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Photographer’s Note

Remember I was previously drinking tuak with the Ibans. I wrote "then there was dance", we're now coming to the point.

So the guy put his feather headdress and tied his parang on his waist. A parang is a long knife you use in Borneo to cut things...human heads for instance. He started dancing to the sound of gongs the Iban dance that is often shown, the one that traditionally used to be performed after having harvested a good stock of human heads. The successful head hunter needs to be rewarded ...

...as almost everything for the Ibans starts or finishes around Tuak, dance isn't an exception, I had to put a glass of Tuak in front of me (see pic 1), while dancing with hisses and "huuuh!" sounds, he started moving down and took the glass with his teeth, stood up and emptied it (see pic 2.) and finally went away to end the dance (pic 3.).
The dance is an occasion to show how supple and endurant the hunter is. Endurant because in big ceremonies they usually lift a 20kg piece of wood with the teeth and supple because that is executed only with smooth curvy moves of the legs.

Afterwards he insisted I had to dance also and believe me, moreover that I was ridiculous (yeah but I didn't have the parang and the feathers, that's why...), it's a real pain for the muscles of the leg.

Well, that could have been worse, in some Dayaks tribes, they sing and you have to sing a song by yourself...no karaoke allowed...

Ibans say Tuak is good because it gives ideas, I wish I had drunk all my glasses that day...

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Additional Photos by Luko G R (Luko) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2497 W: 515 N: 2938] (13880)
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