“Don’t ever underestimate our local shaman or faith healer ‘manang’,” said a good friend and cousin Datuk August Buma, who retired three years ago as Sarawak’s director of Labour. He narrated to me a number of ‘belian’ (healing with sing-song chanting) incidents in Bintangor, Julau and Sarikei where some patients
At Ketapang close to the tributary of Kayung River in West Kalimantan of old, there lived an Iban leader called Beji. According to stories from our forebears, Beji and his followers and fellow longhouse folk were told to leave Ketapang unless they change their cave dwelling into a new community
Diana used to tell me she had a travel jinx, something I only really started to believe when the plane door fell off. – Neil Gaiman, English author of short fiction, novels, comic books nonfiction, and films Three times in the past my canvases were among scores of others given
SARATOK: Residents of Betong are seeing red over frequent blackouts in the division especially at longhouses in Saratok, Roban, Pusa, and Debak. These residents are certainly displeased by the power outage that could happen any time during the day and night, especially during early evening when people are in the
As a result of “chap langkau” (locally brewed alcoholic drink) Abuk (not his real name), an elderly grandfather, slipped and hurt both legs when coming out of a bus. This happened at the junction of his longhouse, about 22 kilometres from Saratok town. Pangup, 77, is still strong and active.
Duplication never works for anybody. – Dulquer Salmaan, Indian film actor My encounter with a good friend and former school teacher Penghulu Wilson Alli at a Saratok coffee shop led to a discussion on a number of topics. A regular reader of my column, Alli pointed out one of the
Have you heard of fancy names such as Helikopta, Engkabang, Bilun and Jipun? These are products of inventive, sometimes humorous Iban parents when it comes to naming their kids at birth or upon reporting the births at the National Registration Office (JPN) or with their clerk at the District Office.
When you work on something that combines both the spectacular and the relatable, the hyperreal and the real, it suddenly can become supernatural. The hypothetical and the theoretical can become literal. – J J Abrams, American filmmaker My father (apai) Salok Jembu (1910-2002), a leading bard, would probably be the
People gossip. People are insecure, so they talk about other people so that they won’t be talked about. They point out flaws in other people to make them feel good about themselves. I think at any age or any social class, that’s present. – Blake Lively, American actress Women folk
There were many unforgettable experience in the ‘ulu’ part of the Melupa river basin, my familiar childhood territory in the 60s. Brought up by farming and rubber-tapping parents, I was out of the parental cobweb at the age of eight and since then, had been roaming freely in the depths
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