2008 AD the year two Punan villages up in flame
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| Fig.1 - The photos that the author personally took of Punan Ba village before and after the fire incident. |
Punan Bah village
On May 5, 2008, 37-door section of a three block villages was razed down by fire. The villagers were still mourning the passing of a men (mengok kovo) died a few days earlier. Unbeknown to the mourners, from inside one of the rooms a flame had caught on something.
When one of the villagers spotted the smoke, it had already turned into a raging inferno.
"Putuong, putuong" or "fire fire" someone shouted from a corner.
Mourners startled, ran helter-skelter, many fled towards the riverbank. In the chaos, they had forgotten the coffin.
"Don't forget the coffin, don't leave the coffin" someone shouted back.
Then several men risked the raging inferno rushed back inside the burning longhouse. There was a sigh of relieved when they emerged, pulling a coffin. It was dropped by the river shore, safely away from the burning houses. Unfortunately, the coffin was hidden behind the log in the footage above - shot using a phone camera.
People could only haplessly watched as the inferno brought down their houses. Hours later the entire section of the "Lovuk Data" had been flattened - see Fig.1. Total losses, in term of ringgit and sen, were unknown but was easily over a million.
One of the grocery owners estimated his losses over a quarter of a million. But more than anything, the village had lost its cultural heritage and history. Four kliriengs, including two dated back to the eighteenth century, were gone forever.
However, physical evidence such as remnant of ancient settlements scattered in upper Kakus, Pejarai (today Penyarai), Takan, Jelai, Jatan and Lulau Belak tells a markedly different story. In actual fact, Punan were not recent arrivals - certainly not in the Kakus nor in the Kemena basin areas. In fact, Punan is an autochthonous group of Rejang and Tatau (Tillotson 1994). Unfortunately, Nicolaisen (1976:75) dismissed the narrative of the ethnohistory before Kavuk Uko as incredulous.
Obviously, it is not true that the Punan believed the world was created five generations before Kavuk Uko or circa in the sixteenth century! Neither does Punan's ethnohistory could be equated with the Nuer story as Nicolaisen contended!
In fact, another researcher about the same time discovered that the Punan were part of an ancient culture. Peter Metcalf, in the course of his fieldwork among the Berawan of Baram District, Sarawak. In a search for the Berawan closest linguistic connection brought into focus a string of related groups distributed in an arc across northern Sarawak. It so happens that these same peoples are the ones who traditionally practised secondary treatment of the dead. It seems that they represent a cultural substratum which predates the arrival of the Kayan and Kenyah in the area (Metcalf 1974).
Metcalf was an expert in Berawan. He noted that at the taxonomic level languages spoken to the south in Third Division (today Bintulu and Mukah Division), the closest geographically to the Berawan is the Punan Bah (this is the name anthropologist used referring to us - Punan).
The Berawan of Long Jegan, before the second World War, had their longhouse further up the Tinjar at Long Tisam. From there, an easy route let into the Jelalong stream where Ake' Tiro, father of Adi - the Punan Jelalong once had their farmhouses. Thus, Metcalf says, the Punan Bah formed an intermediary group between the Berawan and the Kajang (Sekapan, Kejaman and Lahanan) of Belaga, and evidence of the link is easy to find in Berawan genealogies, stories and rituals.
Punan ethnohistory narrative suggests, in the distant past, they branched out of Ba valley. A group went far to the northern valleys (Niah, Lemeting areas). Another settled along the Tatau together with the Tatau people - led by Aveang Buan.
Their settlements clustered from Buan River to near the Tatau River estuary, up far into the headwaters of Kakus and Tatau (today Anap River). Along the Rejang, there scattered in between Pelagus rapids to the southwest up until Belaga River to the northeast. Their main group remained on the Ba Valley (Opai Ba).
Long before Kavuk Uko, new arrivals attack the group on the northern valleys - Niah and Lemeting. They were either decimated or fled back to Ba Valley. Then, the group near Pelagus, led by Bakan was also attacked by enemies. They fled Pelagus to Takan and took refuge among the Punan and Tatau group at Takan.
