Seping Secondary Burials: Past Practices and Present Day Significance.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
Seping Secondary Burials: Past Practices and Present Day Significance. |
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Author :
Abdul Rashid Abdullah and Jayl Langub |
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Abstract:
In the past the Seping people, a minority group living in three longhouses along the Belaga River, practised what is commonly known as secondary burial, akin to that practised by their Kajang neighbours, the Kejaman, Sekapan, Lahanan, and Punan Ba. Treatment of the dead differed depending on rank and status of the dead. Commoners were buried in the ground in the community cemetery, but upon the death of a high status person, the coffin of the deceased was placed in a specially built hut at a distance from the longhouse for a year or so. The bones were then cleaned and stored in a jar, placed on top of a burial pole the Seping called salong (see Figs.1, 2 and 3). Although the practice of secondary burial was discouraged during the later part of Brooke rule, among the Seping it continued into the early part of the 20th century. Today the practice is to bury the deceased in the ground in a community cemetery. Accounts of this practice are available in the literature for groups such as the Berawan (Metcalf, 1982), Melanau (Brodie, 1955; Jamuh, 1949; Morris, 1997), Kejaman (Thomas, 1971), Punan Bah (Nicolaisen, 1984 & 2003), Kelabit (Harrisson, 1962), and Lun Bawang/Lun Dayeh (Ricketts, 1894), but none for the Seping. There are individual Seping who are knowledgeable about the practice. This article is a preliminary account of the Seping practice of secondary burial from interviews with two Seping individuals. It also locates the positions of various burial poles within the Seping territory (see Map 1). Today, burial poles located along the Belaga River are used by groups as markers of their territorial domain.
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Abdul Rashid Abdullah and Jayl Langub. (2011). Seping Secondary Burials: Past Practices and Present Day Significance. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LXIX (90): 127-138 |
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References
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