Severed Heads in Sarawak

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Our next journey was into the wilderness of Sarawak, another jungle-clad region of Borneo. A bus ride and three separate boat journeys took us to our destination, deep within the territory of the Iban people. Until as recently as the 1960's, the Iban were fierce headhunters. This wasn't a part time hobby for these people. They didn't just lop off the occasional head. They were dedicated to headhunting, and it was an integral part of their culture which was vital to their survival and prosperity. I will explain more shortly. The Iban live, and still do live, in community buildings called "Longhouses". As the name suggests, a longhouse is a very long house, in which the whole community lives together. Each family unit has it's own section, but everyone in the longhouse is related, and are united under a common chief, or head of the family. Imagine such a dwelling in the UK. Imagine living with your children, your parents, aunties, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. Plus their extended familes, which would include your in-laws, plus their siblings, children etc. Some longhouses are up to a kilometre long. It is a unique social structure. If a female from a longhouse marries someone from another longhouse, she would move there, and her immediate family would have the option of moving there with here. So within the longhouse dynamics, the populations can grow and shrink as people get married and move.

Going back to the headhunting, the heads in question are usually hung from the rafters of the longhouse, and are a measure of the unity and power of that longhouse. If one longhouse is thinking of attacking another, a sufficient display of skulls might make them think twice. But apart from displays of strength, the heads also provide other types of protection; they porotect the longhouse from evil spirits. The full process is this: freshly taken heads are skinned and then smoked over a fire before being placed in the rafters. Festivals are then held to appease the spirits of the skulls, and to ask for their protection. I don't know about you, but if I'd been beheaded, the chances of appeasing me would be fairly slim. But this is what they believed. If any of the heads are ignored or insulted during the festivities, they will cause nightmares, plagues, floods and fires. But a fully appeased head is very powerful in warding off evil spirits, and so the ceremonies are usually done properly, with equal attention being given to each head. Yet the power of the heads weakens with time, and so new heads are always in demand. The taking of heads is also a symbol of bravery amonsgt the menfolk, and also increases eligibilty of a bachelor. ("I'm in love with George, but I could never marry him. He's only ever taken four heads")

We were overnight guests at an Iban longhouse. It was indeed long, and was made up of 35 joined "houses". However there were only 15 families living there, because of some major dispute which caused 20 families to leave and build their own longhouse. The structure was about 300 metres long, but was also about three rooms deep. Plus there was a wide covered veranda, or porch, which ran the length of the longhouse. This was where the women sat to do their weaving, and it also served as a general social area and play area for the kids. We had bought them a football, and they had great fun kicking it up and down this 300 metre long porch. They kids loved being picked up and swung round, and being given piggy backs. But someone smelt whiffy and obviously needed their nappy changing. I wasn't sure who the culprit was, so I put them all down.

Our dinner was a feast cooked by our tour guide, Duke, and the lady of the house. For an appetizer we had coconut rice with a difference. The rice is soaked in coconut milk for several hours, and then the rice/milk mixture is wrapped in banana leaves, and stuffed in a bamboo tube. It is then placed near a fire for an hour, and the gentle heat causes the remaining coconut milk to be absorbed. The banana leaf is taken out, looking like a long sausage and containing the cooked rice. This roll is then sliced to reveal disks of solidly packed coconut rice. It was firm, sweet and sticky and made a great appetiser. After the meal, Duke chopped up a durian for us. Durian is the most controversial fruit in asia. I have mentioned this before in an earlier blog. Throughout Borneo, hotels have prominent signs saying "NO DURIAN allowed in this hotel". The reason? This is the smelliest fruit on the planet. But for those wishing to brave the stench, the flavour is meant to be excellent. The experience has been described as being like "eating strawberry ice cream while sitting on the toilet". I tried durian in Indonesia, and found it to be delicious, and not at all smelly. But apparently there are different species.This was certainly different. As soon as it was cut, the smell wafted the length of the room. It smelt like unwashed sweaty feet which had been dipped briefly in raw sewage. It was fetid, foul, and almost made you retch. I tried some, and the flavour this time was not rewarding. It wasn't an unpleasant taste, but was nowhere near tasty enough to warrant sitting through the stench. I can see why hotels ban it! (I'd much rather eat "Dragon Fruit", which is a crazy lookig fruit with purple flesh that grows on strange bendy bushes). To take the taste f the durian away, we tried the Iban's homemade rice wine. I have tried rice wine in Indonesia and Japan, and it was simply awful. But this was like lemonade, but with a serious kick. We polished off several bottles, and all went to bed rather tipsy.

