Are there Punan in Baram?

Long Jegan, Tinjar - a Berawan (Melawen) longhouse. (Pix Diocese of Miri)

Are there Punan in Baram?  Yes, there are many! And this is one of their stories. Punan people have been regularly in contact with people in the Lemeting (today Tinjar) for centuries - persisted until today.

Intermarriages were common, among the widely remembered was that of Tongom (Oman Kudei - teknonym). He was the son of a Punan and a Melanau lady named Bilom, hailed from Mukah. Tongom had two other siblings, a sister Tusin and younger brother Medik. 

His younger brother, still in his early teen was taken away by their Melanau grandparents, purportedly in place of their mother who went to stay with the Punan. Medik, being raised by Melanau, subsequently married to Melanau was gradually faded from the memory of Punan people at Tatau. Meanwhile, Tusin and Tongom raised in Tatau, later in Kakus by their parents, also naturally married to local Punan. 

Tongom, in his early adulthood regularly spent considerable time at Jelalong.  He would follow other Punans working on jungle produce in headwaters of Jelalong. There was a Berawan longhouse at Long Tisam, within a day walk from their farmhouse on the upper Jelalong. Tongom and the other young men regularly sneaked into the longhouse. Over time,  he fell in love with a Berawan girl and they got married.

Days turned to weeks, then months. Tongom learned his wife had become pregnant, but he had yet to inform his family about their marriage. He then went home. But was stuck at Jelalong. Tongom was reportedly a promiscuous man. He initially told everyone he was on his way back to Kakus and would only stay at Jelalong for few days. But the hiatus turned into a prolonged stay. Tongom courted a young girl at Jelalong but their affair did not last. He then continued on his journey to Kakus.

The Tinjar River.  It was known to Punan as Lemeting after it earliest settler, today extinct as a separate group.

Finally, he told his parents, family members in Kakus of his marriage to the Berawan girl. His parents then told him to bring his wife and child back to Kakus first. Tongom obliged. However, when he was back at Lemeting. He discovered his wife had remarried - to a Berawan chief (Penghulu). And his wife had given birth to a baby, a girl named they named Kudei. 

She was already started crawling (mengameang) - nearly a year old, went Tongom return! Tongom was trialled for abandoning his daughter and wife by the Berawan. Eventually found guilty and given the option to bring the baby girl back to Kakus or leave her with the mother. A stunned, heartbroken, Tongom was left speechless. Only the next morning, that Tongom told the Berawan, he would let them raised Kudei and began his long walk  - then inland via Lemeting - Jelalong - Pandan - Bekuyat then Kakus.

At Lemeting, Kudei who grew up among the Berawan and naturally was married to a Berawan man, named Ubau. Their marriage produced four children two sons and daughters - Tusin (m), Ketubuong (f), Layu (f) and Ruth (m).  Three of Kudei children were living among the Berawan at Long Jegan, while Ruth was at Long Teran. The grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Kudei - for example, her grandchildren, Clayre, Shane, the daughter of Inan Ulau and granddaughter of Ketubuong are married to a Punan - from Punan Ba, Biau and Mina respectively!

Sadly, Tongom died tragically in 1915. After his return, he remarried to a Punan lady and while they were farming near Maing River, along the Kakus, his family was massacred by a group of Baleh Iban (Sarawak Gazette Jun 1, 1915:128).

Sometimes at the turn of 20th century, decades after Oman Kudei, another group of also Punan Kakus migrating to Baram. Just as Oman Kudei, this group grandchildren - are today fully assimilated into the Berawan community of Batu Belah and Long Jegan.