Frontiers of Death
Iban expansion and inter-ethnic relations in West Borneo
Oral histories often portray the rapid Iban expansion in northwestern Borneo during the last centuries as a valiant struggle against powerful enemies. Western writers have taken up this 'aggressive' theme as well, spurred on by colonial accounts of 'rebellious' Iban, and European attempts to pacify them. Yet relations between the Iban and neighbouring ethnic groups were complex, varying between close co-operation and downright hostility. To deal with such contradictory relations, a unique institution developed on these ethnic borderlands. It was called 'pintu bunoh', the door of killing, or 'pintu kayau', the door of raiding.
* By REED L. WADLEY
As the Iban expanded out of their homeland in the Batang Lupar river basin of Sarawak (now part of East Malaysia), they encroached on land occupied by other (often closely related) groups. Within Sarawak, for example, the Iban migrated into the Rejang river system in search of both new farmland and valuable forest products for trade, coming into conflict with the Kanowit and Kayan while themselves allying with Beketan foragers. Iban movement into what would become West Kalimantan also saw a mixture of conflict and co-operation. Some groups (like the Belaban Bukit, Memayan, and Mandai) fled to other areas, while others like the Kantu' and the Embaloh remained and accommodated the newcomers (see: King 1976).
The meaning of pintu bunoh or pintu kayau differs depending on whom you ask whether the person's ancestors lived along an inter-ethnic frontier or away from it in the 'tribal core'. For those who lived away from the frontier, pintu kayau best describes the practice. Here, a war leader or tau' serang (men who had the proper dreams to lead large war forces) would station his manok sabong (lieutenants, literally fighting cocks) in longhouses along the frontier, to guard against outside raiders. Within the tribal core, pintu kayau was a threshold to be defended against enemies.
For those actually living on the frontier, the situation was much different. As you can imagine, a good deal of stress and worry would result from living next to hostile people who might rather cut off your head than say 'hello'. This was solved with the pintu bunoh, which in this context became a pact between frontier dwellers of otherwise hostile tribes. This pact was often made sacred and binding through a blood ceremony (bekempit darah) in which frontier leaders of each group adopted the other as brothers. As a result, these men were obligated to tell each other about raids by their own group against the other. They also refrained from raiding against each other, even into the tribal core. The frontier longhouses became neutral locations where the wounded of the enemy group could be treated.
Two examples show these characteristics quite clearly: A Dutch report in 1878 described an Iban man named Alau who lived in the borderland between the Iban and the Kantu'. He was one who 'never meddles in these troubles, but warns both sides of approaching danger.' Indeed, when a Dutch patrol arrived to stop a large attack on the Kantu' by the Iban, Alau had just returned from passing information to the Kantu' (Mailrapport 1878). Little else is known about Alau, but he surely lived on a pintu bunoh.
The other example is that of Jinak, an Iban manok sabong who lived on the frontier adjoining the Embaloh population on the Leboyan River. His descendants today say he was the first Iban to settle next to the Embaloh, and the first to make peace with them. The blood pact he made bound him to refrain from hostile acts against the Embaloh and to provide them with information on Iban threats. If he or his Embaloh partners broke the oath, it is said, they and their descendants would be killed supernaturally. This oath was sorely tested in 1882 when a huge Iban force of some 2,000 men attacked the Leboyan settlements, and burned three longhouses. The Embaloh sued for peace and ransomed their safety by giving the Iban six large and highly valuable ceramic jars. By all accounts, Jinak (and other frontier Iban) stayed out of the way, even though Jinak's cousin, Ngumbang, was the tau' serang of the force. (Jinak's son took part, apparently not feeling bound by his father's promises).
Today these inter-ethnic frontiers persist, although without the threat of war hanging overhead. Given the numerical dominance of the Iban, both the Kantu' and the Embaloh have made more accommodations to the Iban than the other way around. For example, the Kantu' may have adjusted their customary law to that of the Iban so as not to lose out in land disputes (Dove 1985). And most Embaloh speak Iban very well, while only those Iban who have spent much time with the Embaloh (such as in boarding school) can speak Embaloh. (The Iban and Kantu' languages are so closely related as to be dialects of the other, but Iban and Embaloh languages are not.) What is more, Kantu' and Iban, and Embaloh and Iban, continue to interact and socialize at rituals, on markets, and on other occasions. On the latter frontier, there are two entirely mixed Iban-Embaloh communities, and elsewhere a good many Iban and Embaloh continue to marry into each other's families. The power of Jinak's blood oath has endured also. Today it is interpreted to prevent conflict over land between two otherwise antagonistic Iban and Embaloh communities.
References
Dove, M. R., 'The "Kantu" system of land tenure: The evolution of tribal land rights in Borneo', in G. N. Appell (ed.), Modernization and the Emergence of a Landless Peasantry, Studies in Third World Societies No. 33., Williamsburg: College of William and Mary (1985), pp. 159-182.
King, V. T., 'Some Aspects of Iban-Maloh Contact in West Kalimantan', Indonesia 21 (1976), pp. 85-114.
Mailrapport, Algemeen Rijksarchief, Den Haag, Ministerie van Koloniën (1878), No. 219.
Dr Reed L. Wadley is an anthropologist and research fellow at the IIAS.
E-mail: rwadley@let.leidenuniv.nl