POST 4 | SARAWAK LONGHOUSES
Hey guyssss, I’m here again. I had
shared the Malay houses in my previous post, which is talk about the design, structure and material of Malay houses. Today, I’ll
going to share with you Sarawak longhouses.
In Malaysia, there’s a unique architecture highlights of the indigenous people of Sarawak which longhouses. How much did you understand for Sarawak longhouse? Longhouses can be thought as housing entire communities under one roof or indoor villages. “The Longhouse is considered to be the traditional dwelling of ethnic groups such as the Iban, Melanau, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu in Sarawak.” (Sim, 2010)
The houses look slightly different from each other for these groups of indigenous people. But, they all are common physical characteristics possessed. “An average longhouse is built to accommodate as many as 40 families while some of the larger houses are built for as many as a 120 families or some 500 to 600 people.” (Sim, 2010)
There are four main types of longhouses in Sarawak which is Iban Longhouse, Malanau Tall House, Orang Ulu Longhouse and Bidayuh Longhouse. Today, I’ll talk more about Iban Longhouse and roughly talk about others longhouses in Sarawak. They used tree bark to make the walls of the house and used ironwood to make thatch or shingles. The structures of the longhouse normally build of axe-hewn timber, tied with the creeper fiber and used woven atap or thatched leaves. The longhouses had gradually improved and upgraded when the community established.
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| Iban Longhouses (Image source: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/1511/thesis.pdf?sequence=1) |
Most of the families like the tradition of longhouse dwelling living arrangement among the tribes in Sarawak. They relied on this living arrangement for protection from the attack of other tribal and support in order to survive the harsh environment.
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| The Iban Ethnic (Image Resource: http://sethpeli.com/76/) |
From the culture and living habits of Iban, we can know that Iban is a unite ethnic. They care about each other, they live together to protect themselves and survive. And, they also build their architecture based on their needs.
Otherwise, the Melanau traditional dwelling is a type of a longhouse but it is best known as the rumah tinggi (tall house) as it consists of three storeys.
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| The Melanau Tall house, Sarawak
(Image source: https://www.tripadvisor.com.ph/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g298309-d455038-i91550550-Sarawak_Cultural_Village-Kuching_Sarawak.html) |
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| The Orang Ulu longhouse (Image source: http://www.roughguides.com/article/joining-the-party-at-an-iban-longhouse-malaysia/) |
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| The Bidayuh longhouse (Image source: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/1511/thesis.pdf?sequence=1) |
In conclusion, a multi family living arrangement historically which is the tradition of longhouse dwelling favoured among the tribes in Sarawak. For protection from other tribal attacks and for support in order to survive the harsh environment, people relied on this kind of living arrangement.
References:
Hays,
J. (2013) CULTURE, ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN MALAYSIA. [Online] Available at:
http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Malaysia/sub5_4f/entry-3157.html#
(Accessed: 11 June 2016).
Limited,
R.G. (2016) Longhouse architecture | about southwestern Sarawak.[Online] Available at:
http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/asia/malaysia/sarawak/southwestern-sarawak/longhouse-architecture/
(Accessed: 11 June 2016).
Sim, S. (2010) ‘A thesis submitted in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture’, Redefining
the Vernacular in the Hybrid Architecture of Malaysia, , pp. 29–46.
Ting,
J. (2016) The egalitarian architecture of the Iban Longhouse. [Online] Available at:
http://www.academia.edu/165882/The_Egalitarian_Architecture_of_the_Iban_Longhouse
(Accessed: 11 June 2016).
Van
Wijnen, B. (2001) Longhouses. Available at:
http://www.malaysiasite.nl/longhouseng.htm (Accessed: 11 June 2016).
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