Bidayuh Culture

Festivals

Bidayuhs are mainly Pagans or animist and they believe in as well as in the ancient spirits or nature. Due to that, they would have big celebrations like the Gawai (June 1st ) which is a celebration to please the paddy spirit and to pray for good harvest. 

For three days and nights, the priests, men and women of the village would gather in a longhouse balcony to celebrate their harvest festival, Gawai.

The offering and ritual ceremony is held on the first day. The feast chief or the Ketua Gawai may sacrifice a pig or a cockerel to thank the gods for the good harvest and to ask for guidance, blessings and long life. The priestesses would recite the chants in an archaic Bidayuh dialect. The hymn is called beris in Bidayuh Biatah or boris in Bidayuh Bau dialect.

The priestesses were dressed in mostly black hand-woven costumes, lavishly decorated with antique beads and silver necklaces called sembon, silver belt and cap with a long wide piece of cloth, hanging down the back.

Arrayed on a bamboo shrine or platform are the offerings or sadis, normally consisting of rice and meat, presented to the gods to bestow blessings on the village. Ritual music — beating of gongs and drums or jubat in Biatah — was played at the stroke of midnight on Gawai Eve.

.They would also hold small praise and worship sessions occasionally to the River and Jungle spirits to cure illness and ward off bad luck. 

An ancient practice of the Bidayuhs in the Land of the Headhunters, ‘nyobang’. It is a ritual of appeasing the spirits (of the heads taken) where the skulls are bathed with coconut water and fed with food and tuak. 

Taboos

There are certain customs to be followed during pregnancy. These particular customs are for the well-being of both mother and child. Once the wife is pregnant, a ceremony of treating the stomach or “birayang ite” will be done to encourage the baby to grow well. Only an experienced midwife is invited to perform this ceremony. As soon as the chanting ritual is over, the body of the pregnant woman will be wrapped with cloth to get rid of any dirt or bad things. After that, she will be put in clean clothes and laid down with the face facing upwards At this time,the midwife will stain the mother’s stomach with tumeric, coconut oil while shaking the wand over the stomach and chanting 

During pregnancy, the spouses are encouraged to practise these customs:

1. Avoid stealing because the newborn will be a thief once he/she grows up 

2. Do not eat deer meat because it might cause madness and it might also cause difficulties during the delivery.

3. Do not go out during the twilight hours to avoid ghost disturbance or “umot sanja” which will harm the baby.

4. Do not mix with anyone who has skin disease to prevent any infection which may lead to premature birth.

6. Do not spike, tighten the band or clog any hole because the child may be die during childbirth.

7. Do not dry the ponds, wells, or rivers because the wife will suffer from excess bleeding upon pregnancy. 

Beliefs

A Bidayuh man’s status is judged by the numbers of skulls hung on the ceiling just before entering their houses. The more skulls you have, the higher is your warrior rank.

Being the people of colorful culture, the Bidayuh have their own cultural dress code (which , in the modern days, are only worn during festivities and celebrations) They have their own cultural dance and they play their own cultural music which comprises of a set of Gongs. 

The Bidayuh of Bau have a unique tradition of hanging the bodies of the dead on trees and leaving them to rot away. The skeletons are left on trees as a reminder of the dead. The tradition is rarely done nowadays.