Bidayuh Architecture: Tradition, Change, Revival.
|
THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
|
Title :
Bidayuh Architecture: Tradition, Change, Revival. |
|
Author :
Robert L. Winzeler |
|
Abstract:
The architectural traditions of the various Dayak peoples are each unique but those of the Bidayuh (Land Dayaks in older usage) are especially distinctive. For one thing, Bidayuh architecture involves an especially well developed tradition of bridges and other structural devices used to gain access to villages and to move between them and forests and fields. For another, Bidayuh domestic architecture shows more variation than does that of other Dayak peoples of Sarawak. Most Dayak groups have or had (in addition perhaps to secondaryor more temporary ones)a single characteristic traditional house form. This usually takes the form of a longhouse, that is a symmetrical, rectilinear building consisting of a series of individual apartments built side by side with a continuous covered gallery. The Bidayuh villages described in early accounts consist of such regular longhouses in some instances, houses joined in more irregular ways in others, and separate houses in yet others. While this variation may be partly a matter of regional differences among the several Bidayuh groups it probably cannot be entirely accounted for in this way. Finally, and perhaps most notably, the architecture of the Bidayuh includes a separate men’s or ceremonial house commonly referred to in the literature as a “headhouse,” because it was used in the past to store head-trophies taken during battles. Such men’s (or bachelors’ or visitors’) houses have been reported for the Modang and other groups in East Kalimantan (cited in Rousseau 1990: 109-110) but in Sarawak and West Kalimantan theyare distinctive to the Bidayuh.
|
| DOI: https://doi.org/10.61507/smj22-1996-XP3G-01 |
|
How to cite:
Robert L. Winzeler. (1996). Bidayuh Architecture: Tradition, Change, Revival. The Sarawak Museum Journal, L (71): 1-30 |
|
References
|
