Now unless you have visited a longhouse, you really haven’t seen Sarawak. It may sound cliched but this is one of the best experiences the state has to offer. There are over 4,500 longhouses in Sarawak - each an entire village under one roof - inhabited by members of more than 20 distinct ethnic groups. The best known, and the easiest to visit, are the longhouses of the Iban, although visitors may also visit Bidayuh longhouses near Kuching or the imposing longhouses of the various Orang Ulu tribes, deep in Sarawak’s interior.
Modern longhouses are busy farming communities, and traditional clothes and ornaments are only worn for festive occasions, so if you want to be sure of seeing traditional costumes and rituals, go on an organised tour with cultural performances included, or visit during gawai dayak, the harvest festival, which takes place at the beginning of June each year.
Each of Sarawak’s longhouse-dwelling communities has something different to offer. For most people, their first taste of longhouse life is an organised tour to one of the Iban longhouses on the Skrang, Lemanak, Batang Ai or Rejang river systems. These tours feature traditional Iban hospitality, plenty of home-brewed tuak (rice wine), and a cultural performance or two. Visitors will be invited to join in, but be warned – the ngajat (warrior dance) is a lot harder than it looks, and more than a few visitors have been carried back to Kuching after slipping a disc or tearing a knee ligament.
The Iban are famous for their handicrafts, and you are bound to see weavers, woodcarvers and blowpipe makers at work. You can try your hand at blowpipe shooting, visit the rubber and pepper gardens, and go for a walk in the nearby forest, learning about the different plants and their many practical uses. Depending on the season, you may witness rice threshing and rice pounding, but whatever time of year you are sure to be shown the skulls hanging from the longhouse roof.
There is a wider choice of accommodation than you would expect. You can sleep in the longhouse - on the ruai or covered verandah, in a tour operator’s guest house, or even in one of the new ‘Longhouse Resorts’ at Batang Ai, Bukit Saban (near Sri Aman) and Pelagus Rapids (near Kapit). Wherever you stay, the food is always great, whether it’s prepared by your Iban hosts, your multi-talented tour guide or a 5-star hotel kitchen.
Not many people get the chance to visit Orang Ulu longhouses, as they are located deep in the interior, but the experience is well worth the journey. All of the Orang Ulu groups have strong traditions of hospitality, and guests will be invited to try some borak (Orang Ulu tuak) and join in with the singing and storytelling, accompanied by the melody of the sape, a mandolin-like instrument with a peculiarly Celtic sound. If you are particularly fortunate, you may be the subject of a praise song - an improvised ballad praising your character, attributes and achievements - sung by one of the aristocratic women in the longhouse.
There are not many Bidayuh longhouses within easy reach of Kuching - the ones at Kampung Anna Rais and Kampung Gayu are probably the best preserved examples - and Kuching tour operators arrange trips which usually take between half a day and a day. Most Bidayuh communities are quite modern in culture and outlook, due to their close proximity to Kuching, and some visitors feel that the experience is not ‘exotic’ enough to warrant the effort. However, during the gawai padi ritual, all the old beliefs and cultural practices make a startling reappearance. If you really want to find a very traditional Bidayuh longhouse, some specialist operators can organise visits to one of the remote longhouses along the Indonesian border, but be prepared for hard trekking and very basic accommodation and meals.
Places To Go
There are three main areas where large concentrations of longhouses are easily accessible.
Skrang & Lemanak
These two rivers are tributaries of the mighty Batang Lupar, in Sarawak’s Second Division. They have been home to the Iban for centuries and their banks are dotted with dozens of traditional wooden longhouses surrounded by pepper gardens, rubber smallholdings and rice fields. They are easily accessible from Kuching and offer a very good introduction to the Iban way of life. The longhouses here generally receive more visitors than other areas, so English is quite widely spoken, allowing visitors to communicate easily with their hosts.
