East and West
Architectural space is temporalized in still another way. A second basic orientation of the longhouse is in terms of the sun’s movement through the sky from east to west. In Iban east is called matahari tumboh, literally, ‘the direction of the growing sun’,[19] and west, matahari padam, ‘the direction of the extinguished sun’.[20] In ritual contexts, east is associated with life, particularly its beginnings,[21] and west with death. So far as the longhouse is concerned, the basic notion is that the east–west course of the sun, as it journeys from horizon to horizon (tisau langit), must never coincide with the long axis of the house, such that the sun shines into one or the other end of the structure. Otherwise the community is rendered perpetually ‘hot’ (angat). A house, instead, should mirror the sun’s movement within the cosmos. That is, the sun should orbit the house; it should ascend the slope of the roof from the gallery side, reaching its highest point (rabong hari, ‘zenith’), directly over the central ridge-capping (perabong) immediately above the tiang pemun, and then descend again as it follows the slope of the roof downward to the horizon, at the back of the family apartments (ujong bilik). In other words, the east–west movement of the sun over the longhouse should cross-cut its internal upriver–downriver divisions.
The gallery side of the house should thus ideally face eastward, in the direction of the rising sun. In most houses the gallery side opens onto an unroofed veranda called the tanju’ (Figure 3). The tanju’ is strongly associated with the sun and with the daylight phase (hari) of the diurnal cycle. In contrast, the interior of the house is associated with night (malam) and, in ritual contexts, with its inversion: daylight in the unseen world of the souls, gods and spirits. Thus rituals performed on the tanju’ characteristically take place during the day, particularly in its early morning hours, while those held inside the house are typically performed in the evening or at night and recreate their inversions, early morning or day in the unseen world.
Architectural space is temporalized in still another way. A second basic orientation of the longhouse is in terms of the sun’s movement through the sky from east to west. In Iban east is called matahari tumboh, literally, ‘the direction of the growing sun’,[19] and west, matahari padam, ‘the direction of the extinguished sun’.[20] In ritual contexts, east is associated with life, particularly its beginnings,[21] and west with death. So far as the longhouse is concerned, the basic notion is that the east–west course of the sun, as it journeys from horizon to horizon (tisau langit), must never coincide with the long axis of the house, such that the sun shines into one or the other end of the structure. Otherwise the community is rendered perpetually ‘hot’ (angat). A house, instead, should mirror the sun’s movement within the cosmos. That is, the sun should orbit the house; it should ascend the slope of the roof from the gallery side, reaching its highest point (rabong hari, ‘zenith’), directly over the central ridge-capping (perabong) immediately above the tiang pemun, and then descend again as it follows the slope of the roof downward to the horizon, at the back of the family apartments (ujong bilik). In other words, the east–west movement of the sun over the longhouse should cross-cut its internal upriver–downriver divisions.
The gallery side of the house should thus ideally face eastward, in the direction of the rising sun. In most houses the gallery side opens onto an unroofed veranda called the tanju’ (Figure 3). The tanju’ is strongly associated with the sun and with the daylight phase (hari) of the diurnal cycle. In contrast, the interior of the house is associated with night (malam) and, in ritual contexts, with its inversion: daylight in the unseen world of the souls, gods and spirits. Thus rituals performed on the tanju’ characteristically take place during the day, particularly in its early morning hours, while those held inside the house are typically performed in the evening or at night and recreate their inversions, early morning or day in the unseen world.
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