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

Traditional Life: The Fields

Paddy is the source of life and its cycle is heavily accompanied by taboos and ritual meant to ensure its fertility. In fact, most customs and rituals - including headhunting - are connected with the major religious concept of fertility. The paddy has a vulnerable soul which must be carefully attended to and protected during its growth from evil influences spreading diseases and pests.

Magical wooden figures are sometimes carved for this purpose. Major festivals, held at the beginning of the farming cycle and during the paddy growth, may feature parodies of sexual intercourse; ritual transvestism - women dressed as men, dancing a pretense of taking enemies' heads; or dancers wearing animal masks; or a huge dragon or boar figure manoeuvered by up to 40 men; or even human sacrifice. These features all boil down to a plea for fertility and a bane-free year.

Art in traditional life: People at home, Household arts and crafts, Clothes and textiles, Personal adornment, The wider world, The fields, River and forest, Trade, War, headhunting, and sacrifice, Traditional religion, Of Gods and men, Life and ritual, Sickness and shamanism, Death and funeral art, Primary funerals, Secondary funerals, The living and the death.