Batang Ai
This area covers the Batang Ai river and its tributaries (including the Engkari and Delok), which feed the massive lake formed by the Batang Ai Hydro Scheme. It is the ancestral home of the Iban in Sarawak and was the last area in Sarawak to come under the control of the White Rajahs, after decades of dogged resistance. Many longhouses here are built in a traditional manner, and the people here are very proud of their well preserved customs and lifestyle. Many of the older men have spectacular tattoos all over their bodies, and are pleased to pose for photographers.
The Rejang
The mighty Rejang, Sarawak’s longest river, and its major tributaries the Katibas and the Baleh, are home to countless Iban longhouses, which can be easily visited from Song (Katibas) and Kapit (Rejang & Baleh). Longboat journeys up the Baleh are the stuff of real adventure travel, negotiating frequent sets of rapids to visit large, thriving and very hospitable Iban longhouse communities.
Further upriver are the longhouses of the various Orang Ulu communities of the Upper Rejang and its tributaries, the Balui and the Belaga. Visiting these longhouses can involve travelling considerable distances by river, and visitors should be prepared to spare at least a few days. The time spent is well worth it, as many of these longhouses receive very few visitors.
Other Areas
Tour operators can organise trips to Kayan and Kenyah longhouses on the Upper Baram river system. For the truly adventurous and energetic, the remote and beautiful Bario Highlands offer superb trekking, staying overnight in Kelabit and Lun Bawang longhouses along the way. Organised tours to Bario are available and the area is also very suitable for independent travel.
People to See – Major Ethnic Groups and Their Longhouses
The Iban
The Iban, the largest ethnic group in Sarawak, were also known as Sea Dayaks. Formerly a warlike and expansionist people, they were famous pirates and headhunters. Their traditional lifestyle is based on shifting cultivation of dry rice, and the rice planting and harvesting cycle is the focus of their belief system. Although the majority of Ibans have converted to Christianity, rice continues to play a powerful social and spiritual role. Nowadays many Ibans grow cash crops such as pepper, rubber, cocoa and oil palm, as well as hill rice. Many others live in Sarawak’s town and cities, but maintain strong ties to their ancestral longhouses.
To the Iban, the longhouse is not merely a home - it is a way of life. It is always built next to a river, which is both a transport route and a source of water. The size of a longhouse is calculated by the number of doors, or pintu, which can vary from half a dozen to almost a hundred, although the modern norm is around 20 plus. Each door is the entrance to an apartment or bilik with a combined living room and bedroom, a kitchen at the rear and an attic which is used to store rice. Opposite the bilik is a covered verandah, or ruai, which is used for ritual functions, making handicrafts, entertaining guests or just relaxing with friends in the evening. Outside the ruai is an open verandah, the tanju, which is used for drying pepper and rubber.
A well-established, prosperous longhouse will be made of belian (ironwood) and other high quality hardwoods, and roofed with belian shingles or zinc sheeting. Pioneer longhouses in new areas are often made of bamboo and tree bark, with attap roofs. As the community becomes more established, the longhouse will gradually be improved and upgraded.
The Iban are a very democratic and egalitarian people. All adults have a full say in the way the community is run, and the tuai rumah of a modern longhouse does not inherit his position, but is chosen by the residents for his leadership qualities and understanding of adat or customary law.
The Bidayuh
The Bidayuh, also known as Land Dayaks, are the second largest indigenous group in Sarawak. Like the Iban, their economy and belief system are both based on the growing of dry rice. Former opponents of the Iban, they too developed longhouse living for protection in times of war. For the Bidayuh, the longhouse has less ritual importance, as the focus of the community is the Baruk, or head-house, an elaborate circular or octagonal building with a conical roof, where enemies’ skulls were kept.
The construction of the Bidayuh longhouse is similar to that of the Iban, but without the external verandah. The Bidayuh are masters in the art of building with bamboo, using this strong and versatile material for building both their homes and their irrigation systems. Unlike the Iban longhouses, many Bidayuh longhouses are built at the foothills of remote mountains, a few hours walk from the nearest road or river. Therefore the individual rooms are often put together like a set of steps rising up the hillside.
