Alena Lipang, just found these old bangles that were kindly made for me by some Penan friends. Some people call me Lipang which is my Kelabit name inherited from my grandma.
These bangles in Kelabit we call leku (not sure of spelling), in Penan language the woven ones “jong” and the black ones “selungan”. They are usually made from the inner part of a stem of a type of fern (sometimes rattan), and naturally dyed black with the leaves and/or shoot of another plant. Sometimes they use dylon.
Penan (used to) wear a lot of bangles to protect them from crocodiles. Gosh with the amount of crocodiles in Sarawak now these could make a come back!
Penan (and other tribes) first learnt to read and write via the missionaries in 1930 - 1950s and this knew found knowledge is reflected and documented in the alphabets they started to incorporate in their weaving (on baskets, mats, bracelets). When I was a kid my mum was doing academic research on this - you can Google scholar search her papers “Dr Valerie Mashman”.
Penan people used to be nomadic, they are a population of about 14,000 in Borneo and classified as an orang ulu subgroup.
All info above is from my personal experience, not academic info, and more representative of ulu Baram kelapang area, Sarawak.
#sarawak #accesories #kuching #kelabit #penan #dayak #craft #craftwork #rattan #fern #malaysia #sarawakmoretodiscover #naturaldyes