The next morning we caught a boat upstream for two hours to reach the start of the "Headhunters' Trail". This is Sarawak's most famous trek. This was the trail used by two rival headhunter tribes to wage war on each other. It is only 11km long, but it took us five hours because of the terrain. Boot-sucking mud and twisted tree roots hampered our every step. Plus the dreaded leeches! They were everywhere, and we had to stop periodically and check each other for the little b@stards. I was wearing shorts, and I was dreading one of them crawling up my leg to nibble on my gentleman's bits. When they bite, the saliva of leeches has two unique properties. Firstly it contains an anaesthetic, so you can't feel them bite. Secondly, it contains an anticoagulant which prevents the blood from clotting, to keep if flowing while they slurp it down. Hence it is entirely possible for a leech to feast on you without you knowing, and then drop off fat and content. But even if you spot a leech, it is no easy matter getting it off. Asking nicely doesn't work. Flicking it with your finger doesn't work either. Commonly recommended techniques include using a lit cigarette, a lighter, vinegar, soap or salt. You should not do this! Any "shock" tactic will cause the leech to regurgitate it's stomach contents back into you, and this can cause infection. The proper solution is to gradually press hard with your fingernail against the leech, scraping along your skin. This will break the seal of it's sucker, and you can then flick it off. Job done!

Halfway through the trail we came to a river. Spanning the water was an ancient rope bridge, fraying in places, and covered in weeds and algae. It had been repaired numerous times with more rope and vines, but it still looked precarious and fragile. Remember "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"? When he cuts the rope bridge spanning the ravine? This was that bridge. Crossing it was an experience!

For the second half of the trail, it rained and it rained and it rained. The already muddy ground turned to quagmire, and we were struggling. Duke had recommended that we hurry, because trees sometimes collapse in heavy rains. This didn't quite make sense to me, but the trail was already littered with the immense corpses of trees. Shortly after he said that we heard an almighty CRRRRR-ACK! Somewhere behind us, a huge tree was falling over and hit the ground with a huge thud. We struggled onwards, and reached "camp five" before dark. Camp Five was a basic open shelter with showers and kitchen, and semi-open sleeping platforms. Everyone stripped off to check for leeches. I had a series of bitemarks around my neck of all places,and poor old Carol was munched on by at least half a dozen of them. I also found one INSIDE my socks, which in turn were inside my hiking boots. Bloody Harry Houdini of the leech world. Either that or Leech Special Forces. No normal leech could have penetrated my stinky boots with such ease. I shall be doubly on guard next time.

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Photos

Ornamental Severed Heads
Not really. These are Dragon Fruit, the coolest fruit on the planet. The flesh inside is purple

The Longhouse
It's Long

Inside the Longhouse
this was the kitchen

giddy up!
the kids kept climbing onto our backs when we weren't looking

The Headhunter Trail
Jaime models the latest hiking gear

the bridge of doom
ancient and very ropey

and the winner of the Ugly Duckling award goes to....
... this fella. Either he was born this way, or he has a serious allergy to something

Jaime munches into some dragon fruit
It was soft, juicy and tasted similar to a kiwi fruit (but nicer)

rock the boat
happy to have survived a trip UP the rapids

Comments

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