Gawai Dayak
Gawai, a ritual festival, is celebrated by the Dayak people (a collective name for the native ethnic groups of Borneo, an island in the Malay Archipelago). Gawai is a form of communication with the spirit world. It is important to communicate with the spirit world in order to obtain blessings and to thank the spirits that have aided the Dayaks in agriculture or in healing an ailment. This ritual, involving chants and incantations, is a way to show gratitude to the spirits for the good harvest and health of the Dayak people.
There are four main gawai: rituals connected with cultivation of rice; with health and longevity; with acquisition of wealth; and with headhunting and prestige. The celebration of all gawai involves a series of rites—first, sacrificial offerings (piring) are made; second, there is a cleansing ceremony (biau), which involves a summoning of spirits by incantation and a slaughter of cockerels and waving them as another sacrificial offering to the spirits; and third and most important, prolonged sacred chanting (timang or pengap) by ritual experts or bards (lemambang).
Today, a gawai is usually a festival celebrating the Dayaks' bountiful harvest. (The other types of gawai, especially related to healing and head-hunting, are rarely practiced today due to modernization and mass conversion of the Dayaks to Christianity.) The festival marks the end of one paddy-harvesting season and the beginning of another. It is a time to show gratitude to the gods for the good harvest and to ask for their blessings for the coming season. The contemporary Gawai Dayak is a statewide celebration in Sarawak (a state on the island of Borneo), and is also an occasion to renew communal and cultural ties as well an opportunity for the Dayaks to share their festive mood with other communities.
Further Reading
Freeman, J. D. (1955) Iban Agriculture: A Report on the Shifting Cultivation of Hill Rice by the Iban of Sarawak. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
Jensen, Erik. (1974) The Iban and Their Religion. London and Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kedit, Peter Mulok. (1969) "Gawai Betambah—Bulu." Sarawak Museum Journal 18, 34–35: 120–122.
——. (1969) "A Gawai Kenyalong (Bird Festival) at Wong Pandak, Lubuk Antu." Sarawak Gazette 95 (30 June): 137–143.
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