Dayak - Art and Religion

Art and Dayak Religion
Although there are notable differences in the various Dayak groups' religious beliefs, the common environment of jungle and rivers, along with rice-based agriculture, seems to have led to similar Dayak "faiths". Spirits crowd the Dayak supernatural world. These powerful beings-some beneficial, some harmful-are manipulated through rituals, offerings and various artistic expressions. The Dayaks held a vague, generalized concept of a Supreme Being, the Creator, but no special importance was attached to this particular spirit: he had done his job, and that was that. There are no knowing representations of this deity. Emphasis on the Dayak Creator came only with the advent of Christianity, which in the process of conversion, sought out points of similarity with the local regions. Most Dayak art was, and to a large extent remains, intimately associated with religion and social hierarchy. Funerary structures are the most obvious extant examples. These include raised coffins and carved poles to which the animals-

formerly, slaves-are tied before being sacrificed in the ritual. Among the Ngaju, the Out Danum and other groups, the coffins-really ossuaries or mausoleums-were (some still are) adorned with elaborate carvings. People of wealth and status, the aristocrats, received the most elaborate funerals, and pecial motifs were reserved for their coffins. The aristocrats were more powerful than other men on earth were, and similarly their spirits were more powerful in the afterworld. But among certain groups, all of the deceased required a "secondary burial", an additional ritual treatment of the remains to send the soul on its way.

The human body was believed to house two souls. One stayed with the corpse until the flesh decomposed. The other remained in the area of the village until the rituals were performed that would help send the soul on its dangerous journey to the land of the dead. This afterworld was a heavenly abode often associated with unusual mountains. This concept is generally adhered to, with numerous local variations. In preparation for the secondary ritual, the body is buried in an urn or coffin with a hole in the bottom so that the fluids will drain. It is then stored in a home or shelter for a few months until the process of decomposition has taken place and until a propitious time is reached. Then the bones are exhumed from their container, cleaned, and placed in an ossuary or mausoleum, in the context of a huge ceremony that, for a noble, may last for weeks and involve the slaughter of a dozen water buffalo and a hundred pigs.

Funerary Art
Among the Ngaju, and other Dayak groups that were influenced by their culture, the long, complex rituals of the secondary burial required elaborate carvings. The mausoleum, called a sandung, is an intricately carved "house" that rest on one to five pillars, the whole structure standing about 2 meters high. The bones of the deceased are placed in a compartment in this carving. The sandung was

covered with carvings, including the hornbill bird, symbolizing the upper world, and a dragon/snake, standing for the lower world. At the climax of the ceremony, the priest enacts the reunion of the deceased with his spirit, and at this moment a water buffalo tied to a sepunduq-the sacrificial post-is speared to death by the relatives of the deceased. Pigs are also sacrificed. In earlier times, a slave would have been used rather than the animals. The sepunduq were often the finest examples of the woodcarver's art, and depicted demons with fangs, huge protruding tongues, and long noses. The highest, most complex carving associated with Ngaju funerary ritual is the Sengkaran, a 6-meter (20 ft.) pole that supports a carved hornbill bird flying over a forest of spears, which are stuck like a fan into the back of a dragon. The dragon rests on an heirloom Chinese jar.

This carving represents a cosmos, or a tree of life. Particular to Ngaju culture are the ships-of-the-dead, small model sailing ships manned by a crew of benevolent spirits, and designed to help a soul on its way to the after-world. Today, these soul shops are constructed out of gutta-percha for sale to tourists. The cultural diffusion of many of these Ngaju funerary rituals large areas of central Borneo began before the arrival of the Europeans. The recently named and officially recognized kaharingan faith of the Ngaju also has been at least partially assimilated by several Dayak groups in East and West Kalimantan. This religion incorporates a secondary funeral called tiwan, which requires much of the artwork mentioned above.