Iban History

Iban tribe can be found in western Borneo and the population at present numbers approximately 875, 000. This makes Iban one of the largest native ethnic groups on the Island of Borneo. They were traditionally shifting agriculturalists, cultivating dry-ice on the slopes of ow, though often steep, hills along river valleys. Most Iban still maintain this subsistence economy (Uchibori, 1984).

Ibans were renowned for Kayau; practicing headhunting and tribal/territorial expansion, and had a frightening reputation as a strong and successful warring tribe in the past.

Since the arrival of Europeans and the following colonisation of the area, headhunting gradually faded out of practice although many tribal customs, practices and language continue. They live in longhouses called rumah panjai.

Sungkit or weaving is the women's warpath. According to legend, some twenty-four generations ago, Singalang Burong, the God of War, taught his grandson; Surong Gunting the use of the most sacred of all the pua, the lebor api, after a period of warfare. The tradition was established that heads captured in war should be received ceremonially on this cloth, which has to be dyed a deep red colour, and was often woven using a special supplementary weft technique (sungkit). This pua was woven at Batu Gelong the longhouse abode of the goddesses of weaving, Kumang, Indai Abang, and Lullong, Indigo (tarum) and other plants used for dyeing were planted around the longhouse. Beyond the longhouse on the farm, cotton (taya), the most important crop next to padi, was planted. (jtxmisc, 2015)

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