Borneo-Dayak CRAFTS
indonesia exporter of dayak tribe's handmade crafts & tribal arts

Borneo's Dayak handicraft, the beauty of ancient tribal arts and handmade crafts

Bornean Art: The Dragon and the Underworld

In all of Borneo the underworld, the source of fertility, is the realm of the dragon; a theme found in India and China. The Bornean dragon corresponds to the Indian makara water monster, the Balinese Barong, and the Batak Singa. Whereas the Chinese dragon such as depicted on ceramic jars is a male symbol, the Bornean dragon is definitely female. The Ngaju call it "the feminine Jata with the golden door".

The dragon goddes, being close to mankind, provides protection in daily life - mostly through dragon spirits represented as emanations from her - and sacrifices to her secure agricultural and human fertility. She guards over the dead and ensures their passage from this world to the next. As men must be initiated into the next world by the underworld, she is represented on men's coffins. She is associated with earth, water - particularly the primeval waters - storms, and lighting. She is represented on virtually all artefacts, from kitchen utensils to funeral monuments, and particularly on symbolic or real boats.

The Iban and the Barito depict elongated snake-like dragons, with or with out feet, while the Kenyah dragon features profusely spiralled horns, claws, and tail. The Kayan believe that very old pythins and cobras turn into dragon, langunan. On everyday artefacts, however, the dragon is represented crouched and called aso, dog, as naming the goddes may be dangerous.

The dragon motif is often abbreviated to its head, forming a frightening monster face with a protuding tounge, called hudo, kambe, or locally belare or aran (lightning), as a reminiscence of the old thunder god. Two full dragon figures may be combined to form such a striking face. The dragon motif is further stylized in forcussing on its eye, which in turn changes into a double spiral or a rosette. Small dragon motifs are arranged linearly or spatially to form geometric and floral patterns. Iban tattoo motifs called scorpion or frog really represent the dragon, which may also be stylized in the so-called tuba-root motif of Kayan tattoos.

In the arts, other reptilian or aquatic animals - crocodiles, lizards, turtles, snakes, frogs, and fish - are equal to the dragon. The first two appear in place of the dragon virtually everywhere as protective designs and in funeral artefacts as inisiators to the next world. All over the archipelago, they are symbols of vitality and fertility - and rebirth after death. The Northeastern groups make huge effigies of crocodiles out of mud, and the Kayan and Melanau mold them out of cooked rice.

Like the dragon, the crocodile appears associated with boats. Snakes are designed on sword hilts and blades and locally on coffins, whereas fish seems limited to the Barito group's bamboo carvings and funeral monuments and to Iban textiles. Attractive low seats are carved in the shape of a turtle, a motif often appearing as the underworld counterpart to the upperworld hornbill in major festivals like the Iban gawai burong.

The water buffalo, a symbol of vitality, is associated with the underworld and often replaces the dragon in funeral art in plains regions of the Southwest, Sarawak, and Sabah. Buffalo heads are represented in the Barito groups' plaitworks as sacrificial items. The upland peoples, who do not buffaloes, nevertheless add buffalo horns on dragon or turtle carvings and - like the low plains people - on roof finials and festival poles.

Fork funeral posts of the Central-Northern groups may also represent horns. The large deer of Borneo has also come to replace the dragon in funeral monuments among the Dusun, Murut, Central-Northern groups, and some Melawi peoples.

Bornean arts: The dragon and the underworld, The Tomb-Womb-Jar, The hornbill and the upperworld, The tree of life, The squatting slave and other anthropomorphs, The old tiger, The spirit ship, Plant and geometric motifs.