page_title: Iban culture
section_title: Headhunting
hierarchical_section_title: Iban culture / Headhunting
caption_attribution_description: English: Excerpt from the book: The Dyak piratical vessels are called “Bang Kongs.” Although they are a hundred feet in length by ten in beam, they draw but little water, and are both light and faster than the Malay prahus. They have long overhanging stems and sterns, are propelled by eighty paddles, and are as swift as any craft afloat. Some mount a few small swivels, and each carries a certain number of Malays armed with muskets, besides which they have their regular crew of Dyaks, whose weapons are spears. From drawing so little water they are much dreaded, as they can run up the shallowest river, when their savage crews, landing, commit most horrible atrocities on the inhabitants living near the banks. Uploader note: The image depicts Iban Dayak bangkong fleet attacking brig Lily.
context_page_description: The Ibans are a branch of the Dayak peoples of Borneo, in South East Asia. Most Ibans are located in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It is believed that the term "Iban" was originally an exonym used by the Kayans, who referred to the Sea Dayaks in the upper Rajang river region when they initially came into contact with them as the "Hivan" which means the "wanderer".
  Ibans were renowned for practicing headhunting and tribal/territorial expansion, and had a fearsome reputation as a strong and successful warring tribe in the past. Since the arrival of Europeans and the subsequent colonisation of the area, headhunting gradually faded out of practice although many other tribal customs and practices as well as the Iban language continue to thrive. The Iban population is concentrated in Sarawak, Brunei, and in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan. They traditionally live in longhouses called rumah panjai in Sarawak or rumah betang in Kalimantan because the jointed family rooms are built by jointing the tree trunks from base to tip to the left and right of the middle headman's room, which symbolizes a tree with a branch on the left and right side.
context_section_description: When considering a headhunting (ngayau) expedition, only an enemy shall be attacked. A guiltless tribe shall not be attacked and doing so shall result in an adverse curse called 'busong. Besides, the longhouse elders do not sanction any unwarranted provocation. The expedition must be conducted for good and benefits of all inhabitants of the longhouse and the region. For example, a hostile enemy who attack during farming or other routine activities can be eliminated for security and peace purposes after conflict resolution have failed. A surrendering enemy shall be not killed but taken as slave who would be given chance to redeem himself or herself over time. Often, a male slave is commissioned to attack the enemy in return for his freedom and perhaps marrying a daughter of a chief who instructed him in the first place. Otherwise, the slave can plant a lot of paddy for his master in return for his freedom. A female slave can take care of the master's family especially his secludedly-raised daughter in a raised palace (meligai).  
  Among others, the Iban instituted a compensation custom called "adat pati nyawa' to pay the killed victim's relative, swapping of a slave  or valuable jar to establish brotherhood agreement (bamboo madi) or a marriage to achieve settlement among the parties in dispute and peace in general. Hence, a headhunting is indeed a last resort. In fact, territorial disputes were the bulk of the causes of headtaking e.g. during a chance encounter between the wandering tribe and the local inhabitants which resulted in conflicts regarding ownership and conservation of forest resources. In other occasions, headhunting is usually performed on a traditional enemy who reciprocated the act from time to time. So, it is engaged in as a necessity for survival.  
  There is a set of rules used in engaging in headhunting between the leader and his followers. A usual procedure of headhunting starts when a group of warriors agree to go on a sojourn to an enemy country during the month of adventure (belelang) which is the period waiting for the paddy to grow and bear rice seeds before the harvesting season comes. Often, a junior warrior may go alone or in small group to attack an enemy by an element of surprise. Only a proven leader having seven heads to his credit can mobilize and lead a larger troop to raid a longhouse. A well-established leader with more than twenty one heads (three rings of skulls) can lead and wage a war against a region. 
  After defeating and severing a head, the winning warrior will shower himself in the fresh blood dripping from the enemy's severed head (mandi darah) while shouting triumphs of victory (panjung). He also puts the severed head on his shoulders. The taken heads shall then be presented to the leader who then decides whether the warrior can own the head or not. Usually, the first head taken by a warrior will be owned by the leader while the rest owns by the warrior. The same rules applies to live catch of enemy (tangkap) or taken goods. Severed heads will be smoked by the second in command.  Upon reaching the longhouse, the warrior will shout in triumph to announce victory. 
  After obtaining the first three heads, a warrior and his longhouse can hold a ritual ceremony called 'enchaboh arong' to celebrate, honour and clean the taken head. The headtaking (ngayau) chief shall clean the smoked head in three steps: cutting off the hair for safekeeping and decorating the end of a sword handle, taking a small lump of the brain using the tip of his sword and puffing it into a lump of glutinous rice before eating it in one go, skinning off the skiin and flesh using his sword, churning out the brain inside using a rattan to swirl out and stir the brain out of the skull in a flowing river water, making a rattan basket to keep the cleaned skull, drying the cleaned skull in sunlight for several days and smoking it during the night over a fire heath (bedilang) at the gallery (ruai). Once a warrior has obtained seven skulls, he can formally make a ring (bengkong) to hand his head trophies at the gallery 
caption: Iban Dayak bangkong fleet attacking brig Lily.
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384", "Image DateTime": "2020:04:09 20:55:13", "Image ExifOffset": "2242", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4516", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7264", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:04:09 20:53:10", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2020:04:09 20:53:10", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}