I will solely refer to Jiang Ledan, which is my official Wehea Dayak name that my host father, Pa Ledan gave to me. Word spreads quickly around town, so everybody is already referring to me as Jiang. My family is wonderful. My father is a master dancer of a traditional Dayak dance called Hudok, which is a fantastic dance that involves these extravagant masks and being possessed by spirits. He said he will teach me this coming week, which should be a good time being that the villagers love to get us to attempt to dance in the traditional circles and music, which gives them a nice time to just laugh at our moves.
It is crazy how quickly time has already gone. We have been in the village for over a week now, with less than two more before we head out to the forest to do work up there for another week. Our biodiversity team who is out there already just left for their two week trek throughout the unexplored forest with camera traps and all sorts of gear to check out and survey the biodiversity of the forest, which little is known at the point. It is known that rhinos and leopards and elephants use to populate the forests of Borneo, but the extent of what is known in the 38,000 Hectare forest of Wehea, little is known.
Research has been a slow start, but the ball’s moving. I have been able to witness a healing ceremony which was really awesome, as well as getting tours of the surrounding areas of the village to document some of the traditional plants. There are so amazing people here, and to see such a rich culture alive and operating under such vast western influences is a treasure.
There have been several parties of resent, called Erau’s. It is what is called a naming ceremony, or Erau Anak, which translates literally to ceremony child, but is rather like an enormous birthday. Depending on the social class of the family, children get at least one of the ceremonies in their lifetime. It is massive with nearly the entire village there to celebrate that child (with no temporal resemblance to their birth date, but there are several this time of year because it is a resting season after the collection of rice and crops). It has been a lot of fun. A whole caboodle of dancing, tuoc (palm wine), smoking and chewing of the BAMF beetlenut, and even pig sacrifices. There were six pigs sacrificed today for the erau anak of three children, which was absolutely breathtaking, nauseating, beautiful and nauseating again. The pig is washed and an area cleaned for the pig, and a drum is rhythmically beaten, as well as a gong, and family dressed in traditional Wehean clothing comes out to stand in front of the pig to be sacrificed. Immediately after the throat is slit, they gather some blood either on a plate or bamboo leaf and thumbprint the foreheads of the family with the blood, and let the pig kick and drain while he feet and mouth remain wrapped. After it is still, they rinse again, and then haul it off before the process starts all over again. It is pretty gnarkill, but definitely a ritual that is much more meaningful and honest then most if not all commercial slaughterhouses in North America.
It is still the most fun, as well at time the most difficult aspect of learning about cultural difference here in Nehas Liah Bing. What makes it especially difficult here is the way in which pets are seen in society. A majority of cats and dogs are maltreated, simply because their social ties to them is so different then it is in the United States. While individuals main “own” a dog, they may only feed it several times a week and let it fend for food the rest of the time. The dogs and cats are also often played with roughly (to say lightly) which results in some scaredy pups and cats. So, knowing me well as most of you do, I have had a mission to befriend all the dogs and cats, which has been met with some mixed success. The dogs living such wandering lives leads to some interesting sounds throughout the night. Often there is this enormous choir of howling dogs, that frequently seem oddly in sync or harmonic and creepy. The villagers describe this by saying the dogs get possessed by spirits at night who speak through them, which doesn’t sound too far off.
Down time is a must here in Nehas Liah Bing. It is damn hot erray day, and multiple showers or ‘mandis’ are needed, or a dip and the river. Soccer is played every day, and my Wehean cousin Ding Siang (his host mother is the older sister of my host mother) play almost every day trying to keep the opinion of Buleh’s soccer high. Being Jiang Ledan (more commonly known as Paul Glantz) I hurt myself playing yesterday, ankle and foot quite swollen, but it just makes me walk slower, which is very Indonesian of me. I have two interviews this evening to go prepare for, before going to see the rest of the Erau. So betta get back to work. I shall see y’all ERAUnd! Ha!
No comments:
Post a Comment