he gave him tabat—powerful substances that could kill and cure.
People say that Pun Tumid can still be heard calling his dogs in the forest, and handprints and footprints made by Pun Tumid are sometimes encountered. I have been present when handprints were found, and in 2013 a sighting of Pun Tumid’s footprints led to a lively and excited conversation among Kelabit on Facebook, which has recently (February 2024) been revived. This conversation seems to indicate that there is a growing sense that a relationship with the spirits of nature, and specifically the Great Spirit, may be worth considering. This is something suggested explicitly by one Kelabit, Balang Nadun, who participated in the conversation about Pun Tumid. Balang Nadun publishes poetry on social media under the name of Maya Green (maya’ means ‟follow” in Kelabit, and so this name can be translated as Follow Green). Here is an extract from one of his poems:
Do you know Pun Tumid?
The Great Spirit of the big forest
Dear spirit, as he is our relative.
Dr Monica Janowski is a social anthropologist who has been doing research in Sarawak since 1986. She has published many articles and books, including Tuked Rini, Cosmic Traveller: Life and Legend in the Heart of Borneo (NIAS Press and Sarawak Museum, 2014). She began researching Borneo dragon stories and legends in 2017. She is currently Curator of the SE Asia Museum at the University of Hull.
“Heritage Snippets of Sarawak” is a fortnightly column.
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