Again they were pursued by the enemies. This forced the entire Punan, Tatau including Bakan's group fled farther into the Balingian and Mukah watersheds. Some, however, went to upper Kakus to Pejarai valley, joining another group of Punan and Tatau people at Maskin.
The groups that initially went to Balingian and Mukah, during Majeang subsequently settled at Siteng, intermingled with the Melanau group in the area. Later, both groups were attacked by the enemies - yet again. The attack forcing some fled down the Kenyana and took refuge among the Telian Melanau. Many then returned to Tatau, after the group at Maskin relocated to the main Tatau channel. This group was called "Punan Lelak" which means "coastal Punan" but in the nineteenth-century remnant of them had become known as "Melanau Siteng" (see Clayre 1969, 1970).
When one of the villagers spotted the smoke, it had already turned into a raging inferno.
"Putuong, putuong" or "fire fire" someone shouted from a corner.
Mourners startled, ran helter-skelter, many fled towards the riverbank. In the chaos, they had forgotten the coffin.
"Don't forget the coffin, don't leave the coffin" someone shouted back.
Then several men risked the raging inferno rushed back inside the burning longhouse. There was a sigh of relieved when they emerged, pulling a coffin. It was dropped by the river shore, safely away from the burning houses. Unfortunately, the coffin was hidden behind the log in the footage above - shot using a phone camera.
People could only haplessly watched as the inferno brought down their houses. Hours later the entire section of the "Lovuk Data" had been flattened - see Fig.1. Total losses, in term of ringgit and sen, were unknown but was easily over a million.
One of the grocery owners estimated his losses over a quarter of a million. But more than anything, the village had lost its cultural heritage and history. Four kliriengs, including two dated back to the eighteenth century, were gone forever.
Punan Ba history of being destroyed in fire
The incident, however, was not the first time Punan Ba village was destroyed by fire in living memory. Over one and half a century ago, the longhouse was raided and then torched by the raiders - an army of marauding Dayak, part of Brooke regime's forces during the historic "Kayan Expedition 1863.
About two decades after the Kayan Expedition, Charles Brooke launched another punitive expedition in 1896 that also led to the destruction of Punan Ba village and a few klirieng - when the longhouse yet again being torched. Punitive expeditions or pupun laja as it known to Punan was Charles Brooke's favourite instrument of government (Metcalf 2010).
About two decades after the Kayan Expedition, Charles Brooke launched another punitive expedition in 1896 that also led to the destruction of Punan Ba village and a few klirieng - when the longhouse yet again being torched. Punitive expeditions or pupun laja as it known to Punan was Charles Brooke's favourite instrument of government (Metcalf 2010).
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| Fig. 2 - Punan Kaku (Rumah Ado) engulfed by flame on August 21, 2008. Photo courtesy of Junis |
Punan Kaku (Rumah Ado Bilong)
Meanwhile, about three months later, a second fire incident devastated another Punan community. The fateful incident occurred on August 21, 2008. An eyewitness, a couple of days later uploaded a few photos (see Fig.2) he took to his Flickr account and wrote,
A national daily, The Star headlined on Saturday, August 23, 2008, was "Fire leaves 600 Punan homeless" (accessed May 1, 2020). The Star carried the news for two consecutive days, in print and digital form.
Prior to the publication, help was rather slow to come by. Each family were only given a bag of rice, salt and sugar. The Star stories were helpful in pushing urgently needed supply to be rushed to the hungry fire victims.
It is learned later, the fire was caused by negligence. A couple of children were playing with fire (matches - masi) inside their family room. Fortunately, as In the case of Punan Ba, no loss of life involved. No one had been charged ever since.
The Punan Kaku, administratively known as "Rumah Ado" (previously as Rumah Bilong, Rumah Keseng) longhouse was just like the Punan Ba village, still retained the traditional longhouse character.
