Dayak

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Young Dayak, 1920.

Dayak , alternatively also Dajak or Dyak , is a collective term for the indigenous population of the Southeast Asian island of Borneo . Dozens of different ethnic groups are counted among the Dayak, some of which differ greatly in language, culture and way of life.

etymology

The term Dayak probably comes from the word "daya". In Malay in Brunei , it means “inland”, which is how the Muslim Malays living on the coast described the ethnic groups in the interior who did not follow Islam. In the language of the Bidayuh , who are themselves counted among the Dayak, it means "human".

habitat

The Indonesian archipelago with Borneo in the center.

The settlement areas of the Dayak encompass the entire island of Borneo and are therefore in the national territory of the three states Brunei , Indonesia and Malaysia . The Dayak belong to the Austronesian peoples who came from the southern Chinese area since the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Populated Southeast Asia. Most of the Dayak ethnic groups speak their own languages; these usually belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family .

The Dayak include the following ethnic groups: Bidayuh , Kayan , Kelabit , Kenyah , Iban , Ngaju , Penan , Punan , Sihan .

Culture

There is no uniform Dayak culture, as it is a collective term that includes a number of different ethnic groups. Some Dayak tribes have been living as hunters and gatherers in the primary jungle in the interior of the island. These ethnic groups have little or no access to modern technology. Other tribes, on the other hand, live as sedentary rice or sago farmers on the banks of rivers. Today, however, many Dayak have given up their original way of life and lead a modern life in cities with a school education and broad access to modern technology.

For many of the sedentary peoples it was and is customary to live in long houses . A longhouse is a single large building that houses the entire village community including living, storage and work rooms. Such a longhouse can be several hundred meters long and accommodate dozens of families. In earlier times such longhouses were built exclusively from wood, often also in pile construction , but nowadays modern building materials such as concrete and corrugated iron are also used.

Two Kenyah with penis rods, around 1920.

In 19th century Europe, the Dayak became particularly well known because some of their tribes practiced the ritual of headhunting . Enemies killed in raids and battles were beheaded and the severed skull was then taken away as a war trophy. Since some Dayak groups were also active as pirates , this led to clashes with European colonial troops. In the reporting at the time, the Dayak were often portrayed as bloodthirsty savages. In contrast to reports to the contrary from then and in some cases later, cannibalism could never be proven among the Dayak . The sumpitan , a combination of spear and blowgun used to fire poison arrows, served as a hunting and war weapon . The poison of the Upas tree was deadly within seconds as soon as the skin was injured.

Body jewelry

Ear weights, before 1920.
Ear weight, before 1920.

The Dayak are also known for their body jewelry. For example, some ethnic groups have created special tattoo styles that are only widespread here and some of which have survived to this day. There was also a custom among some Dayak tribes for men to wear a penis stick ( palang ), which corresponds to the Ampallang piercing known in western culture . In women, earlobes that are heavily stretched with weights are typical.

Lirong woman with stretched earlobes.
Dayak man and woman

The tradition of lengthening the earlobes of both girls and boys with heavy weights or metal rings was practiced by the Iban, Kayan, Parks and Dayak Punan tribes. On the one hand, massive metal ear weights that hung on loop-like earlobes were used. For this purpose, iron weights were hung in the pierced earlobes in early childhood in order to slowly stretch the earlobes. The weights were gradually increased until the desired length was reached.

With the Kayan, the stretched earlobes were a sign of the dignity of the wearer. In villages of the upper Mahakam, the length was a sign of the age of the wearer, after another ring was added to the earlobe for each year of life. According to another view, the custom was an exercise in patience and the ability to suffer to bear the weights in the ears. In the opinion of John Cyprian Thambun Anyang, the tradition of the long ears served to identify the tribes. The long-eared tradition disappeared with the appearance of missionaries in the settlements during the Dutch colonial period and was not continued in Borneo in the post-war years. It presented itself as a social stigma , leading some to cut off their long earlobes because they didn't want to be considered old-fashioned. Only a rural minority of the Dayak continued the tradition of lengthening. The weights were called gasing , which is the Dayak word for top . They were cast hollow and made of bronze and brass .

religion

Originally, every Dayak people usually had their own animistic local religion , often with shamans and their own gods and customs. Since many Dayak converted to Christianity or Islam during the 20th century , and Christian and Muslim missionaries continue to operate among the animist Dayak, many of the original Dayak religions are marginalized and slowly dying out. Some Dayak groups who live on Indonesian territory and still cling to their traditional religion (such as the Ngaju ) call this Kaharingan today , which is officially regarded as a variant of Hinduism . This is necessary because the Indonesian government only tolerates so-called book religions , but most of the Dayak peoples had no script and so could not create any records of their respective religion.

In general, a tendency for a ritual revitalization of the indigenous animistic religions can be observed on Borneo, which leads to the spread of the popular religion Kaharingan, which contains Hindu elements.

literature

Web links

Commons : Dayak  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gomes, Edwin H. (1981 [1911]): Seventeen Years among the Sea Dayaks of Borneo, p. 33.
  2. ^ John O'Bryan: A History of Weapons: Crossbows, Caltrops, Catapults & Lots of Other Things that Can Seriously Mess You Up , p. 218, 2013, ISBN 9781452124209 .
  3. ^ See Herwig Zahorka: The "Palang" -Phenomenon and its Historic and Socio-Cultural Background in Southeast Asia. In: Tribus - Yearbook of the Linden Museum Stuttgart, Vol. 53, 2004, pp. 185–202
  4. ^ Margo McCutcheon: So Long! I'll Be Back In 30 Years: Three decades of life-changing encounters ...
  5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. http://diarymamoed.blogspot.com/2009/02/telinga-panjang-khas-suku-dayak .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.kompas.com
  6. ↑ Tradition Long Ears
  7. ↑ Long Ears ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pps.unud.ac.id
  8. ↑ DAYAK CULTURE
  9. ↑ adherents.com , accessed April 14, 2009.
  10. ^ Aubrey Belford: Borneo Tribe Practices Its Own Kind of Hinduism. In: The New York Times , September 25, 2011
  11. ^ Martin Baier: The Development of the Hindu Kaharingan Religion: A New Dayak Religion in Central Kalimantan. In: Anthropos , Volume 102, Issue 2, 2007, pp. 566-570.