MUKAH: A total of 222 man-made boats from 39 teams have competed to claim the prize of ‘Raja Salui Lukut’ in its fourth edition of the Salui Lukut Race in conjunction with Pesta Kaul Mukah 2023.
Terry Anthony Joseph Lajo, who is a member of the organising team for the tournament said that ‘Salui’ comes from the word boat and ‘Lukut’ means leaf in the Melanau language.
“The tournament began on Thursday and will continue until tomorrow (April 30) with participation from Dalat, Igan, Balingian and Mukah.
“Initially we aimed at only 196 participants for the Salui Lukut Race but we did not expect such a tremendous number of participation,” he told New Sarawak Tribune at the Pesta Kaul site yesterday.
According to Terry, the participation fee is RM20 and the winner for both categories will take away a prize money of RM600 and a trophy, for two categories – ‘kategori harapan and kategori raja’.
“Second place for the ‘kategori raja’ will go home with RM500, third place will receive RM400 while consolation prizes will be presented to fourth to sixth places and will bring home a cash prize of RM150.
“However as for ‘kategori harapan’, second place will go home with RM400, third place with RM300 while RM100 will be presented to consolation recipients,” he said.
Adding further, he said the traditional salui lukut came to fame in 2013 and began competing in the Pesta Kaul Mukah in 2017.
“When we first competed, we used a canvas as the race track, however now we craft it to a specially made track which is 100 feet, the equivalent of 52 metres,” he said.
The race track has about six rows filled with water and is dependent on the wind and the size of the leaf placed on the man-made boat.
Terry hoped that the traditional game would continue to feature at the Pesta Kaul Mukah and that it could go further to be preserved as a traditional game in Sarawak.
