After travelling all of this way, it's time to go tribal. Alright, so maybe tribal light. I mean, we are #badbackpackers.
Borneo is made up of several different types of tribes. Most of these tribes still live in their traditional housing structure - the longhouse. Although each tribe builds their longhouse in a different way, all longhouses have a central area, which is a bit like a main street where everybody goes to congregate, celebrate, and chat. The main area has several individual family's "apartments" attached to it. Everything is under one singular roof.
However, other than that, most of the people who belong to those tribes live in a modern way. They only whip out the traditional clothes, food, and music for festivals and when tourists come to visit the longhouse or to stay overnight.
We had a choice for our tribal experience. Do we go to the actual longhouse and experience the 'show' the villages puts on for us or do we go to a place near Kuching called Sarawak Cultural Village, which displays all of the different tribes' long houses and is having an open house event for Gawai Dayak?
We decided to go to Sarawak Cultural Village. We figured we'd rather see more variations of the different tribes' customs, longhouses, costumes, and food, which we could only get from Sarawak Cultural Village. We also figured that the longhouse visit was a bit of a show rather than an authentic experience, so if we are going for a show, then let's go large or go home!
It was really cool. It's a bit like Iowa's Living History Farms, obviously in a much cooler, Malaysian, Borneo tribal way. They set up some odd 8 different tribes longhouses, all of which had been transferred from each actual tribal village. Each tribes' longhouse was set up in a traditional way, including traditional artifacts, clothing, decorations, and games. Inside each one was a cultural interpreter, dressed in the clothing of that particular longhouse tribe (although not necessarily of that people - although all were from one tribe or another) who walked you through the stories, set up, and any unique things particular about the tribe.
We got to see how sago is made. We learned all about the weird delicacy of preparing swallows' egg nests for consumption. We saw the blowpipe stand (although we are both still irritated that after circling that stand multiple times, the guy wasn't there to let us try blowing the blowpipe).
Plus, as it's Gawai Dayak, 3 of the longhouses were having an open house. The open house included people dressed in the unique costumes of that tribe, playing musical instruments and doing traditional welcome dances, and there was lots of jungle food! We had bamboo chicken and jungle leaf (which was a bit like kale meets spinach).
Each longhouse was really quite different. One was even a tall house, which was built on stilts at least 3 stories off of the ground. Another was more cylindrical in shape.
To top it all off, they had a dance show in a theatre area to showcase various tribes' dances. One tribe has a funeral dance that involves the men banging 2 meter-tall wooden poles on the ground and ultimately having one of them men climb on the top of an even larger pole, balance on his belly, and be spun around by the others. Another tribe has a whole dance around hunting, ending in him actually shooting a blowpipe and then inviting an audience member up to give it a try (I was not selected despite secretly hoping and dreading that I would be selected).
Was it authentic? It was authentic enough for us. We don't think we'd have gotten much more out of going to a real longhouse. We really enjoyed it!
Was it something worth coming to Kuching for? Maybe not. Let's see how the orangutans work out tomorrow.
Borneo is made up of several different types of tribes. Most of these tribes still live in their traditional housing structure - the longhouse. Although each tribe builds their longhouse in a different way, all longhouses have a central area, which is a bit like a main street where everybody goes to congregate, celebrate, and chat. The main area has several individual family's "apartments" attached to it. Everything is under one singular roof.
However, other than that, most of the people who belong to those tribes live in a modern way. They only whip out the traditional clothes, food, and music for festivals and when tourists come to visit the longhouse or to stay overnight.
We had a choice for our tribal experience. Do we go to the actual longhouse and experience the 'show' the villages puts on for us or do we go to a place near Kuching called Sarawak Cultural Village, which displays all of the different tribes' long houses and is having an open house event for Gawai Dayak?
We decided to go to Sarawak Cultural Village. We figured we'd rather see more variations of the different tribes' customs, longhouses, costumes, and food, which we could only get from Sarawak Cultural Village. We also figured that the longhouse visit was a bit of a show rather than an authentic experience, so if we are going for a show, then let's go large or go home!
It was really cool. It's a bit like Iowa's Living History Farms, obviously in a much cooler, Malaysian, Borneo tribal way. They set up some odd 8 different tribes longhouses, all of which had been transferred from each actual tribal village. Each tribes' longhouse was set up in a traditional way, including traditional artifacts, clothing, decorations, and games. Inside each one was a cultural interpreter, dressed in the clothing of that particular longhouse tribe (although not necessarily of that people - although all were from one tribe or another) who walked you through the stories, set up, and any unique things particular about the tribe.
We got to see how sago is made. We learned all about the weird delicacy of preparing swallows' egg nests for consumption. We saw the blowpipe stand (although we are both still irritated that after circling that stand multiple times, the guy wasn't there to let us try blowing the blowpipe).
Plus, as it's Gawai Dayak, 3 of the longhouses were having an open house. The open house included people dressed in the unique costumes of that tribe, playing musical instruments and doing traditional welcome dances, and there was lots of jungle food! We had bamboo chicken and jungle leaf (which was a bit like kale meets spinach).
Each longhouse was really quite different. One was even a tall house, which was built on stilts at least 3 stories off of the ground. Another was more cylindrical in shape.
To top it all off, they had a dance show in a theatre area to showcase various tribes' dances. One tribe has a funeral dance that involves the men banging 2 meter-tall wooden poles on the ground and ultimately having one of them men climb on the top of an even larger pole, balance on his belly, and be spun around by the others. Another tribe has a whole dance around hunting, ending in him actually shooting a blowpipe and then inviting an audience member up to give it a try (I was not selected despite secretly hoping and dreading that I would be selected).
Was it authentic? It was authentic enough for us. We don't think we'd have gotten much more out of going to a real longhouse. We really enjoyed it!
Was it something worth coming to Kuching for? Maybe not. Let's see how the orangutans work out tomorrow.
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