It was built on stilt, several feet above the ground at the highest point and supported by several massive columns made from ironwood trunk (di ta'a).
The village also lost their treasured heritage -- a salong (Fig. 4) the tomb of their former chiefs Kanyan and Keseng.
[...] We look up in the sky at about 1.30 pm and notice a big smoke nearby our visited area in Bintulu-Kakus remote area and suddenly a black cloud appears slowly rising to the clouds. At first glance we thought it was people burning tyres. My friend urge us to go and see if it is really people burning tyres. When we reached the place we saw the longhouse was on fire. The longhouse belong to one of the Punan people in Ulu Kakus..."Sadly, I came to be aware of the fire incident on August 23, when Dennis Lakian, a PNA chief for Kakus brought the matter to my attention. He said the victims were left without foods for days and pleaded for PNA (Punan National Association) to do something to help them. Subsequently, a few press releases were made. The news was carried by both local and national dailies.
A national daily, The Star headlined on Saturday, August 23, 2008, was "Fire leaves 600 Punan homeless" (accessed May 1, 2020). The Star carried the news for two consecutive days, in print and digital form.
Prior to the publication, help was rather slow to come by. Each family were only given a bag of rice, salt and sugar. The Star stories were helpful in pushing urgently needed supply to be rushed to the hungry fire victims.
It is learned later, the fire was caused by negligence. A couple of children were playing with fire (matches - masi) inside their family room. Fortunately, as In the case of Punan Ba, no loss of life involved. No one had been charged ever since.
The Punan Kaku, administratively known as "Rumah Ado" (previously as Rumah Bilong, Rumah Keseng) longhouse was just like the Punan Ba village, still retained the traditional longhouse character.
It was built on stilt, several feet above the ground at the highest point and supported by several massive columns made from ironwood trunk (di ta'a).
The village also lost their treasured heritage -- a salong (Fig. 4) the tomb of their former chiefs Kanyan and Keseng.
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| Fig. 3 - Punan Ba village on May 5, 2008. Selawik and Bejeang kliriengs - the only two klirieng that left in the aftermath of the fire incident May 2008. Author Collection. |
Historical background
The history of Punan Ba and Punan Kaku were intertwined. In a reconstruction by Ida Nicolaisen (1976), the present-day Punan Ba village is reportedly the result of fusion and fission in the last century. The Punan Kaku were emigrants from Punan Ba, settled in the Tatau basin about five or six generations ago (Nicolaisen 1977/8).However, physical evidence such as remnant of ancient settlements scattered in upper Kakus, Pejarai (today Penyarai), Takan, Jelai, Jatan and Lulau Belak tells a markedly different story. In actual fact, Punan were not recent arrivals - certainly not in the Kakus nor in the Kemena basin areas. In fact, Punan is an autochthonous group of Rejang and Tatau (Tillotson 1994). Unfortunately, Nicolaisen (1976:75) dismissed the narrative of the ethnohistory before Kavuk Uko as incredulous.
I shall not deal here with the time prior to Kavu Oko, a time when the Punan Bah had supernatural powers. This is a mythical past reflected in the fact that the Punan Bah reckon with a span of only five generations from Kavuk Oko to the creation of the world. One is reminded of Evans-Pritchard's account of the Nuer people in Sudan, and of how the Nuer can point out the tree in western Nuer-Land under which the first was born (Evans-Pritchard, 1940, p.108)
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| Fig. 4 - An undated photo of Kanyan and Keseng salong at Rumah Ado courtesy of Sarawak Museum |
Obviously, it is not true that the Punan believed the world was created five generations before Kavuk Uko or circa in the sixteenth century! Neither does Punan's ethnohistory could be equated with the Nuer story as Nicolaisen contended!
