Sarawak: People of the Longhouse and Jungle

Dr Steiner has made many trips to Sarawak and Sabah since 1992 to study the pitcher plants in these parts of Borneo. The results of these studies have been published in 2002 in a book Borneo: Its Mountains and Lowlands with Their Pitcher Plants. These treks gave the author and his wife frequent opportunities for close and friendly contacts with the peoples living there. They had especially good relations with the Iban and the Orang Ulu of Sarawak. Often during discussions with Europeans, stories and questions concerning the head-hunting days in times gone by (even though head-hunting was banned almost 100 years) were still frequent and Dr Steiner realised that knowledge was quite scarce about the surprisingly highly developed culture of these peoples. The author collected his experiences with several tribes—the Iban, Melanau, Kenyah, Kayan, Kajang, Penan and also the Lun Bawang and Kelabit from the remote highlands—to show that they still have a very colourful cultural life. In 2005 and 2006 he studied especially the upper Baram Ulu region and the Punan Bah tribe at the Rajang rapids between Kapit and Belaga. A large number of photographs document their active cultural life, covering painting, music and dancing, carving, beadwork, weaving and other handicrafts. He got the impression that he was assisting to document a vanishing culture, because influences of telecommunications, travel and increasing intrusion of the logging industry have influenced the traditions in most parts of this area of Sarawak.

He made these frequent treks with his wife, who was an indefatigable traveller and very valuable help in all his studies. This publication will be of interest to naturalists, ethnologists, sociologists, and friends of Borneo and the Far East in general.

Author(s): Hugo Steiner

Hugo Steiner is a Swiss citizen who graduated from the University of Zurich as a medical doctor specialising in endocrinology. After research work and practical medical studies for many years both in Switzerland and abroad, he opened a private medical practice, specialising in endocrinology and diabetes at Basel, Switzerland.

Between 1991 and 2005 Dr Steiner and his wife spent about a month each year in Borneo, visiting the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah primarily in order to study the carnivorous pitcher plants found in these two states.

The frequent contacts with the often quite remote peoples in these states resulted in the present book primarily highlighting the rich cultural life of these peoples and also touching on some problems of the ecological and sociological aspects in this rainforest country. He also studied the results of the influence on these peoples of Western civilisation, Christianity and the Muslim faith. The present report is limited to Sarawak. This multi-ethnic state was ruled by the White Rajahs of the British Brooke family from September 1841 to March 1946 and since 1963 has been part of Malaysia. This state is rich in offshore oil and gas and has a very active logging industry and agriculture, especially oil palm, rubber and pepper plantations.

Publisher: Opus Publications

First Published: December 2007

No. of Pages: viii + 214 pp.

Size: 18.5 x 25.5 cm (Hardcover)

ISBN: ISBN 978-983-3987-01-6

Cover: HB

Price: US $63.00

Weight: 1100g

Quantity: