Melanau – Tarian Menyak

This dance portrays the harmonious atmosphere, showing as how the Melanau carry out their daily activities of processing

sago flour for the making of sago pearls, locally known as sago.

Melanau – Alu-alu

This dance is usually performed during a death ceremony to comfort the visiting relatives and friends.

Menyak

Menyak merupakan salah satu cara dalam penghasilan sagu. Proses menyak ialah proses di mana sepeu (isi mulung

selepas diengin) diasingkan untuk mendapatkan tepung sagu (sei) dengan menggunakan kaki. Proses ini dilakukan

di sebuah pondok di atas air ataupun di tepi sungai bagi memudahkan pekerja untuk mengangkat air. Hal ini kerana,

pengasingan sepeu memerlukan air yang banyak. Di dalam kes sepeu yang banyak terhasil, proses menyak ini

dapat meringankan kerja dan mempercepatkan pengasingan antara sepeu dengan tepung sagu (sei) tersebut.

Proses ini dianggap selesai apabila sepeu tadi yang sebelumnya berwarna coklat bertukar kepada merah. Melanau

memangil siek atau di dalam bahasa melayu pula dipanggil masak. Air yang berisi tepung sagu tadi ditapis di bawah

pondok dan mengalir ke dalam perahu panjang yang dibuat daripada kayu belian yang dipanggil jalur. Air yang

berisi tepung sagu itu biasanya akan dibiarkan beberapa hari supaya sei atau tepung sagu tadi mendak.

Di dalam tarian ini, para penari sedang menggambarkan proses menyak dari membelah batang rumbia hingga ke

berakhirnya proses penghasilan tepung sagu (sei).

Menyak

Menyak is one of the processes to made sago flour. In the proses of menyak, the worker use his/her foots to separate the sago flour (sei) from

sepeu (sago kernel). A marionette built near by the water so that the worker can easily bucket the water to use for this process. In the case

where a lot of sepeu, menyak is the ideal way to separate sepeu and sei. This process is end when the brown sepeu color turns red. The

melanaus call siek (cooked). The water flow into a long boat calls jalur. The water in the jalur will be let for a few days for sedimentations.

BUDAYA MELANAU

PAKAIAN TRADISIONAL(LELAKI)

1)Pakaian lelaki Melanau dari satin berwarna gelap dipadankan dengan kain songket bunga tabur dan pakaian kepala sengkulon dari

Jawa. 2)Lelaki menggayakan baju potongan moden bersamping broked oren keemasan, pinggang berikat selendang sifon berkopiah

Jawa.

PAKAIAN TRADISIONAL(WANITA)

1)Wanita Melanau menggayakan baju baldu hitam dengan sarung songket Brunei tenunan Sarawak, bertali pinggang pending besar,

diserikan dokoh dan perhiasan kepala kepih sanggul.2) Wanita Melanau menggayakan Baju Baban asal pakaian pengantin Melanau.

Baju kurung pendek warna hitam dipadankan dengan kain songket. Di dada memakai 2 helai selendang merah dan perhiasan diri kepih

dada dan kepih sanggul.

d) Kaum Melanau

     PENGENALAN     

         Sarawak yang terkenal dengan nama jolokannya Negeri Bumi Kenyalang mempunyai rakyat yang terdiri dari pelbagai suku kaum. Terdapat kira-kira 30 kumpulan etnik di Sarawak. Kaum Melanau merupakan salah satu suku kaum yang terkenal di Sarawak, diikuti oleh kaum

Cina, Melayu, Iban, Bidayuh, dan kaum-kaum etnik yang lain. 

                           

        Suku etnik Melanau berkumpul di persisiran pantai seperti kawasan lembah utara Sungai Rajang, Igan, Mukah, Oya, dan Bintulu. Masyarakat yang terawal di Sarawak menetap di Mukah.

         Maklumat berkaitan budaya hidup masyarakat etnik Sarawak dalam laman web ini akan difokuskan kepada tiga aspek utama iaitu makanan tradisional, pakaian serta perayaan yang diamalkan oleh masyarakat Melanau di Sarawak. 