The Bidayuh longhouse is also largely democratic, with all members having a say in the running of the community, but the headman is generally chosen from amongst the sons of the former headman. However, only a small minority of Bidayuh still live in longhouses, most preferring the open space and relative freedom of the village or kampung.
Many Bidayuh women still produce exquisite and practical rattan basketware, and they are particularly famed for their woven backpacks and baby carriers, as well as tough and decorative rattan and bamboo mats. In the remoter areas, many older women still wear dozens of brass rings around their legs, reaching from their ankles to their knees. Bidayuh men are skilled bamboo carvers, producing all manner of artefacts and works of art from simple bamboo stems. Like the Iban, they produce good tuak, but they are famous for their excellent fruit wines, including tuak tebu (sugarcane wine), tuak tampui (wild mangosteen wine) and tuak apel (cider). Visitors are sure to be offered a sample.
Orang Ulu
The term Orang Ulu means "upriver people" and covers a host of smaller tribes from Sarawak’s interior. Travellers are most likely to visit the longhouses of the Kayan, Kenyah, Punan, Kajang, Kejaman, Kelabit and Lun Bawang. Whilst all of these peoples have widely differing cultures and languages, they also have many factors in common.
Orang Ulu longhouses are broadly similar to those of the Iban in construction, although they are often larger, and may frequently possess two stories. They are far more ornately decorated than those of the Iban and Bidayuh, and feature large ‘tree-of-life’ murals and ornate woodcarving and detailing.
Unlike the Iban, the Orang Ulu tribes are hierarchical, with a class of traditional aristocrats known as maren. The tuai rumah and his family will live in a very large apartment at the centre of the longhouse, surrounded on either side by their aristocratic neighbours, whilst the commoners live further away from the centre. Social status was traditionally determined by a person’s distance from the tuai rumah’s apartment, although nowadays this distinction is becoming less important in everyday life.
Most Orang Ulu are dry rice farmers, although the Punan and Kajang prefer to grow sago, whilst the Kelabit have an extensive network of irrigated wet rice fields, the only indigenous people in Sarawak to do so. All these groups also live from their rubber, pepper and oil palm smallholdings, and livestock rearing. Many Orang Ulu work in Sarawak’s towns and cities, and in the timber and oil industries, returning to the longhouse only during public holidays and harvest season, and outside these periods the longhouse can seem very quiet.
Visitors to Orang Ulu longhouses, particularly those of the dominant Kayan and Kenyah, cannot fail to be impressed by the artistic and musical talents of the people. Many Orang Ulu are master woodcarvers, producing superb statues, masks and klirieng (burial poles) from tough jungle hardwoods. Most spectacular are the guardian figures that use the aso or dog motif. The longhouse are frequently brightly decorated with large murals rendered in the traditional "tree of life" style. Orang Ulu women produce beautiful beadwork, with which they adorn everything from sun-hats to baby-carriers.
Orang Ulu are also very fond of personal adornment. Many older women have their hands, arms, legs and feet covered in dense black tattoos, and even today many younger women elongate their earlobes with heavy brass rings. These tattoos and elongated earlobes are marks of great beauty amongst the Orang Ulu. Men decorate themselves by piercing the upper part of the ear, through which a boar’s tusk or leopard’s claw is inserted for ceremonial occasions.
Getting There (and Getting Back in One Piece)
If you are travelling on an organised tour, all travel arrangements will be taken care of.
The access points for Skrang, Lemanak and Batang Ai are all roughly four hours by road from Kuching. Trips to Skrang and Lemanak involve a longboat journey through typical jungle scenery to reach the longhouse, whilst visitors to Batang Ai will be ferried across the large lake formed by the Batang Ai Hydro Scheme before proceeding upriver to the longhouse.
