History of Iban

In Malaysia, most Ibans are located in Sarawak, a small portion in Sabah and some in West Malaysia.  Iban are branch of the Dayak peoples of Borneo. They are formerly known during the colonial period by the British as Sea Dayaks. Iban were renowned for practising headhunting and tribal expansion.  A long time ago, being a very strong and successful waring tribe, the Ibans were a very feared tribe in Borneo.  They speak the Iban language.  They live in longhouses called rumahpanjai or rumahpanjang. The origin of the name Iban is a mystery, although many theories exist. During the British colonial era, the Ibans were called Sea Dayaks. Some believe that the word Iban was an ancient original Iban word for people or man. The modern-day Iban word for people or man is mensia, a slightly modified Malay loan word of the same meaning (manusia).

The Ibans were the original inhabitants of Borneo Island. Like the other Dayak tribes, they were originally farmers, hunters, and gatherers. Not much is known about Iban people before the arrival of the Western expeditions to Asia. Nothing was ever recorded by any voyagers about them.

The Ibans were unfortunately branded for being pioneers of headhunting. Headhunting among the Ibans is believed to have started when the lands occupied by the Ibans became over-populated. In those days, before the arrival of western civilization, intruding on lands belonging to other tribes resulted in death. Confrontation was the only way of survival.

In those days, the way of war was the only way that any Dayak tribe could achieve prosperity and fortune. Dayak warfare was brutal and bloody, to the point of ethnic cleansing. Many extinct tribes, such as the Seru and Bliun, are believed to have been assimilated or wiped out by the Ibans. Tribes like the Bukitan, who were the original inhabitants of Saribas, are believed to have been assimilated or forced northwards as far as Bintulu by the Ibans. The Ukits were also believed to have been nearly wiped out by the Ibans.

The Ibans started moving to areas in what is today's Sarawak around the 15th century. After an initial phase of colonising and settling the river valleys, displacing or absorbing the local tribes, a phase of internecine warfare began. Local leaders were forced to resist the tax collectors of the sultans of Brunei. At the same time, Malay influence was felt, and Iban leaders began to be known by Malay titles such as Datu (Datuk), Nakhoda and Orang Kaya.

In later years, the Iban encountered the Bajau and Illanun, coming in galleys from the Philippines. These were seafaring tribes who came plundering throughout Borneo. However, the Ibans feared no tribe, and fought the Bajaus and Illanuns. One famous Iban legendary figure known as Lebor Menoa from Entanak, near modern-day Betong, fought and successfully defeated the Bajaus and Illanuns. It is likely that the Ibans learned seafaring skills from the Bajau and the Illanun, using these skills to plunder other tribes living in coastal areas, such as the Melanaus and the Selakos. This is evident with the existence of the seldom-used Iban boat with sail, called the bandung. This may also be one of the reasons James Brooke, who arrived in Sarawak around 1838, called the Ibans Sea Dayaks. For more than a century, the Ibans were known as Sea Dayaks to Westerners.

Origin of Apai Aloi

To an Iban of traditional upbringing there is probably no imaginary character more familiar than the comic hero Tambap or Apai Aloi. The present paper records a long Saribas saga, or ensera, concerned with the origin of Tambap and the events of his early life before he married and became the familiar Apai Aloi of Iban children’s fables1.

The later exploits of Apai Aloi, his wife and children are the subject of a great body of Iban cautionary tales, told to youngsters by their elders, generally at bed time (Sandin 196b, 1965a, 1965b, 1965c, 1965d, 1965e, 1967a; Sather 1978). These tales contrast with the sagas of the equally mythologized Orang Panggau, the heroes and heroines of the Gellong and Panggau Libau spiritual worlds. To the Iban, the Orang Panggau, particularly Keling and Kumang, represent personifications of the ego-ideals of manly courage, resourcefulness, and womanly beauty. By contrast, Apai Aloi is a negative chastisement, the fool who forever suffers rebuke and disaster as a result of his own misdeeds, stupidity and greed. He represents a negative ideal of how not to behave. His relations with his wife, Indai Aloi, parody conjugal ideals. He is hen-pecked and cuckolded; he cheats his family of food and causes them to go destitute (Sandin 1960,1965c). His relations with his friend, Apai Sumang-Umang, similarly make mockery of friendship, as the two continually seek to take advantage of each other (cf. Sandin 1965 a, 1965d). In all these tales Apai Aloi is ultimately the loser. In everyday speech, the terms aloi, saloi, sali-ali, or paloi are used to describe a foolish or silly person, who, through avarice or lack of wit, brings about his own undoing.

Apai Aloi, for all his foolishness, is nonetheless an ambivalent figure. The ambivalence associated with his character is neatly expressed in Tambap’s origin as recorded here, as partly human, partly demonic. Moreover, his human nature is of heroic proportions. In this story, Tambap’s foolishness is overshadowed by his extraordinary cunning. Juxtaposition with the heroes of Gellong is signified by the location of his house, downriver from Gellong, yet within the same spiritual realm, and by his involvement, depicted here and in other saga, with the Orang Panggau. In concluding this saga, the story-teller takes note of this ambivalence by observing that, while Tambap is an important person (pengawa), a hero, his conduct is very different from that of other Iban heroes.

The present saga is partially an etiological tale. It is concerned essentially with Tambap’s personal origin. It also accounts for his stupidity and irrational fear of the ngingit beetle. This latter fear appears as a humorous element in many fables in which Indai Aloi mimics the beetle’s call to terrorize her husband, much as parents use the nightly calls of insects and animals to frighten small children into obedience. In one story, for example, Apai Aloi secretly roasts a wild boar in the forest in order to avoid sharing it with his family. Guessing his intention, Indai Aloi conceals herself closeby and frightens her husband by mimicking the ngingit, causing him in an effort to quiet the insect, to throw the roasted meat, piece by piece, to where she and her children are hidden, until at last he flees in terror when all of the meat is gone (Sandin 1960: 639-40). In recounting Apai Aloi tales, the story-teller generally gives the hero a peculiar nasal voice (idol), which, in oral presentation, gives an additional comic aspect to his character. The origin of this peculiarity is also described. But in addition, the present ensera is very largely an account of Tambap’s journey to the home of his father. The journey theme is a recurrent one in Iban culture, both in mythology and actual life. The present saga resembles in this respect major Iban etiological myths, such, for example, as those concerned with the origin of incest rules, of rice and the knowledge of augury (Sandin, in press). Similarly the invocation of gods and spirits is frequently expressed in journeys and counter-journeys and in actual life there exists the counterpart in past migration and in the travels of men in search of wealth (pegi or bejalai) or to places of special sacred association to acquire spiritual guidance (nampok). The journey described here is Tambap’s travels to and from the realm of the demonic spirits in the course of which he gains riches, magical charms and the accoutrements of a traditional warrior.

Apai Aloi stories are told to children, particularly by grandparents, who often act in Iban families as caretakers of younger, pre-adolescent children, especially if the mother has a still younger child to look after or the parents are away at their fields. Part of the ambivalence associated with Apai Aloi’s character derives from the nature of these stories as children’s fables. Although it is not so evident in this saga, in most Apai Aloi fables Jung’s analysis of the “Trickster” figure in American Indian mythology (1956) might equally well be applied to Apai Aloi, particularly his view of such a figure as a personification of unreason and subconscious impulse, in opposition to the “enculturated” individual, restrained by rationality and internalized social and moral norms. The opposition is expressed in the Iban ensera tradition by the contrast of Apai Aloi with the hero-ideals of Keling and the other Orang Panggau. The ambivalence of Apai Aloi’s character reflects, I would argue, the similarly ambivalent status of children themselves, to whom these stories are addressed, who are likewise seen by the Iban as having only imperfect mastery over their impulses. Moreover, Apai Aloi suffers for his irrationality and lack of restraint. Thus, though basically comic stories, often hilariously so, most Apai Aloi fables have also a moral, or heuristic element. In the end, it is the hero who brings humiliation upon himself for his amorality and base self-seeking is essentially self-destructive.

The present ensera was recorded from Lemambang Luat anak Jabu of Sepuna longhouse, Ulu Paku, Saribas. On the morning of June 6th, 1978, Mr. Benedict Sandin and I travelled to Sepuna longhouse in order to discuss with Lemambang Luat questions relating to the use of farming charms for which this elderly bard is an acknowledged expert. We arrived to find the Lemambang bedridden, but through his family he let it be known that he was not only willing to discuss these matters with us, but, for a suitable fee, he would relate a long ensera, the complete text of which, he said, is known only to himself. I readily agreed and record here, at the conclusion of this paper, the complete text, except for minor grammatical corrections, exactly as he related it.

Lemambang Luat was born in 1886. He has been a practicing bard for nearly seventy years and is today the most senior and experienced Lemambang in the Paku. Although ill, his memory is unimpaired. By his own account the present ensera has a long history. He originally learned it as a child from his grandfather, Lanchang anak Legam, who, in turn, is said to have learned it from Naga anak Empari and his wife, Landan. Empari was the son of the famous Saribas war leader, Uyut “Badilang Besi”. From a genealogy published by Benedict Sandin (1967b: 97), Uyut “Badilang Besi” appears ten generations above his current descendants who are now reaching marriageable age, and seven generations above Mr. Sandin himself. Thus, if the Lemambang’s testimony can be relied upon, some form of this saga has been in existence for at least eight generations.

Lemambang Luat anak Jabu passed away on 25.4.1980 at the age of 96. His vigils were attended by mourners from Sungai Pelandok to the headwaters of the Paku and by guests from the Krian and Rimbas. His passing marks the loss of one of the revered Paku bards in living memory.