Saturday October 24, 2009
Berawan taboos & beliefs
By PHILIP HII
The Loagan Bunut Lake, though beautiful, is haunted, claims the Berawan tribe.
Legends and taboos still affect the everyday life of many Berawan people living around the Loagan Bunut Lake in Baram, Miri, Sarawak.
One of the most common taboos is the prohibition from wearing anything red when visiting the lake so as not to offend the spirits of the lake. But nobody seems to know why the spirits hate red.
Lakeside homes in Baram. The Berawan, a sub-group of the Kenyah, is one of the 26 different ethnic groups living in Sarawak. They are a minority living mainly in scattered longhouses in the Long Lapok-Tinjar-Long Teru regions of the middle and upper Baram, Miri division.
The scenic lake is located at the centre of the 10,736ha Loagan Bunut National Park. At 650ha, the freshwater lake is the largest natural lake in Sarawak. The area was gazetted as a national park in 1990.
Visitors can access the park either by travelling five to six hours up the Baram River until Long Lama and then taking a 30-minute car ride, southeast of Miri on the Pan-Borneo Highway and turning left into the Long Lapok-Long Lama trunk road at KM53. This section, 67km of mainly unsealed road and congested with 4WDs and lorries, takes an arduous three hours to navigate.
The affable Jarin Luta. “The government still allows those of us who have traditionally stayed near the lake to continue fishing there. Outsiders are prohibited,” said Jarin Luta, 61, my longboat driver.
Jarin’s 27-door longhouse, Rumah Loagan Bunut, is near the national park office. He worked for many years on a tug boat in Miri but decided to return home in 2000 to become a longboat driver for tourists. His wife runs the only canteen inside the park office.
“I strictly follow the rates set by the park. I do not overcharge anyone,” said Jarin who was doubtful if the lake was deep enough for a tour.
However, he promised to check. The water level in the lake, fed by Sungai Bunut, Sungai Tinjir and Sungai Baram, is subject to seasonal fluctuations. Traditionally, it is lowest in February, May and June. During the prolonged dry spell, parts of the lake become expanses of dry cracked mud that people can walk on.
“But the weather has changed drastically over the past decade with the large-scale oil palm plantation and deforestation going on in the region,” Jarin noted.
The Berawan (above) living around Loagan Bunut believe the lake (below) is haunted. — PHILIP HII “Don’t wear anything red, not even your underpants, when going out to the lake tomorrow. And also do not talk about anything unpleasant during the journey,” he cautioned, promising to explain the next day.
Our group of three were the only visitors, and judging from the spiderwebs and dust in the hostel, we concluded that not many people have visited in a while.
The night was long and not very comfortable as the generator shuts down at 10pm, killing the ceiling fans that kept stuffiness at bay.
Jarin appeared during breakfast with good news — the lake cruise was on. We urged him to join us for breakfast and tell us more about the taboos.
“Three years ago, a group of university students defied my advice not to wear red,” Jarin recalled.
“It was a fine day but as soon as the boat reached the lake, a strong wind started blowing, and the sky was darkened by this big swarm of bees flying overhead. Every one panicked, and I immediately decided to return to shore,” said Jarin.
We boarded the long boat at a jetty near the park’s staff quarters. A small river about 1km long led us to the open lake. The water was muddy and brownish. A survey conducted by researchers a few years ago uncovered that the sediment accumulating in the lake was increasing so rapidly that the lake may disappear within the century.
More than 90% of the total area of the park is covered by swamp forest and mixed dipterocarp forest. However, large tracts of these were logged before they were gazetted as a national park in 1991.
There are a few salt licks around the lake, attracting animals such as the bearded pig, barking deer, mouse deer, gibbon, giant squirrel, palm civet, long-tailed macaque and black-banded langur. Many bird species can be found here including egrets, herons, darters, bitterns, swallows, eagles and storks.
We stopped at one of the dilapidated huts built over floating logs to chat with a fishing family. This shy Berawan family told us the hut served as a temporary shelter whenever they fished here.
Later we stopped at a small island called Pulau Tengah which, according to Jarin, was the ancient burial ground of five noble Berawan families dating back at least two centuries. Pointing to a hill opposite the island, Jarin said he once saw a pair of white chickens on the slope.
“When I got nearer, they just disappeared,” said Jarin, who explained that the Berawans believe these were sacred animals that only very lucky people could glimpse once in a lifetime.
The Berawans also call the place Hill of Prayer because they used to come here to pray at least once a year.
“That tradition of coming to pray at the hill is vanishing. Although some older people still come,” Jarin said.
We had cruised half of the lake and then headed towards a small river to visit two Salong — ancient burial poles made of belian hardwood. We saw that dense undergrowth and trees had overtaken the two burial poles, and the hut which used to hold the remains of an aristocratic couple exiled from Brunei had long since disappeared.
Our cruise soon came to an end, and we were disappointed not to have come across any fisherman at work on the traditional selembu, the Berawan’s version of the liftnet. It was not yet the fishing season.
Next, we visited Rumah Loagan Bunut again to meet up with an old Berawan couple Kumbang Lawai, 76 and his wife Teleng Ajang, 73. Kumbang’s father, Penghulu Lawai, was an influential leader of more than 20 longhouses in the upper Baram areas in the 1950s and 1960s.
“Our ancestors were the original people of Loagan Bunut. The Brooke regime, under Rajah Charles Brooke, chased them upriver to Long Teru over 120 years ago,” Kumbang Lawai said.
According to his wife Teleng, there were several legends to how Loagan Bunut Lake was created.
“In ancient times, two brothers wanted to go to war to fight their enemy. They enlisted the help of the animals in the forests to help them build the war boats. But once the boats were made, they could not move them out to the rivers,” Teleng said.
The two brothers then instructed the animals to stomp on the ground and move in circles until the land sank deep enough to form a lake. From the lake, the huge war party managed to proceed up the Tinjir River. But tragedy befell them when they reached Bukit Terikan when the whole party was mysteriously turned into stone.
“You can still see these stones which resemble long boats and humans on Bukit Terikan in Ulu Tinjir today,” Teleng said.
She added that the Berawan people learned a painful lesson after this failed adventure and thereafter have always remained a loving and peaceful tribe. Most of the villagers living around Loagan Bunut believe that the lake is haunted.
“The spirits are in many different forms and shapes. I once saw them like round eyes which could fly,” Kumbang said.
“We respected them and nothing bad happened to us. But we were frightened,” he added.
Despite the lake’s beauty and legends, not many people are drawn to the park. Records from the park office show that in some months there are fewer than 50 visitors.
“The very bad road condition deters tourists from coming here,” Jarin said, pointing out how parts of the road are prone to floods, making them impassable.
“Most politicians only visit us during election time when they promise us many projects. But only some of these will materialise. Development has been very slow here,” Jarin complained
While I agreed that the road needed improving, I also thought the park could improve its services and provide up-to-date contact information. A few days before my departure to the lake, I called up several numbers listed on its website, but could not get through. Later, I learned that many of the numbers were no longer relevant.
Here is the new telephone number for Loagan Bunut National Park: (085) 775 119.
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