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Article Excerpt
Introduction
In 1994, decades after the Punan Vuhang and spirits of their cosmos had ceased contact with each other due to the Punan Vuhang's conversion to Christianity, two dwarflike otu dokgek spirits appeared to the people to appeal for help. One night, during a long period of drought and food scarcity, two female spirits appeared in a dream to a former shaman, asking for food. The following morning, three of the shaman's nephews and members of a related household each obtained a fat wild boar. That evening, the former shaman offered a little of the meat to the dwarf spirits and requested that the Christian God show sympathy toward the spirits. This event demonstrated that although they are now Christians, the Punan Vuhang still believe in spirits.
This paper presents an account of the belief system of the Punan Vuhang before their conversion to Christianity in the late 1960s. Punan Vuhang cosmological beliefs contained four main elements that were related to their socio-economic activities. First, they believed that the realm inhabited by human beings encompassed several spirit realms, some inhabited by benevolent, and others by malevolent spirits. Second, aided by shamans, people were able to cultivate close relationships with the benevolent spirits by celebrating nvangen rituals. These spirits, in turn, assisted them in nullifying the threat of malevolent spirits to which they were exposed in nalau rituals. Third, belief in the harmful effects of the malevolent souls of the dead caused the community to flee from sites of death where these souls were said to linger. Fourth, their augural system influenced their socio-economic life in that the appearances of auguries regulated many of their daily activities.
The paper in this volume will present the first and second elements of the Punan Vuhang former belief system, while the third and fourth elements will appear in a later volume. As the community no longer fully embraces these beliefs, my account is based solely on information provided by informants. Nyinyang Enang, the only former shaman still alive during my fieldwork, was my primary informant and the former shaman that appears in the story above. Nyinyang's narration was difficult to follow and I have relied on Naro Pua and Uji Lating to clarify and order the information. While arranging the material which I present here, I kept in mind an issue mentioned by Endicott (1979:29-30):
But I think it is fair to say that everything I have recorded is present in the Batek cultural tradition, even though it probably does not correspond exactly to what is known by any particular individual. Another difference between Batek knowledge and my description is in the order I have imposed on the material. I have arranged the exposition in a way that I hope will be easily comprehended by the reader. But this does not actually violate Batek conceptions because there is no 'correct' order for describing the Batek world-view.
I also took note of Shanti Thambiah's concern "not to create an impression of coherence in a situation filled with uncertainty and contradictions" (1995:157).
The Punan Vuhang
When I conducted fieldwork in 1993-95, the Punan Vuhang lived in a single longhouse settlement called Long Lidem, at the estuary of the Lidem, a small tributary of the Kajang River, in the Malaysian State of Sarawak (See Maps 1 and 3). Their population then was 70 persons, comprising 47 males and 23 females. They settled down in 1968 and briefly adopted the Adat Bungan religion. In 1970, they converted to Christianity. Before they settled down, they had moved about in a wide area, encompassing some 1500 square miles that covered the headwaters of the Balui River (the name given to the upper part of the Rejang River, the longest waterway in Malaysia), and its tributaries of the Danum, Linau, Kajang, Bahau and the Kihan, tributary of the Iwan River of Indonesia (see Map 2). Rapids and waterfalls along the upper parts of these rivers inhibited traveling and discouraged shifting cultivators from living here, and in the past, only hunter-gatherers occupied this region. Until recently when logging intruded, the area was covered with pristine rainforest vegetation. It was in this isolated region that the Punan Vuhang had lived from time immemorial.
Cosmology
The Punan Vuhang believed that the cosmos consisted of five main realms, with the human realm at its center. Above the human realm was the heavenly realm, or sky, termed lau. Below the human realm was the realm beneath the land. On the same level with the human realm were the upriver and downriver realms. The realms of the heavens and those beneath the land were beyond the reach of ordinary human beings. The upriver and the downriver realms, on the other hand, had no clearly demarcated boundary and overlapped with the human realm. Consequently, ordinary human beings could interact with the spirit beings residing there. In contrast, only shamans could communicate with spirits residing in the realms above and below the earth.
The following depiction of the Punan Vuhang cosmos will provide a background for understanding their belief system. The characteristics of the different realms relate to the beings that reside in them and also to the interactions with beings of other realms. I use the term "realm" to describe the five domains that different categories of spirits inhabited. The Punan Vuhang themselves did not talk of "realms," but accorded specific names for the distinctive domains inhabited by different spirits.
The Heavenly Realm
Figure l shows that the heavenly realm consisted of five distinct regions: Kak lolau (beyond the sky) was the highest. The second highest was the likun avun and the level below that was the nuan sok lau (a place in the sky). All these regions were beyond the reach of ordinary human beings. Only the soul of the shaman could visit these places, and it went regularly to the likun avun to perform nyangen rituals with participating otu tulik spirits.
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Kak Lolau--The kak lolau, or region 'beyond the sky' formed the highest part of the heavens. Its sole inhabitants were the lorong spirits. The only other spirits that were able to travel there were the otu tulik, spirits who inhabited the likun avun region. Besides residing in a region beyond the reach of other spirits (with the exception of the otu tulik), the lorong were also invisible to all other spirits. Their unattainable environs and invisibility made the lorong the most powerful spirits in the Punan Vuhang cosmos, Because of their power, the otu tulik spirits sought the lorong for protection and requested that individual lorong become their protector-spirits, in order to commit a lorong to provide protection, the otu tulik made pacts with them in which they became protector-spirits. After forming a pact with an otu tulik spirit, the lorong protector-spirit then became visible to its otu tulik protege. Other than this, the Punan Vuhang did not know much about kak lolau as it was considered a mysterious place too high even for the soul of a shaman to reach.
Likun Avun--The next region below kak lolau was the likun avun, the best-known realm in the Punan Vuhang cosmology. It was the realm that the otu tulik inhabited, where they performed nyangen rituals comprising musical and singing activities and competitive games (puyat), renowned throughout the cosmos. Because of nyangen, likun avun was a place frequently visited by spirits of other realms, including the souls of shamans who helped otu tulik perform the nyangen rituals.
According to Nyinyang, the only surviving former shaman whose soul is acknowledged to have gone to likun avun, the most striking feature of the region was its brightness (talabangat / talajantan). Everything was sparkling and bright. The other unusual feature was that the houses could fly. Using a helicopter as an analogy, a house could fly and land wherever its inhabitants,...
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