Lun Bawang
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lun Bawang Lun Bawang |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total population | |||||||||
|
c. 38100 |
|||||||||
| Regions with significant populations | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Languages | |||||||||
| Lun Bawang; dialects include Trusan, Lun Daye, Papadi, Lun Dayah, Adang, Tabun, Treng, Kolur, Padas, Trusan & Lepu Potong | |||||||||
| Religions | |||||||||
| Predominantly Christianity, minorities are Islam and animist | |||||||||
| Related ethnic groups | |||||||||
| Kelabit, Lengilu, Putoh, Sa'ban & Tring |
The Lun Bawang is of a Dayak tribe found in Central Borneo. They are indigenous to the highlands of East Kalimantan, Brunei (Temburong District), southwest of Sabah (Interior Division) and northern region of Sarawak (Limbang Division). In the Malaysian state of Sarawak, the Lun Bawang are categorised under the Orang Ulu people; whilst in the neighbouring state of Sabah and Krayan valley in Kalimantan, they are more commonly known as Lundayeh or Lun Dayeh. At a regional level, the Lun Bawang people identified themselves using various names, for example Lun Lod, Lun Ba and Lu Tana Luun.
Lun Bawang people are traditionally agriculturalists and practise animal husbandry such as rearing poultry, pigs and buffaloes. Lun Bawangs are also known to be hunters and fishermen.
Contents |
[edit] Etymology
The word Lun Bawang means native/indigenous (Bawang) people (Lun), whilst Lun Dayeh means upriver (Dayeh) people and Lun Lod means people living downriver or near the sea.
While insisting that they never called themselves Murut, the Lun Bawangs are formerly identified as Murut by the British colonists and by outsiders (other ethnic group).[4] In the Lun Bawang's language, the term Murut either means 'to massage' or 'to give dowry'. Both meanings have no relation whatsoever to the identity of the people. The name Murut might have been derived from the word "Murud", a mountain located near an old Lun Bawang settlement, hence might have just meant 'mountain men' or 'hill people' but was instead used by the colonist to identify this ethnic.
In addition to that, ethnologist found that the classification under the name Murut is confusing as the term is used differently in Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei, that is whilst in Brunei and Sarawak it is used to describe the Lun Bawang people, in Sabah it is used to identify an ethnic group that is linguistically and culturally different from the Lun Bawangs. [5]
In Sarawak, the decision to replace the term 'Murut' to 'Lun Bawang' to identify this ethnic group was made unanimously by Lun Bawang community leaders, and this decision was published in the Sarawak Gazette.[6][7] In the early 1970s, the use of the term Lun Bawang began to gain popularity amongst ethnologist and linguist, and it is now the most commonly used term to identify this ethnic group.
[edit] Origin
The Lun Bawangs made up of one of the ethnic natives that occupied the Borneo Island for centuries. According to Tom Harrison (1959) and S. Runciman (1960), the Lun Bawang Community is one of the earlier settlers in the mountainous regions of central Borneo and they are related to the Kelabit tribe. It is said that their dialects have some similarities as this may be due to the fact that the Kelabits are also another tribe from the mountainous regions of central Borneo and the Lun Bawang dialect is of the Kelabitic lineage.
The Kelabit people, who has close similarity to the Lun Bawang people, maintain that Lun Bawang people were once Kelabit people who originally resides the Kerayan-Kelabit highland of Central Northeast Borneo. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, they gradually migrated to the low lands near today's Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei.
One theory suggests that the migration of the Lun Bawang people to the low lands and gradual spreading out is due to various waves of migration of Lun Bawang people from different clans. The migration of Lun Bawang people from one clan to a region already inhabited by another clan, causes the latter to move to another region, despite them having similar culture and language. The strong clan identity of the Lun Bawang people is shown by their common tradition of identifying themselves based on their village or geographical location, for example, 'Lun Adang' who once resides the Adang river basin or 'Lun Kemaloh' who comes from the Kemaloh river.
Another theory suggests that the Kelabitic people were once natives of old Brunei, but were pushed upriver into the highlands by the invading tribes such as Kayan, Kenyah and Iban people. The ones that remained downriver (Lun Bawang people) were isolated from the ones who migrated to the highlands (Kelabit), causing their culture and language to slightly diverged.
Sather (1972) however theorised that a similar occurrence happened in East Borneo (now East Kalimantan). The Lundayeh people were once farmers in the lowlands downstream of Malinau river, living closely with the Tidong people. However, attacks by Muslim raiders (Bugis and Tausug) probably in the 17th century, caused them to migrate to the Kerayan highlands, whilst the Tidung people converted to Islam. [8]
Nevertheless, these theories have yet to be proven and there are no substantial evidence to trace the origin of the Lun Bawang people or to prove any of these theories.