Independent travellers visiting Skrang, Lemanak and Batang Ai will need to take a Biaramas Express bus (082- 249148, 3 times daily, non-stop) or Sarawak Transport Company bus (082-242967, 8 times daily, stopping) from Kuching to Sri Aman - check for times. From Sri Aman, take the Sarawak Transport Company bus to Lubok Antu. For Skrang, get off at Pais and walk to the jetty. For Lemanak, get off at Rumah Bareng and arrange transport at the modern longhouse. For Batang Ai, continue to Lubok Antu and take the local bus to the reservoir jetty (times vary). In each case, you will be told which longhouses welcome guests, and the (generally negotiable) price for boat rental. On all of these rivers, the boat ride is every bit as enjoyable and interesting as visiting the longhouse itself.
Sibu, Sarawak’s second largest town, is the jumping off point for Iban longhouses on the mighty Rejang, Sarawak’s longest river, and its major tributaries, the Baleh and the Katibas. Local companies run tours to all of these rivers, either direct from Sibu or from the upriver towns of Song and Kapit. Belaga, four to seven hours upriver from Kapit, is the best place for visiting Orang Ulu longhouses. To find out which longhouses welcome visitors, just ask at any of the small hotels or coffee shops. Prices of boats are sometimes negotiable, sometimes not.
To get to Kapit from Sibu, take one of the frequent express boats from the Express Wharf in the town centre. From Kapit, there are express boats to Belaga. Make sure you get a permit for Belaga from the Resident’s Office in Kapit first. MAS operates a twice weekly Twin Otter flight from Sibu to Belaga. Call 082-246622 for details.
The Baram river system above Miri is not as well served by public transport, and visitors are advised to go on an organised tour or with Sarawakian friends.
Unless you are prepared for a week-long guided trek, the only way to reach Bario is by daily MAS Twin Otter flights from Miri. Call 082-246622 for details. Please note that these flights are sometimes cancelled due to bad weather conditions, particularly in the rainy season (Nov-Jan).
Accommodation
When visiting longhouses, visitors usually sleep on the covered verandah or in the family quarters. Many Iban longhouses have simple guest houses available for visitors. If you prefer a more luxurious ‘longhouse experience’ there are longhouse resorts at Batang Ai, Bukit Saban (near Sri Aman) and Pelagus Rapids (near Kapit). Contact the Sarawak Tourism Board for further details.
Visitors may need to make overnight stops in Sibu, Kapit or Belaga. Basic but comfortable accommodation is available in all of these towns (rooms with hot water and air con), whilst Sibu has a number of good medium class hotels as well.
Independent Travellers
Independent travellers are welcome at many (but not all) longhouses in all of these areas, but on the much-visited Skrang, some longhouses have exclusive arrangements with tour operators and you may not be welcome without a recommendation and a contact name. Visitors should always bring a few presents for their guests, and some food when travelling in remote areas. Most longhouses will charge a small sum for meals and accommodation.
Once you arrive at the jumping-off point for your particular river destination, just ask around or wait to be invited to a particular longhouse. In Kapit and Belaga, on the Rejang, there are a number of freelance tour guides offering trips.
Trips to Orang Ulu longhouses can also be arranged in Kapit or the remote river town of Belaga, but a permit is required from the Resident’s Office in Kapit to proceed to Belaga and beyond. Independent travellers are particularly welcome in the dramatic Bario Highlands, but there are no roads or navigable rivers and the trekking can be hard going for the unfit.
Longhouse Do’s And Don’ts
Observing a few simple rules will ensure that your hosts enjoy the visit as much as you do.
- Never enter a longhouse without asking permission first.
- If you arrive unannounced, always ask for the Tuai Rumah or headman’s apartment.
- Always remove your shoes when entering a longhouse.
- Never push away food or drink offered to you. If you wish to decline, touch the plate or glass gently with your right hand.
- The Tuai Rumah or headman is a person of considerable importance. Always treat him with the respect his position deserves.
- If invited to bathe in the river, always wear a sarong or a non-revealing swimming costume. Never bathe where members of the opposite sex are bathing.
- If on an organised tour, always follow your tour guide’s instructions.
- Never distribute gifts to individuals, especially children. Always present gifts to the Tuai Rumah, who will ensure that they are distributed fairly throughout the community.
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