Arts of Borneo from Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Arts of Borneo from Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
This month, Art of the Ancestors is pleased to introduce eighteen items from Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen deriving from the Island of Borneo that are future additional candidates for illustrating our Borneo gallery.
The majority of Borneo's landmass is part of the Republic of Indonesia, with the island's North coast being divided between East Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah) and the Sultanate of Brunei. Borneo is the world's third-largest island. Over 74 groups exist there, often with their own languages or related dialects and varying cultural traditions. The 19th and 20th-century creations pictured here are from various Dayak groups and include material from the Iban, Bidayuh, Kenyah-Kayan cultural complexes, Barito, Melawi groups, as well as the Ot Danum and the Ngaju of Central Kalimantan.
In this new aggregation of Borneo material, there are three impressive shields that were collected between 1861 and 1883. Two have bold frontal singular representations of powerfully silhouetted hunkered figures. A third Kayan (or a related group) shield from Kalimantan features fractured asymmetrical details, whose puzzle-like bits constitute the transforming face of a nan berang or 'lightning being with fangs'. This design impresses across cultural boundaries with its curvilinear qualities and varying facial parts that are coming together or drifting apart. NMVW catalog notes state that this impressive shield was collected by 1864. A photograph dated 'ca 1867' in the KTLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies archives (#4543) also reveals one of the earliest posed photographs of a Dayak warrior in full regalia who appears to be holding the same shield.
Among the other items in this month's offerings associated with headhunting are three trophy skulls collected between 1859 and 1884. After preparation, the skulls of dispatched enemies or victims were publicly displayed. Among some Dayak groups, these trophies were finely decorated with clay, various forest piths, and natural binders that vaguely imitated flesh. Depending on the group, cleaned skulls were sometimes engraved or incised with rosettes, tendrils, and swirling designs. Though rare, hammered inlays or overlays of beaten lead or tin sheet were also employed by a few tribes to further aid in the process of 'beautifying' their trophy heads. Raised rounded wooden plugs or cowrie shells were occasionally inserted to recreate eyes to make the skulls of a decapitated enemy more comely and seemingly alive. Depending on the group, trophy skulls were hung above doorways, along a longhouse's inner verandah's hall, above the hearth, and on 'skull' hooks (though wood and forged iron hooks of various sizes and constitution were used to hang diverse items ranging from skulls to ceremonial baskets to treasured strands of beads).
Returning to the martial character of the finest Dayak warriors, John Dalton, an Englishman and early visitor to North Borneo in 1827-1828, recorded:
"They have no idea of fear and fight until they are cut to pieces; indeed their astonishing strength, agility, and peculiar method of taking care of themselves, are such that I am firmly of the opinion that a good European swordsman would stand little chance with them, man to man."
In the 1970s, although headhunting had, of course, long since ceased, one could still encounter reminders of an earlier time in the remotest areas. On more than one occasion, I personally witnessed old women dancing with skulls, ululating and carrying them like swathed infants wrapped in special sungkit cloth that was once designated for that purpose. Another item associated with martial valor is a high-ranking Ot Datum warrior's headgear or pelangan, which was acquired between 1833-1893. Its wicker base is decorated with casques and splits of hornbill beak ivory to which plumes of awe-inspiring hornbill, forest rooster, and Argus pheasant feathers have been added. This was done to magnify or project a warrior's sense of prowess and status and to assist him in asserting masculine dominance over others. Also included is a rare and finely painted Tebidah war jacket that was tightly twined from the inner fiber of the liana vine.
Among a number of Dayak groups, the hornbill is venerated as an upper-world symbol and a messenger of the gods. This is most commonly seen in the ceremonial carvings known as kenyalang from the Iban of Sarawak. Images of the NMVW's fine Iban hornbill reflect its status as the messenger of blessings. Formally, hornbills as agents of Singalang Burong, the god of war, were also associated with headhunting feasts and successful raids — that, in modern times, have morphed into carvings that are propitiated and celebrated during the Iban harvest festival or gawai (kenyalang) when they are paraded along a longhouse's open verandah. Also featured is a ceremonial Ot Datum mat from central Borneo. Its well-crafted design recalls the role that hornbills play in some of the region's creation and regeneration myths. In some stories, hornbills are envoys of the competing divine forces that divide and unite the upper and lower realms. Here, the birds feast and tear apart the Tree of Life, laying waste to its riches, until a fallen seed begins a process of re-fertilization that results in a new tree's generation.
