Valerie PayaRecently, I had a chance to go back to my grandmother’s longhouse, where my mother was born and raised. The longhouse is called Long Selatong Tanjung Tepalit. A longhouse (as the name suggests) is basically long proportionally narrow house divided into a long shared veranda on one side and a row of separated private living areas on the other. You can read more about it on this part of the Wikipedia page.
It took more than 5 hours with a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get there from my hometown in Miri since the road was bad and slippery.
The main reason I went back was to attend my cousin’s wedding. I was excited about the wedding as it was a traditional Kenyah wedding and I have never witnessed one before. The whole ceremony was held for two days.
The first part of the ceremony, called “Tepuku Te’”, was held on the night of 5th of June. Tepuku Te’ is an act of asking the bride’s family for a hand in marriage by the groom’s representatives. And when the bride’s family agrees, the representatives will then walk back to pick up the groom and bring him to the bride’s house. Of course, the marriage has been agreed beforehand and this ceremony is just a symbol.
The next day, the big event was held at the groom’s house. The bride and groom were wearing their traditional costumes. Everyone at the longhouse, even some guests from other longhouses were invited to the wedding ceremony. It was really a beautiful and memorable wedding ceremony I have ever seen.
Now, to describe the whole ceremony would be long and complicated, and my knowledge regarding the culture is not enough, so I would only explain certain events that stood out to me.
One of the events that were done during the ceremony was what we called “Petemban Sa’ong” in Kenyah, which means stacking hats. The bride would sit on a big Gong, called “Tawek” and 8 ladies will stack hats, called Saong, one by one above the bride’s head. Once all the hats are stacked, a little prayer was said by the priest and a Sarong was stacked on each of the hats before it was brought down one by one. I had the chance to get involved in the ceremony and I was told repeatedly not to drop the hat or the Sarong as it can bring bad luck to the marriage.
Another highlight of the ceremony is what we called “Naok”. I’m not sure how to translate that but I think it means going to work on a paddy field or something like that. During this ceremony, 4 pairs of couples will walk in a line with the bride and groom, where the last person of the line will collect a firewood at the first station. They will then walk towards the second station where all of them have to eat a grain of rice. This will go on for 8 rounds.
Once the ceremony has ended, everyone will have lunch together at the long veranda. After that, the guests were served with Kenyah alcohol called “Burak”. The drinking and dancing went on well into the night. But as for me, I’ve gone to bed way early because drinking Burak isn’t my thing.
It was an interesting and merry celebration for me. What do you think of our traditional wedding?