         PAKAIAN TRADISI KAUM MELANAU

        Pakaian tradisional lelaki- lelaki menggayakan baju potongan moden bersampin broked oren keemasan, pinggang berikat selendang sifon dan           berkopiah.

                                                     

                                                                                                                                 BAJU BALDU                                  BAJU BABAN

    

BAJU BALDU

Wanita Melanau menggayakan baju baldu hitam dengan sarung songket Brunei tenunan Sarawak, bertali pinggang pending besar, diserikan dokoh dan perhiasan kepala kepih sanggul.

BAJU BABAN

Wanita Melanau menggayakan Baju Baban asal pakaian pengantin Melanau. Baju kurung pendek warna hitam dipadankan dengan kain songket. Di dada memakai 2 helai selendang merah dan perhiasan diri kepih dada dan kepih sanggul

MAKANAN TRADISI KAUM MELANAU

                                                                                                                                                  Selisih                                      Ulat Mulong                                Tabaloi

            

Pipuih dan Sagok           

EventEvent⇒Kaul Festival @ Pesta KaulThe best-known festival celebrated by the Melanau is the Kaul Festival (Pesta Kaul). Originating from the animistic beliefs traditionally held by the Melanau, the Pesta Kaul is held annually, usually in March or early April, as a purification and thanks giving to appease the spirits of the sea, land, forests and farm. This festival is celebrated by the Melanau people living in the coastal settlements in Mukah, Sarawak(Borneo Island). Through the festival, the Melanau people offer their thanks to the spirits for keeping them safe through the monsoon season and ask for a good bounty on their fishing trips.Today, however, the Pesta Kaul is celebrated more as a cultural festival, rather than a religious one. One of the highlights of this festival is the Tibow, a traditional giant swing sometimes 20-feet high, from which youths would dive down to catch a swinging rope.The Tibow, the death defying 20-foot high swing, here youths dive from a high bamboo scaffolding and catch a swinging l rope as it reaches the height of its arc. First one, then two and eventually eight young men hanging in a clump from the giant swing as it soars above the beach. Pesta Kaul is about more than giant swings, it’s a colorful festival with a flotilla of highly decorated boats, beach games and lots of delicious Melanau food. Traditionally, during the monsoon, the river mouths were closed.

Pictures of Tibow

Villages would be palei or taboo for days before Kaul. No one was allowed to leave or enter and people underwent purification ceremonies during Kaul. The highly decorated fishing boats move down river carrying the seraheng, a flat round basket raised on a bamboo pole. It is placed on a riverbank while the Bapa Kaul or leader of the ceremony invokes the spirits and pours water over the offerings. In the past the sick and elderly would gather by the ‘seraheng’ so that the water poured on the offerings would fall on them and wash away all evil. Today the ceremony is of social rather than religious significance.

After the ceremony there are games on the beach, displays of Melanau martial arts, dancing and eating. The festivities do not stop with sunset, they just move to the Melanau houses built on rivers and streams where there are cultural performances and non stop feasting. The attractive native dwellings give the fishing villages near Mukah, the air of a bamboo Venice and their hospitality is legendary.

Melanau Traditional Dance

After the ceremony there are games on the beach, displays of Melanau martial arts, dancing and eating. The festivities do not stop with sunset, they just move to the Melanau houses built on rivers and streams where there are cultural performances and non stop feasting. The attractive native dwellings give the fishing villages near Mukah, the air of a bamboo Venice and their hospitality is legendary. Visitors to Kaul soon find why Melanau cuisine is famed throughout Sarawak. The versatile sago has become their staple food. Guests palates are surprised at the many delicious ways sago can be prepared and with the addition of seafood, visitors enjoy the appetizing variety of tasty treats. The festival would not be complete without its boat racing. These boat races range from dugout boats to 40-horsepower motorised boats. For the men who participate, money isn’t everything. They prize recognition and esteem far more than banknotes.

The Bidar is the type of boat that used in boat racing.

Today most of them are Catholics or Muslims and often of the two religions in the same family live in the same house, but they still celebrate Pesta Kaul with gusto.The old animist religion may not be practiced these days but the legend live on.