KUCHING: Friends of Sarawak Museum, a registered society promoting Sarawak’s heritage and culture, is hosting a talk entitled “Tuloi Kebing, the Great Kejaman Chief of Upper Rejang” at Café Rouge, No. 3 Jalan Green Hill here on Friday, March 23.
Admission is free but donations are welcome.
For registration, email to: neuner.nicole@gmail.com or call 011-1230- 8849.
The talk will be given by Jayl Langub, an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), and Advisor to WWF-Malaysia
Tuloi Kebing, a Kejaman aristocrat, was according to Kejaman oral narratives, the single most famous chief the Kajang peoples –comprising the Sekapan, Lahanan, Punan Bah and Kejaman– ever had.
Granted a special audience at the Brunei palace, Tuloi was made the Sultan’s representative in the upper Rejang, and given symbolic items of bandera (flag), meriam (canon), mahkota (crown) and dacin (a scales).
One of his responsibilities was to promote trade and ensure the safety of Brunei traders going up the upper Rejang.
The appointment came at the time when the Kajang influence in ethnic affairs in the upper Rejang was fading.
During the “Great Kayan Expedition” to the upper Rejang in 1863, Tuloi’s name was hardly mentioned but appeared quite frequently in the Sarawak Gazette after the expedition.
In April 1882, Resident Hugh Brooke Low introduced him to the people of Belaga as penyuroh (agent or representative) of the Brooke administration.
The forthcoming talk will look at ethnic composition and social relation around the life and time of Tuloi and beyond with reference to the work of Jérôme Rousseau, Ida Nicolaisen, Brian de Martinoir, Simon Strickland, Peter Mecalf, and Ian Clayre.
Tuloi’s legacy to Sarawak is the Taman Tipong Tuloi kliering (burial pole) that stands magnificently in the Sarawak Museum compound.
