Borneo's Dayak handicraft, the beauty of ancient tribal arts and handmade crafts
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The ambiguous tiger of Borneo was most likely a major celestial god in an ancient pantheon that blurred away into a divine mixture and, indeed, an Aoheng myth states that the dragon and hornbill gods were born of the tiger.

Bornean Art: The Old Tiger


Although the Bornean peoples have no direct knowledge of the tiger - nonexistence here in historical times - their myths describe it accurately. Among the Barito peoples the tiger, "whose bones are spears and back is a shield", is a minor god of the male sphere, supposedly an emanation of the upperworld. But it is sometimes described as a fish-like creature, hinting at an underworld affiliation.
The Benua' substitute it for the dragon in funeral art, as do some Central-Northern groups. The Kenyah tiger appears closely associated with the dragon in beadwork and painting, but occassionally replaces the hornbill on top of ritual poles.

The Aoheng tiger, often transposed into a bear or a dog for fear of its power, is born of the moon and is master of the waters and of storms and lightning. The great avenger of taboo transgressions - particularly incest and mockery of animals - it devours, drowns, or petrifies offenders. For the Aoheng amd related peoples, as for the Semang of Malaya, it is a divine healer.

The ambiguous tiger of Borneo was most likely a major celestial god in an ancient pantheon that blurred away into a divine mixture and, indeed, an Aoheng myth states that the dragon and hornbill gods were born of the tiger. Whatever its origin, the powerful tiger motif is often restricted to aristocratic and high-status families.

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.