In fact, another researcher about the same time discovered that the Punan were part of an ancient culture. Peter Metcalf, in the course of his fieldwork among the Berawan of Baram District, Sarawak. In a search for the Berawan closest linguistic connection brought into focus a string of related groups distributed in an arc across northern Sarawak. It so happens that these same peoples are the ones who traditionally practised secondary treatment of the dead. It seems that they represent a cultural substratum which predates the arrival of the Kayan and Kenyah in the area (Metcalf 1974).
Metcalf was an expert in Berawan. He noted that at the taxonomic level languages spoken to the south in Third Division (today Bintulu and Mukah Division), the closest geographically to the Berawan is the Punan Bah (this is the name anthropologist used referring to us - Punan).
The Berawan of Long Jegan, before the second World War, had their longhouse further up the Tinjar at Long Tisam. From there, an easy route let into the Jelalong stream where Ake' Tiro, father of Adi - the Punan Jelalong once had their farmhouses. Thus, Metcalf says, the Punan Bah formed an intermediary group between the Berawan and the Kajang (Sekapan, Kejaman and Lahanan) of Belaga, and evidence of the link is easy to find in Berawan genealogies, stories and rituals.
Punan ethnohistory narrative suggests, in the distant past, they branched out of Ba valley. A group went far to the northern valleys (Niah, Lemeting areas). Another settled along the Tatau together with the Tatau people - led by Aveang Buan.
Their settlements clustered from Buan River to near the Tatau River estuary, up far into the headwaters of Kakus and Tatau (today Anap River). Along the Rejang, there scattered in between Pelagus rapids to the southwest up until Belaga River to the northeast. Their main group remained on the Ba Valley (Opai Ba).
Long before Kavuk Uko, new arrivals attack the group on the northern valleys - Niah and Lemeting. They were either decimated or fled back to Ba Valley. Then, the group near Pelagus, led by Bakan was also attacked by enemies. They fled Pelagus to Takan and took refuge among the Punan and Tatau group at Takan.
Again they were pursued by the enemies. This forced the entire Punan, Tatau including Bakan's group fled farther into the Balingian and Mukah watersheds. Some, however, went to upper Kakus to Pejarai valley, joining another group of Punan and Tatau people at Maskin.
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| Fig.5 - Tigeang's legacy on the Tatau River. Undated picture showing one kludan (left) and four kliriengs belonging to his wife and daughter-in-law and grandchildren at Lulau Belak or "Rantau Belak". |
The groups that initially went to Balingian and Mukah, during Majeang subsequently settled at Siteng, intermingled with the Melanau group in the area. Later, both groups were attacked by the enemies - yet again. The attack forcing some fled down the Kenyana and took refuge among the Telian Melanau. Many then returned to Tatau, after the group at Maskin relocated to the main Tatau channel. This group was called "Punan Lelak" which means "coastal Punan" but in the nineteenth-century remnant of them had become known as "Melanau Siteng" (see Clayre 1969, 1970).
Who were the enemies that pursuing the Punan from Pelagus to Takan and later on the Mukah valley? They were reportedly hostile Beketan, Seru and even Lisum peoples. But it could also be an Iban group from the Kapuas region, who always a step behind the Beketan (see Pringle 1970).
In the meantime, the main Punan group on the Ba Valley, after Kavuk Uko, relocated into Rejang River proper. On the Rejang, the Kayan came. First, they were attacking their allies - the Lajing Aju (referring to Sekapan and Kejaman) on the Baluy. The Lajing Aju was driven downriver to near a Punan group at Belaga (see Clayre 1971).
Then the Kayan attacks the group at Pila (Punan Lukap and Punan Ayok). This group fled to Lo'o Ba where the main group led by Selawik was situated. After a period of warfare peace with the Kayan was negotiated. As an ewan bunuk or "peace bride" a Kayan chief, Dian Kulan offered his daughter, Usun Dian as a bride to Selawik. Together they had three sons - Balieng, Tigeang and Sagieng.
Consequently, Balieng Selawik, the oldest of the siblings becomes chief of the Punan Ba community succeeding his father. Tigeang foresaw no future for him in the Rejang under the Kayan. So he went to Kakus together with several followers and later married to the daughter of a Tatau chief, named Siki or Sikie' - see Fig.5.
