Iban Culture And Tradition

Though there is no set of established rules to this tradition common understanding by the community at large have accepted this traditional courtship as part of the iban way of life.

Iban culture and tradition. However this tradition has extinct because itis illegal to kill. The skulls of the enemy will be cleaned and hanged in their houses to prove their braveness. Likewise all traditional iban rituals can be replaced by equivalent christian prayer sessions. It is not necessary to replace the iban cultural system with that of the jewish as performed by jesus christ in the bible.

It is usually red in colour. Even the so called expert such as the anthropologists give a word or two regarding it then pass on to other matters. Some believe that the word iban was an ancient original iban word for people. The writers on customs seems to forgot the.

The origin of the name iban is a mystery although many theories exist. Traditions few centuries ago iban used to practice head hunting having the enemy s head taken down. Since conversion to christianity some iban people celebrate their ancestors pagan festivals using christian ways and the majority still observe gawai dayak the dayak festival which is a generic celebration in nature unless a gawai proper is held and thereby preserves their ancestors culture and tradition. Originally comprising of a traditional woven skirt called kain kebat sugu tinggi headdress rawai tinggi high corset and a silver lampit belt the ngepan indu is accessorised with stud earrings tumpak pirak silver bracelets and silver necklaces.

The ngepan indu also features leg bracelets. Today a considerable large number of iban have become christians. The iban traditional costume for women is marik empang and kain kebat. For example our modern biau ai ansah sacred words were taken from the holy bible our traditional beliefs constituted mythical and legendary heroes the people of tansang kenyalang panggau libau.

But we maintain our traditional and cultural heritage which in many way originated from our old belief systems. Iban women require to wear marik empang at any occasion or festival. For this reason ngayap was encouraged as part of the iban culture and treated as an important early learning and social interaction process for their children. The ibans today are becoming increasingly urbanised while surprisingly retaining most of their traditional heritage and culture.

Marik empang is a combination of beads and hand stitched cotton decorative outer garment. Today a much bigger kemada is trying to recruit people knowledgeable about other traditional iban cultures which are slowly being forgotten especially those related to age old rituals or pastimes. The iban sea dayak folks have their ngepan indu for women and ngepan laki for the men. If an iban do not have this courage he is not considered eligible for marriage.