[edit] History
The earliest European written account of the Lun Bawang people is probably by Sir James Brooke in his journal written on December 24, 1850, where he described the oppression that the Lun Bawang (then called Murut Limbang) people faced by the Brunei tyrants, and where some had fought against this tyranny. [9] Prior to this jounal, James Brooke (and Henry Keppel) had also written briefly about the Lun Bawang (Murut) people in the book The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido For the Suppression of Piracy (1846), where the Murut people are known to be inhabitant of Borneo interior, and that the Murut and Dyak people had given place to Kayan people whenever they are in contact with each other. [10]
A more elaborate European account of the Lun Bawang people is by Spenser St. John in 1860, where he described the impoverished condition of the Lun Bawang (then called Murut Limbang) people under the rule of the Brunei Sultanate. He also gave account of the aborigines (Murut and Bisaya) rise to insurrection, however these rebellions were always suppressed by threat by the Brunei government to bring in Kayans to subdue the opposition.[11]
Spenser St.John also described the tyranny conducted by the Brunei aristocrats upon the Murut Limbang people, which include seizing their children to be sold as slaves if taxes were not paid, and on one occasion, when the Brunei capital were in a state of alarm by the marauding Kayan warriors, the Brunei aristocrat offered a whole Murut Limbang village to be pillaged, in return for the safety of the capital. [12]
[edit] Culture
The Lun Bawangs practice agriculture, and cultivate both rice on hill called tana luun and rice from paddy field called lati ba' . Traditionally, cooked rice is wrapped inside banana leaves and is called Nuba' Laya. Meat and fish are brined or pickled using salt and is stored in hollow bamboo stalk for a duration of a month and the pickled food is called telu' . Meat and fish are also preserved by smoking. Salt is obtained by evaporating brine from salt spring (lubang mein).
Cattles and buffaloes are bred for their meat, and can serve as a symbol of financial status. These animals are commonly used as dowry that are presented to the bride's family from the groom's side.
In the old days, the men wear jackets made of tree barks called kuyu talun. Cloth wrapped around the forehead is called sigar and loin cloth is called abpar. A long machete (pelepet) is tied to the waist, especially when it needs to be carried to tribal wars. As for the women, they wear pata on their head, beret on their waist, bane around the neck and gileng or pakel is worn as ornaments on their hands and wrists.
[edit] Language
The language spoken by the Lun Bawangs (or Lundayeh) belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch, with the classification: Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Northwest, North Sarawakan, Dayic, Kelabitic.
The Lun Bawangs called their language Buri Lun Bawang or Buri tau (our language).
[edit] Phonology
There are 6 vowels, 18 consonants and 5 diphthongs in the Lun Bawang language. [13] [14]
| Bilabial | Labio- Dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ng /ŋ/ | |||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p /p/ | b /b/ | t /t/ | d /d/ | k /k/ | g /g/ | /ʔ/ | |||||||||||
| Affricate | c /tʃ/ | |||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | s /s/ | /ɣ/ | h /h/ | |||||||||||||||
| Approximant | r /r/ | y /j/ | w /w/ | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral | l /l/ | |||||||||||||||||
| Height | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i /i/ | u /u/ | |
| Mid | e /e, ɛ/ | e /ə/ | o /o, ɔ/ |
| Open | a /a/ |
| Orthography | IPA |
|---|---|
| ai | /aɪ̯, ai/ |
| au | /aʊ̯, au/ |
| ia | /ia/ |
| ou | /ow/ |
| ui, oi | /ɔʏ/ |
[edit] Festivals and Celebration
Lun Bawang people celebrates Irau Aco Lun Bawang (Lun Bawang festival) annually on the first of June in Lawas, Sarawak. This festival is traditionally a celebration of the rice harvest, but now it showcases a variety of Lun Bawang culture and events such as Ruran Ulung (beauty pageant contest) and ngiup suling (bamboo musical instrument band).
[edit] Religion
Lun Bawangs were mostly animist before the 1920s. Under the rule of the White Rajahs in Sarawak, christian missionaries had more access to the Lun Bawang highlands and they also preached Christianity to the Lun Bawang people.
The majority of the Lun Bawangs are Christians, predominantly of the Borneo Evangelical Mission denomination. A small number are of other Christian denominations, such as True Jesus Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Roman Catholic Church, or of another religion, such as Islam and Buddhism.
[edit] References
- ^ Ethnologue report for language code:lnd
- ^ Ethnologue report for language code:lnd
- ^ Ethnologue report for language code:lnd
- ^ Borders of kinship and ethnicity: cross-border relations between the Kelalan Valley, Sarawak, and the Bawan Valley, East Kalimantan. - Free Online Library
- ^ Pelita Brunei - Sastera dan Budaya
- ^ Abdul Hakim Bujang 2002, 'Interpretation (Amendment) Bill: 'Sea Dayaks', 'Land Dayaks' will be dropped while Lun Bawang will no longer be classified as 'Muruts', Sarawak Tribune, 7 May, viewed 10 April 2008, <http://www.bidayuh.com/pressrel2002.htm#news17b>
- ^ http://www.karyanet.com.my/knet/ebook/preview/p_Masyarakat_Lun_Bawang_Sarawak_Suatu_Pengenalan.pdf
- ^ Cristina Eghenter, Bernard Sellato, G. Simon Devung 2003, 'Social Science Research and Conservation Management in the Interior of Borneo, Unraveling past and present interactions of people and forest' (page 25), CIFOR, WWF Indonesia, UNESCO and FORD foundation, viewed 10 April 2008,<http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/social_science/SocialScience-intro.pdf>
- ^ Henry Keppel, James Brooke 1853, 'A Visit to the Indian Archipelago in H.M. Ship Maeander: With Portions of the Private Journal of Sir James Brooke, K.C.B', Oswald Walters B. Brierly, R. Bentley, Harvard University, viewed 1 April 2008, <http://books.google.com/books?id=XXA2b_s1NAUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+Visit+to+the+Indian+Archipelago+in+H.M.+Ship+Maeander#PPP17,M1>
- ^ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22903/22903-8.txt
- ^ http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4401354.pdf
- ^ Spenser St. John, 1860, 'Life in the Forest of the Far East, Vol. II, Smith, Elder and Co, 65 Cornhill London, viewed 2 April 2008,<http://books.google.com/books?id=AXBCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPR3,M1>.
- ^ Pelita Brunei - Sastera dan Budaya
- ^ Pelita Brunei - Sastera dan Budaya
|
||||||||||||||||
