We went out to the Batu Caves, the site of Thaipusam, on Thursday evening with a couple of other teachers from school. The festivities are in full swing on Friday and into Saturday but there were enough pilgrims on Thursday night to get the flavour of the event. I called it Thaipusam Lite. Batu Caves have been a Hindu shrine for over 200 years. The caves are enclosed in a massive limestone outcrop. The entrance to the cave is up a flight of 272 steps. Sitting at the foot of the stairs is a massive golden statue of Muruga.
During Thaipusam the steps and the area at the base of the stairs to the caves is overtaken by over 1 million pilgrims. Pilgrims take part in Thaipusam for two reasons, either to give thanks for some special blessing they have received during the year or to make penance for some sin they have committed. On Thursday night there were no more than a couple thousand pilgrims taking part in the pilgrimage up the mountain. There are a couple of sights along a near by river where the pilgrims gather to prepare for their ascent up the stairs. The first first step cleanse themselves either in the river or at the temporary outside shower stalls put up at the river site. Most of the men and some of the women will then get their heads shaved. They then dress themselves in a golden or yellow robe for the pilgrimage.
Most of the folks we saw were families and after cleansing themselves they would pick up their pitchers of milk and line up to be blessed by one of the priests before heading up on their pilgrimage. There were a few hardcore devotees who prepared themselves in a special way for their walk up the stairs.
One fellow had what looked like a BBQ skewer shoved through one cheek and out the other. He also had small hooks on his back. His task was to walk up the stairs holding a burning offering in each hand. The flames were rather big. We walked beside him as he stumbled up the stairs. It was quite a struggle for him to make it. Another fellow had large hooks placed into his back with numerous bunches of fruit attached, apples, oranges.
We spent at least an hour watching another fellow have what seemed like a 100 hooks embedded into his back. All of these had bells and flowers attached. Once these were attached he smoked up something strange, chugged a few beer, and then proceeded to bless his followers before they all headed up the hill with him in the lead. All these extreme devotees were accompanied by a group of drummers pounding out some iritatingly loud rythmn on their drums.
Bawang Assan Longhouse
We spent most of Friday lazing around our condo and packing up for our trip to Sibu. Sibu is on the island of Borneo, in the East Malaysian sultanate of Sarawak. Air Asia had a ticket sale on at some point last year and I picked a 5RM ($1.50) destination to explore. That should have been the first clue that it might not be a popular destination point. The second clue should have been when I could not glean any information from anyone on our well-traveled staff about the area. The third definately should have been when I couldn't find any information in any of the guide books or online about Sibu. I suppose I was holding out hope that this was the last great unexplored parcel of land in Borneo. I was somewhat wrong.
Sibu is the third largest city in Sarawak and lies on the Rawang River. The Rawang flows deep into Borneo and is the thoroughfare for transport and commerce into the region. It is an enormous river and at Sibu, 60 kilometers from the coast, it is still a mile wide. The area around Sibu is completely flat. So flat that the tidal surges up the river at this point are still 10 to 12 ft high. This leaves a long neglected section of sludge between the river and the shore for half of the day. This area was filled mainly with logs and similar debris, but similar to most of South-East Asia it also has a lot of garbage.
The city is composed mostly of people of Chinese descent. The British brought the Chinese over by the thousands during the colonial periods to work on the rubber and palm plantations. When the British pulled out the Chinese took over pretty well all commercial interests in the area and began to rapidly expand the forestry industry deep into the interior of Borneo. The Rawang brings thousands of logs to Sibu each day for the saw and plywood mills. Much of the rainforests of Borneo end up here before being shipped out to be assembled into furniture for an Ikea (or whatever) near you. Sibu apparently has more millionaires per capita than any other city in South-East Asia. The affluence is well apparent by the palatial homes we could see on the drive from the airport into the city. It was interesting to note that the husband in the homestay family we stayed with worked in one of the sawmills as a security guard. He indicated that out of the 1500 employees at the mill about 1200 were Indonesian workers. Their compensation for a 12 hour shift at the mill was 15RM, the equivalent of about $5. A little less, I think, than the IWA wages back in BC. Deregulation and non-union labour has benefits for some I suppose. The sad part is that the Indonesian workers are there because it is better than opportunities in their home country.
This is outside of the longhouse we stayed in. All made of wood and everyone cooks with a wood stove. Hmm.
The walkway in front of the longhouse.
The communal veranda. During most of the day it was filled with children playing and older folks visiting. During the evening the adults gathered to share stories and tuak.
After a long search I did find that it was possible to take part in a longhouse stay outside of Sibu so after spending the first night in Sibu we headed 50 km out of town to a Iban longhouse village called Bawang Assan. The Iban's are an indigenous people of the region. They were know in the past to be headhunters and although we did see evidence that this, I believe the practice was abandoned long ago. The longhouses are the traditional dwellings of the Iban. They stretch all along the river systems of Borneo. The entire structures are on stilts to keep above the tidal surge that seems to be prevalent along the rivers. Here large numbers of families live under one roof with separate quarters to each off a large communal veranda. The longhouse we stayed in had quarters for 34 families and there were 6 longhouses in the village.
This gruesome site was hanging from the rafters in one of the other longhouses we visited. Our hostess didn't really want to talk about them. There were about a dozen bundled up together.
The village was situated on a tributary of the Rawang, the Bawang. This is the little jetty where everything docks. During the day a supply boat (Walmart) visits. I'm sure it has one of everything.
We had some very gracious hosts who taught us a lot about longhouse life and Iban customs. We got to try on some of their traditional costumes, make some of their food, and drink tuak, their home brewed rice wine. We were actually scheduled for two nights at the longhouse but quickly realized one would be enough, so at the end of the second day we arranged for a ride to the airport and caught a flight back to KL.
Maureen making some cookies with our hostess. All deep fried in palm oil of course. The most difficult part of the process was getting down and up from the little stool.
Some of the cookies. They were actually pretty yummy.
Dressed as Iban. I wouldn't wear the loin cloth and Moe wouldn't go topless. Sorry.
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