It is indeed so very long – this longhouse at Rantau Kemeding in Kanowit…
…sited along the very serene Kanowit River…
I came here for the Gawai Dayak Festival way back in 1978 and 1979, if I remember correctly but of course, it was not as nice then…
In my previous post, I mentioned that Philip and I went to Kanowit and we bumped into an old friend who brought us here on a wonderful guided tour of the place. Being linked to Kanowit town by tar road, it is now conveniently accessible by car unlike way back then, when we had to use an outboard-engine powered longboat…or walk/cycle along a small pebbled lane all the way to the longhouse.
If you look from where I was standing in the ruai (the common area or community hall in the longhouse), it is very long on this side…
…and even longer down the other side…
We were lucky because they had visitors that day so the people at the longhouse were all prepared to welcome them.
There was their traditional rice wine – the tuak…
…and all these – I’m not too sure but I’ve seen people using the pop-rice (like how people make pop corn) for the mering or blessing ceremony…
Then there was the ranyai…
…a banana tree from which they hang all kinds of goodies. They will dance around the tree with a parang (traditional sword) and try to cut the strings. If anything gets cut loose and drops from the tree, that will be the prize for the dancer.
Of course, for the welcoming, they had some dancers all ready to do the ngajat (traditional dance)…
…and there was the “music band” in attendance…
In a longhouse, the families will stay in their own bilik which is like a house by itself with its own sitting room, bedrooms, kitchen and all…so in essence, a longhouse is like a terrace house except that they share a common ruai and verandah. I entered the bilik belonging to the tuai rumah (headman) and look at what I saw!
The complete set of Encyclopedia Americana…
…and lots of English books – including Ernest Hemingway’s biography…
…and Mario Pusi’s “The Godfather – glimpses at our illustrious colonial past and our English education in days gone by.
Well, if anybody happens to be interested, you can log in to their website: http://rantaukemiding.blogspot.com and if you want to drop by on a visit, the tuai rumah‘s contact numbers are 084-753563 or 013-8823076.
I certainly enjoyed the visit so much…and I met my friend’s mother who could still remember me and an ex-student of mine who now has a grown-up daughter. Gee! How time flies and how things have changed over the years!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 