By the time, the Punan group at Maskin had relocated to Tatau River proper, scattered in between Buan to Jelai River areas. Tigeang coalesced the Punan group together and established a community at Jelai River. Decades later, Tigeang brought the Punan back upriver into the headwaters of Kakus. They settled at Senganya where he died. His klirieng was destroyed by two Iban men from Rumah Bakat in the early 1990s - according to Bilong Keseng and other Punan Kaku informants.
In Nicolaisen's reconstruction, Tigeang group was said to be the first Punan to settle in Kakus. That is only partially true, as she was presenting the Punan Ba villager's narrative and their migration stories. However, their narrative could not fit neatly with the overall ethnohistory of Punan people. It had omitted large chunk of the history of Punan in Tatau and Kakus, hardly mentioned of those in the Mukah and Baram watersheds.
The most perplexing about Nicolaisen's reconstruction is probably the mentioned of a purported Abah migration to Kapuas. This is a fringe story (selitak keda'ap), some even suggest it is a cooked up story (sekeduok) that is contrary to the widely known migrations of Punan people. It is not a surprise that she found no "ultimate proof" of Punan relationship with the people in the Kapuas basin (Nicolaisen 1976:80).
In the meantime, the main Punan group on the Ba Valley, after Kavuk Uko, relocated into Rejang River proper. On the Rejang, the Kayan came. First, they were attacking their allies - the Lajing Aju (referring to Sekapan and Kejaman) on the Baluy. The Lajing Aju was driven downriver to near a Punan group at Belaga (see Clayre 1971).
Then the Kayan attacks the group at Pila (Punan Lukap and Punan Ayok). This group fled to Lo'o Ba where the main group led by Selawik was situated. After a period of warfare peace with the Kayan was negotiated. As an ewan bunuk or "peace bride" a Kayan chief, Dian Kulan offered his daughter, Usun Dian as a bride to Selawik. Together they had three sons - Balieng, Tigeang and Sagieng.
Consequently, Balieng Selawik, the oldest of the siblings becomes chief of the Punan Ba community succeeding his father. Tigeang foresaw no future for him in the Rejang under the Kayan. So he went to Kakus together with several followers and later married to the daughter of a Tatau chief, named Siki or Sikie' - see Fig.5.
By the time, the Punan group at Maskin had relocated to Tatau River proper, scattered in between Buan to Jelai River areas. Tigeang coalesced the Punan group together and established a community at Jelai River. Decades later, Tigeang brought the Punan back upriver into the headwaters of Kakus. They settled at Senganya where he died. His klirieng was destroyed by two Iban men from Rumah Bakat in the early 1990s - according to Bilong Keseng and other Punan Kaku informants.
In Nicolaisen's reconstruction, Tigeang group was said to be the first Punan to settle in Kakus. That is only partially true, as she was presenting the Punan Ba villager's narrative and their migration stories. However, their narrative could not fit neatly with the overall ethnohistory of Punan people. It had omitted large chunk of the history of Punan in Tatau and Kakus, hardly mentioned of those in the Mukah and Baram watersheds.
The most perplexing about Nicolaisen's reconstruction is probably the mentioned of a purported Abah migration to Kapuas. This is a fringe story (selitak keda'ap), some even suggest it is a cooked up story (sekeduok) that is contrary to the widely known migrations of Punan people. It is not a surprise that she found no "ultimate proof" of Punan relationship with the people in the Kapuas basin (Nicolaisen 1976:80).
In contrast, all known Punan migrations were bound northwards to Mukah, Balingian and Baram watersheds. This help explained Punan link to the Berawan groups (Lemeting, Lelak, Long Tisam (Long Jegan) and Long Pata), Melanau groups (Tanjong, Kanowit, Balingian, Telian, Vaie) and Lajing Aju (Sekapan and Kejaman).
