Balinese duck tender with traditional wide-brim rain hat under an early monsoon drizzle - returning from the paddy fields along a path through the original Monkey Forest near Padang Tegal Village, Ubud, Bali.
Digital slide scan, shot with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4) - before modernization and the onslaught of mass tourism that now compromise much of Ubud's original charm, circa 1972. expl#32
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Malay boys nestled together in a mango tree at their village compound, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. These young boys should now be in their late 50s! Digital slide scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, circa 1972. explore#34
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© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.
Every year on the day of the first full moon in late January or early February over a million pilgrims gather at various temples across Malaysia to celebrate Thaipusam, a vibrant Hindu religious festival in honour of Lord Subramaniam (also known as Lord Muruga, god of war in the Hindu-Tamil pantheon).
On this auspicious day of penance and thanksgiving religious vows and karmic debts are fulfilled through ceremonial acts of devotional sacrifice and bodily self-mortification. The skin, tongue or cheeks of devotees (mostly male) are pierced with metal vel skewers or small spears. Heavy decorative shrines or kavadis with as many as 100 skin-piercing skewers are prepared during the ceremony. Devotees are worked into a trance-like state before the piercings, aided by a preparatory programme of fasting, meditation, prayers and chants.
An elaborate piercing ritual is seen here at the Sri Mahamariamman Temple in Penang, the oldest Hindu temple on the island and one of the main starting points for the annual Thaipusam procession. This devotee will carry and dance bare-footed with the weighty kavadi on his shoulders along a gruelling four-kilometre processional route to the accompaniment of devotional music and traditional drumming patterns, sometimes lasting eight hours under the blazing tropical sun. His pilgrimage will end with the final ascent of more than 500 steps for a closing ceremony at the Arulmigu Sri Balathandayuthapani Waterfall Hilltop Temple on the outskirts of George Town.
The motivation for devotional sacrifice in return for prayers answered is expressed succinctly by one pilgrim at the Penang celebrations: "I want to give thanks for being granted with good health, my career and wealth." Another pilgrim put it another way: “My husband has been carrying a kavadi every Thaipusam for more than 20 years out of faith that it will bring blessings and peace.”
Thaipusam is rooted in Hindu-Tamil legend, brought to the Malayan peninsula by a diaspora of South Indian immigrants who came to work on the rubber estates during the British colonial administration in the late 18th-century.
Digital slide scan, shot with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, circa 1973. explore#180
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Daily communal life at a traditional Iban longhouse or Rumah Panjang tends to converge around an elongated wooden veranda that serves as an open social area and shared meeting space. This longhouse is naturally positioned along a remote rainforest stream about a half day's jungle trek from Kapit, a small riverine supply town that caters to the many Iban and Orang Ulu longhouse communities in the upper Rajang River region of Sarawak, East Malaysia (Borneo). Digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, circa 1973.
The wooden longhouse structure and veranda are raised on tall stilts with a row of separate family apartments sectioned off on the other side of the main housing structure. Notched logs are used as ladders that lead up to the longhouse. Traditional hand-tapped tattoos on the headman's back are seen as having magical protective powers.
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Postscript - Few traditional wooden longhouses of this kind remain today. Most longhouses are now made from concrete and milled timber with access to electricity, satellite TV, and the perennial corrugated tin roof. Nowadays, the Rejang riverine region can be reached overland by taxi or bus, and by air on cheap Expedia flights. Express boats with air-conditioning and cushioned first-class passenger seating ply the Batang Rejang daily, cutting longboat travel time from Kapit to Belaga by a day or more. Organized package tours to the longhouses flourish. Digital smartphones and credit cards dictate the travel experience. The modern era of fast travel and organized tourism has arrived.
Accelerated contact with the outside world has contributed to sweeping social changes and a gradual erosion of the region's original charm. While the legendary warmth and hospitality of the Iban longhouse communities persist, much of the mystery and serendipity of independent travel to this remote region deep in the heart of Borneo is sadly on the wane.
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Context - Around the time this photo was taken, a robust ethnic Chinese-dominated communist insurgency was fully underway in the region. Malaysia's postcolonial government was about to launch an ambitious counter-insurgency operation. Government agents would travel upriver on longboats or by foot through dense tropical rainforests to remote riverine settlements and indigenous longhouses “to explain” why it was in their interest to support the government in the renewed anti-communist insurgency campaign.
The campaign appeared to have been effective at the time because the Malaysian government soon scored a major victory with the surrender of a key insurgent leader, Bong Kee Chok, along with about 500 of his supporters. With the subsequent capture or surrender of other members in the movement, communist activities in the Rajang river basin began to subside. The communist movement of Sarawak finally ended in 1990 with a signed peace accord that coincided with the final collapse of outside communist support and the end to the global cold war.
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An Iban boy peers from behind an oil drum at a remote longhouse dock on the Rajang River deep in the heart of Sarawak's verdant rainforest region, East Malaysia, Borneo. Digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1973. explore#91
The longhouse is naturally positioned on a high riverbank overlooking the essential Rajang River and treacherous Pelagus Rapids that begin in the backdrop. It is a half-day’s journey upriver by local longboat from Kapit, a small riverine supply town that caters to the many Iban and Orang Ulu longhouse communities in the upper Rajang River region of Sarawak. The remote trading bazar of Belaga is another day or two further upriver near the river's source.
The modern era of fast travel and organized tourism has accelerated indigenous contact with the outside world over the past several decades, contributing to sweeping social changes and a gradual erosion of the region's original charm.
While the legendary warmth and hospitality of the Iban longhouse communities persist, much of the mystery and serendipity of independent travel to this remote region is sadly on the wane.
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved.
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