Each group has varying, sometimes complex stories involving the rise and fall of the Tree of Life that may also include humanity's birth. For example, in Kayan myth, the earth is simply a barren stone until the Sun drops a wooden sword handle on it. Over eons of time, this handle burrows into the hard, lifeless surface of the earth, which in time gives rise to the great Tree of Life (Batang Utar Tatei). The Tree will eventually marry a rope vine or tendril that descends from the Moon. It is from their union (of the Sun and the Moon) that humanity first emerges in the form of a pair of fraternal twins that are sometimes said to be akin to the Tree's pendant fruit. In Borneo, as elsewhere throughout Indonesia, ritual pairing is an important concept and a constant tenet or theme found in the area's art forms, their ritual use, and each group's attendant stories. For readers who are further interested, Dayak creation stories, myth-texts, songs or oral histories can certainly rival in their richness those of classical Western literature from ancient times.
Stories are also transferred and employed for various purposes through the widespread use of masking in Borneo. Images of three masks that were primarily associated with funeral rites are illustrated here. Interment ceremonies via a cycle of celebratory events, known as the tiwah, surround the secondary burial of a family member's bones. This is a celebratory time and a fraught moment of passage when the living says goodbye to the dead, and the dead temporarily linger, one last time, before their final resurrection in another abode. During the tiwah, waves of outlandishly clothed and oversized figures wearing masks known as bukung descend upon the village and indulge in mock struggle or combat with its inhabitants that reflect these covalent tensions. The bukung entertain the bereaved and are welcomed and given sweet rice wine to drink so that the outcome of their presence will ultimately not haunt anyone or bring misfortune to the longhouse. The first bukung is a theatrical mask with striking orange and black pigments applied to a sunken and whitened face, one replete with a fanged mouth and an arrestingly pair of upturned brows. It was once part of the Georg Tillman (1882-1941) collection. His choicely acquired items have often been reproduced after they passed to the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. The second mask is of a more somber palette. While it entered the Dutch museum system in 1921, it is an early collected piece (1887) that formerly came from an aggregation of Borneo items associated with the Royal Zoological Society's Natura Artis Magistra. The last bukung entered the museum system prior to 1890. This mask hails from the Sampit River in the Kawarengen Regency in central Kalimantan. With its exaggerated raised brow line, crooked nose, striking black and white applied coloration, toothy mouth, and long goatee, it is a stagy and classical example of the genre. Bukung transiting through the village were intended to set off an array of mixed emotions ranging from whimsy to fear as the bukung's spirit must be ritually coaxed and successfully escorted back to the domain of the dead.
In the realm of sculpture, there are several figurative statues of note and a carved chief's stool of import. The first figure, known as a sapundu plays a role in remembering the departed. While many statues exist in a related or similar guise, this one is notable for its early collection history (1887, ex-Natura Artis Magistra collection) and its superior artistic quality. As representing an upper-class female, she holds a sirih box for betel nut and stares downwards, reflecting both her height on a stout pole and a beatific mien. Such statues were placed near sengkaran, larger poles fitted with pierced antique Asian trade jars. These impressive assemblages represent the primeval waters that flow through our own existence, as well as those of the upper and lower realms. These connective poles are often topped with carved images of hornbills and with dragons/or underworld serpents being celebrated near their bottom girth. Memorial poles are also erected around elaborately carved four-posted mausoleums (sandung). It is in this general area that a tethered buffalo is sacrificed and in olden times, irau, slaves were dispatched to ensure a safe departure and, most importantly, a good welcome into the next world.
The second statue, a unique miracle of survival, is said to be of Ngaju origin from the Barito River area. It was collected in 1910. This figure depicts a skyward-looking giant crocodile in a female body with large drooping breasts and engorged nipples (which is very unusual) along with her beautifully articulated human hands and feet. She is also wearing jewelry. Her mouth contains sharply serrated teeth and a long and exposed serpentine tongue. While crocodiles also have tongues, they are contained and fixed to the upper roof of their mouths by a membrane. The exact function(s) of this remarkable figure, carved by a master carver, is unknown to the author. However, crocodiles are the servants of Jata, the supreme goddess of the underworld (who, in conjunction with the supreme god of the upper world, Mahatala, represents the cosmic dance or union of all things). In the wild, the largest crocodiles grow to a whopping average length of eighteen feet and live for some seventy years, and as such, are greatly feared carnivores, especially saltwater crocodiles who are opportunistic feeders that will eat most anything. However, they are also highly respected and considered in many places to be wise and kingly ancestors, and they appear in numerous guises in Dayak stories.
In the Mahakam region, the Kayan and related groups are organized by their aristocratic claims. There, high chiefs had the prerogative of sitting on finely decorated low stools or seats without aprons or backs. The one recorded here is said to be Kayan, and it was acquired, according to museum records, in 1890. This particular stool (they are all uniquely different) depicts a scaled and powerful dragon-like coiled mythological creature (aso) whose eyes shine with large blue trade beads. Such seats linked chiefs to the transformational female powers of underworld animals while simultaneously demonstrating their association with upper-world deities. Chiefly stools also announced its sitter's identity to the spirit world. Today, older versions of these seats are extraordinarily rare, as only a few have survived the upheavals of modernity. The most famous of these mini-thrones is a Bahau Sa'a seat from the middle Mahakam Basin illustrated in J.P. Barbier's seminal catalog, Art of the Archaic Indonesians (page 110/plate 65). That seat represents the cosmic turtle upon whose carapace the world rests (much as Atlas supports the globe on his back in Greek mythology).
In conclusion, there are so many items of merit in museum storage depots around the globe that have not yet been imaged for online audiences. It is with great pleasure and respect that we are able to expand those horizons with new additions of documented items with proven provenances from Borneo and the islands beyond.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Shield | Talawang
Kalimantan
Before 1883
Wood, rattan, paint
RV-405-57
2
Shield
Kalimantan
Before 1864
Wood, rattan, paint
RV-37-537
3
Shield
Ngaju peoples
Wood, rattan, pigments
RV-16-323
4
Warrior’s Hat | Pachangang
Ot Danum peoples
1833-1893
Rattan, hornbill beak, cotton, feathers
RV-942-18
5
Warrior’s Jacket | Badju Beruti
Tebidah peoples
Before 1900
Fiber, pigments, paint
TM-H-1687
6
Trophy Skull
Kalimantan
Before 1859
Human skull, tin, wood, mica, rattan, paint, cowrie shells, beads
RV-360-5268
7
Decorated Skull of a Dayak
Kalimantan
Before 1887
Human skull, wood, tin,
TM-A-5286
8
Trophy Skull
Kalimantan
Before 1884
Human skull, tin, pewter, rattan, pigment, cowrie shells, modeling agent (clay)
RV-427-22
9
Wooden Rack
Kenyah peoples
Before 1927
Wood, tusk, paint
TM-391-61
10
Carved Wooden Board with Figurative and Aso Motifs
Kahajan Dayak peoples
1862-1932
Wood, paint
TM-740-61
11
Hornbill | Kenyalang
Iban peoples
1827-1927
Wood, paint
TM-399-1
12
Woven Mat
Ot Danum peoples
1868-1968
Rattan, pigments
RV-4268-24
13
Ritual Mask | Bukung
Ngaju peoples
Before 1890
Wood, pigments, feathers, grass
RV-789-36
14
Mask
Dayak peoples
Before 1887
Wood, polychromy
TM-A-3376
15
Ritual Mask
Dayak peoples
Before 1940
Wood, paint
TM-1772-964
16
Wooden Statue on a Pedestal | Hampatong
Ot Danum peoples
Before 1887
Wood
TM-A-4323b
17
Zoomorphic Seat | Kang
Kayan peoples
Wood, beads
RV-1219-51
18
Wooden Statue on a Pedestal | Hampatong
Ngaju peoples
Before 1910
Wood
WM-19571
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen.
© Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen