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 Hornbill and the Upperworld

The celestial male counterpart of the underworld dragon goddes is the rhinoceros hornbill, a large black and white bird with a striking reak beak excrescence. Among the Barito groups the hornbill, tingang or bungai, is the upperworld god and the supreme deity who, by creating the Tree of Life, led to the creation of mankind.

The male hornbill is commonly associated with the female dragon in the carved sengkaran funeral pole, which is thus a Tree of Life. It is also painted as the spirit ship stem and stern, and carved on women's coffins since women, belonging to the underworld sphere, must be initiated into a new life by the upperworld.

Among the Iban, Kenyah, and related groups the hornbill - kenyalang or temenggang - is but the messenger of the remote high god, the kite or hawk - Singalang Burong or Pelaki. A carved hirnbill image, symbolizing mediation, is carried in procession at peace parleys or, symbolizing teh celestial blessings, it is placed on the top of festival poles, always juxtaposed with an underworld image. Symbolizing initiation, a dried hornbill head is attached to young men's helmets in grade-taking rituals.

In Kenyah and Kayan arts the hornbill motif is restricted to aristocrats, and only warriors and eldery men can wear earrings carved in hornbill ivory. The omen bird is often depicted on Iban priests' woven jackets. A carved rooster is sometimes placed on granary roofs in the Southwest and unidentified birds on the ridge of Barito groups' funeral monuments.

The human skull and a wooden wind-propeller, often attached on top of funeral or festival poles, and stones placed in shrines are male upperworld symbols, as are spear, flagpole, ship mast, and sword. The dagger is the upperworld god's emblem.

Ancient celestial divinities appear in some Kayan and Kenyah creation myths, whereby the male sun and the female moon mated to generate mankind. For the Ngaju the sun is associated with the upperworld but the affiliation of the moon is dubious. The sun and the moon, at any rate, are no longer worshipped. Only the bird god remains.

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.