page_title: Iban people
section_title: Handicrafts
hierarchical_section_title: Iban people / Culture and customs / Handicrafts
caption_attribution_description: English: Hornbill Figure 19th century Iban, Borneo D: 84.6 cm Image courtesy of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Photo by Don Cole.
context_page_description: The Ibans or Sea Dayaks 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 - when they initially came into contact with them - referred to the Sea Dayaks in the upper Rajang river region as the "Hivan".
  Ibans were renowned for practicing headhunting and territorial migration, and had a fearsome reputation as a strong and successful warring tribe. 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 or betang in West Kalimantan.
context_section_description: Traditional carvings (ukir) include: hornbill effigy carving, the terabai shield, the engkeramba (ghost statue), the knife handle, normally made of deer horn, the knife scabbard, decorative carving on the metal blade itself during ngamboh blacksmithing e.g. butoh kunding, bamboo stoves, bamboo containers and frightening masks. Another related category is designing motives either by engraving or drawing with paints on wooden planks, walls or house posts. Even traditional coffins may be beautifully decorated using both carving and ukir-painting. The Iban plaits good armlets or calvelets called 'simpai'.
  The Ibans like to tattoo themselves all over their bodies. There are motifs for each part of the body. The purpose of the tattoos is to protect the tattoo bearer or to signify certain events in their life. Some motifs are based on marine lives such as the crayfish (rengguang), prawn (undang) and crab (ketam), while other motifs are based on dangerous creatures like the cobra (tedong), scorpion (kala), ghost dog (pasun) and dragon (naga).
  Other important motifs of body tattoo include items or events which are worth commemorating and experienced or encountered by Iban during a sojourn or adventure such as an aeroplane which may be tattooed on the chest. Some Ibans call this art of tattooing kalingai or ukir. To signify that an individual has killed an enemy (udah bedengah), he is entitled to tattoo his throat (engkatak) or his upper-side fingers (tegulun). Some traditional Iban do have piercings of the penis (called palang) or the ear lobes. The Iban will tattoo their body as a whole in a holistic design, not item by item in an uncoordinated manner.
  Woven products are known as betenun. Several types of woven blankets made by the Ibans are pua kumbu, pua ikat, kain karap and kain sungkit. Using weaving, the Iban make blankets, bird shirts (baju burong), kain kebat, kain betating and selampai. Weaving is the women's warpath while kayau (headhunting) is the men's warpath. The pua kumbu blanket do have conventional or ritual motives depending on the purpose of the woven item. Those who finish the weaving lessons are called tembu kayu (finish the wood) []. Among well-known ritual motifs are Gajah Meram (Brooding Elephant), Tiang Sandong (Ritual Pole), Meligai (Shrine) and Tiang Ranyai.
  The Iban call this skill pandai beranyam — plaiting various items namely mats (tikai), baskets and hats. The Ibans weave mats of numerous types namely tikai anyam dua tauka tiga, tikai bebuah (motive mat), tikai lampit made of rattan and tikai peradani made of rattan and tekalong bark. Materials to make mats are beban to make the normal mat or the patterned mat, rattan to make tikai rotan, lampit when the rattan splits sewn using a thread or peradani when criss-crossed with the tekalong bark, senggang to make perampan used for drying and daun biruto make a normal tikai or kajang (canvas) which is very light when dry.
  The names of Iban baskets are bakak (medium-sized container for transferring, lifting or medium-term storage), sintong (a basket worn at the waist for carrying harvested paddy stocks), raga (small wedge-shaped basket hung over one shoulder), tubang (cylindrical backpack), lanji (tall cylindrical backpack with four strong spines) and selabit (cuboid-shaped backpack). The height of the tubang basket fits the height of the human backside while the height of the lanji basket will extend between the bottom and head of the human. Thus, the lanji can carry twice as much as the tubang, making the latter more versatile than the former. The selabit backpack is used to carry unven shaped bulk items e.g. the game obtained from the forest.
  Another category of plaiting which is normally carried out by men is to make fish traps called bubu gali, bubu dudok, engsegak and abau using betong bamboo splits except bubu dudok which is made from ridan which can be bent without breaking.
  The Iban also make special baskets called garong for the dead during Gawai Antu with numerous feet to denote the rank and status of the deceased which indicates his ultimate a
caption: A 19th century Iban carving of a hornbill.
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