our traditional dance

this is me

my forever organised mess on the table at my parent's house in Sarikei.

an sms that distracting me from revising for exam!

Gawai Padi ( Rice-Harvest Festival)

my youngest sister is ready for the 'Ngalu Petara' ceremony to invite the Petara (God) and spirits of the paddy to come and enjoy the ceremony.

On 31st May every year we celebrate the most anticipating event which is to celebrate the end of the paddy harvest. this is the time where 'all-you-can-eat' buffet is being served throughout the day and night which lasted for at least two days. the traditional foods and drinks are all homemade especially the 'rice wine' which has become a signature liquor to our tribe.

every visitor who come for the festival is highly welcome with a huge range of Tuak (rice wine) and Langkau(rice liquor). you must taste each and every type from different maker and not to leave any maker dissapointed if you refuse.

nobody can escape the tuak especially a beautiful lady!

Our staple food is rice that we plant ourself as a big family. the amount of unprocessed rice can be up to 27m squares for one big family. this can accomodates the family until the next harvest or longer!

Our traditional costume

This is our traditional costume for the ladies. Nowadays, eventhough most of us already leave our longhouse and live in a city, we never miss to come back home during our festive season called Gawai Padi. The ladies' costume consists of glass beads, silver and gold jewelleries and self made clothes consist of selampit and kain. For the hair, the ladies are wearing sugu tinggi which also made of silver and other type of accessories.

Batang Kapuas

Iban tribe is one of the original people of Borneo and have been in Sarawak and Brunei area since 200 to 300 years ago. Before they came to the northern part of Borneo, they are the people of the jungle from Batang Kapuas which located somewhere in the middle of Borneo.

Learn To Speak Iban

Are you planning for a vacation to the jungle of Sarawak and worried about the communication problem between you and local people? Here i will help you with some Iban and Mandarin language. Most of Sarawakian do speak at least understand a little Iban and some can speak fluently!

In small town such as Sri Aman or Betong, the local Chinese traders speaks Iban as most of their customers are Iban.


Greeting
E: How are you?
I: Nama brita?
M: Ni hao?

Introduce oneself
E: My name is _____
I: Nama aku ______
M: Wo de ming tze ciao_______

Asking for direction
E: How to get to ( a place ) ?
I: Bakani ka ngagai_____?

IBAN: THE HEADHUNTER

We live in a large community of 100 to 200 people under one roof. We own the jungle and it has been our playground eversince. We love to hunt for food. We love our food. We are proud of our drink. We are proud to be an Iban.
Around 200 years ago Iban was one of the fiercest tribe in Borneo. We are known as THE HEADHUNTER.