Preparing the Miring
On May 16 and 30, in Betong where I witness the preparation and in Kuching where I tried it out myself, there were similarities. The preparation was led by an elder or a manang (Iban Shaman) and participated by some people on a mat. A rooster was nearby. The participants of the ceremony sat around the ‘ingredients’ of the miring. This ‘reciepe of success’ (as I’d call it) are:

Sirih leaves;
Sliced Pinang beetle nut;
Kapu or chalk;
Pengenan or Mexican-hat shaped bun;
Pulut Mirah or Red rice dumpling;
Pulut Bura or White rice dumpling;
Pulut Chelum or Black rice dumpling;
Pulut Kuning or Yellow rice dupling;
Asi Tuci or plain rice;
Beras kuning or yellow uncooked rice;
Ketupat or rice cooked in coconut leaves;
Hard-boiled egg;
Cooking oil;
Salt;
Sagun or caramel flour;
Letup or rice a la popcorn.
On the plate, five slices of pinang preceed all the ingredients. This is followed by five torn sirih leaves with chalk spread over them. Then, tobacco and five rolls of cigerette leaves as I’d like to call it were added before five portions of each pulut were added to the offering. Before five slices of bananas, you add plain rice and half a ketupat. You continue with five slices of hard boiled egg – with the yellow. An uncle joked, “add the yellow, the spirits aren’t afraid of cholesterol”. One spoonful of salt, sagun and some cooking oil were added before we sprinkled some letup. To top it all off were some yellow uncooked rice. Worth mentioning that the yellow rices and uncooked rice were white before kunyit or turmeric were used to colour them. And voila, c’est receipe de le miring!
Before the ingredients were kept on the plate, the elder waived the rooster over the ingredients seven times before chanting the prayer, or called miaw in Iban. Sounds like a cat’s purr? Thought so initially. After the number of offerings were done, the elder then waved the rooster over the final products again. The ceremony indoors was led by my uncle, as shown in the picture below. In the picture, was taken by yours truly before we prepared the offerings.