The Melanau Tall House is a type of longhouse of the Melanau tribe of Sarawak. The Melanau people consists of 5.8% of Sarawak's population. They live mostly in the central coastal region, between the Rajang and Baram rivers. Some of the Melanaus are Muslims, some Christians and the balance still animists. Melanaus are skilled fishermen and boat builders. They are renowned for their massive longhouses, many reaching forty feet high.
Earthenware jars in the Melanau kitchen. Note the tree-trunk ladder.
The Melanau's staple food is sago, which they prefer over rice. Sago palms originally grow wild, but the Melanaus have cultivated them. The sago is the starch obtained from the pith of the sago palm. To get the sago, the Melanau fell the pall at the right stage of maturity. The wedges of sago pith are rasped into a coarse, wet mash. It is then piled on strong mats and trodden in shallow troughs by the Melanau womenfolk in huts specially built for this purpose. The starch settles in the bottom. Then water is added to it, and the paste is further drained, kneaded, and dried as sago flour. Melanau sago products include dry pellets, grits, and several types of sago biscuits.
Melanau healers or dukun use sick images, figurines that literally represent the illnesses. The Melanau dukun has an elaborate system of ceremonies for curing all kinds of illnesses. The more serious the illness, the more complicated the ceremonies. If all effort fails, he will perform a berayun ceremony, which can last five to nine nights. In such ceremonies, the dukun uses sickness images. The sickness images actually represent the spirit causing the illnesses. The dukun extracts the illness from the patient into the image, which he then sets adrift in the river or hidden in the jungle.
Besides sickness images, the Melanau also carves fetishes for good luck in fishing, effigies of those lost at sea, figurines for ritual burial, and other magical paraphernalia. In the past, they also create massive burial posts, usually for aristocrats. These consists of the Kelirieng (burial pole) and the Salong (burial hut). A kelirieng is made of a huge hardwood tree trunk, elaborately carved from top to bottom. It is hollowed at the top to place the jar containing the chief's bones. A heavy stone slab is surmounted on the top of the pole, the size of which is more than six feet in diameter and can be up to 32 feet tall above the ground.
The Melanau Tall House at the Sarawak Cultural Village.
Before booking a hotel room, make sure you are getting the lowest price for it. Different hotel booking websites offers the same room at different prices. If you stick with one site all the time, you could be paying more for the same room. Now why pay more?
The form below is a Research Engine. It doesn't take bookings. Instead it lets you find the hotel booking website that offers the room you want at the lowest price. You can see and compare what different sites are offering, and then click to choose the one with the best price. Do this, and you're guaranteed to save a whole lot of money on your room reservations!
If you're flying somewhere, use our Flight Checker to compare the rates from different airlines. To use it, enter where you will be flying from, where you will be flying to, your departure date and return date. Select the number of passengers, and then click search.
Our engine will return you a list of possible flights that you can take. You can compare the fare of different airlines for your trip. Click on your selected airline, and we transfer you to the airline website.
AsiaExplorers is researched and written by Timothy Tye. Reasonable care is taken to check and verify the accuracy of the content. AsiaExplorers disclaims responsibility for any inconvenience, mishap, injury or death resulting from following the tips and advice provided directly or indirectly by this website. All pages may be printed out for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may use the information on this website on your blog or website so long as you place a dofollow link back to the page in AsiaExplorers where it appears. Photographs not credited to a third party belong to Timothy Tye and may not be reused in any form unless you are first given permission. Write in to inquire if interested. Third party photographs are governed by their respective licenses. To contact Tim, write to the following email address:
