Lun Bawang

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, they are more commonly known as 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.

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 Bawang are formerly identified as Murut by the British colonists and by outsiders (other ethnic group). In the Lun Bawang's language, the term Murut is derogatory and the word Murut in their language means ‘dregs’ or ‘rotten’.

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. 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.

History

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 Kelabit also another tribe from the mountainous regions of central Borneo and the Lun Bawang dialect is of the Kelabitic lineage.

It is believed that the early settlements of the Lun Bawang people is in 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. Nevertheless, there are still a number of them who resides in the Kerayan-Kelabit highlands today.

Culture

The Lun Bawangs practice agriculture, and cultivate both rice on hill called tana luun and rice from paddy field called lati ba' . 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 main).

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 tulun. 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.

Festivals and Celebration

Lun Bawang people celebrates Irau Aco Lun Bawang (Lun Bawang festival) on the first of June each year 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).

Ethnic groups in Malaysia

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