paren nyawi's blog: The Dayak Tribe of Borneo:Berawan/Barawan.

BERAWAN LASS(Gina) @BORNEO HORNBILL FESTIVAL KL BY WARISAN SARAWAK AT
MATIC (JULY 2011)

Berawan Tribe @Little-known Sarawak community.
The Berawan ;a sub-group of the Kenyah OR Kelabit??
Who's ever heard about this Sarawak Native Community..BERAWAN?? ..
VERY few Sarawakians know or have heard of the Berawan community, which is one of the smallest ethnic groups in the state.

The Berawan, a sub-group of the Kenyah OR Kelabit??
The Star(Oct 24,2009) said The BERAWANs of LOAGAN BUNUT,a sub-group of KENYAH?? maybe because they are share the same Culture ..
The Language is related with KELABIT??:
The Berawan – Lower Baram languages are a group of half a dozen languages spoken in Borneo.
A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database fully supported the unity of Berawan–Lower Baram, and connected the family to the Kelabitic languages at a 90% confidence level.link..SOURCE
Berawans of Long Terawan.

This village belongs to the Berawan people. The Berawan are a subset of the Kelabit people up in the Bario lands. Berawan can be found from the highlands all the way down Mulu and into the Ulu Baram area. Although the longhouse at long Terawan is large with about 100 families or doors, many have left their family home for Mulu. There they find jobs as boatmen and open up plantations since the setting up of Mulu National Park has provided more opportunities for the people. Tales passed on has stated that the Berawan people who lived there is a combination of Berawan and Tring, another tribe from the Kelabit strain.
The Tring apparently seeked asylum at the village after a fierce battle waged had forced them to flee their own village. Therefore, according to linguists, the Long Terawan peoples speak a distinct language which has influence from both Berawan and Tring tribes.

Berawans of Loagan Bunut .

The lejeng is a pair of intricately carved belian poles erected to support a coffin placed above them. These are still visible in Sungai Kekurau and Kuala Lapan.

They are from the 61-door Kajan Sigeh longhouse in Long Teru and the 20-door Meran longhouse in Kampung Loagan Benut.

A group of journalists recently went on a conducted tour of Loagan Benut National Park organised by Sarawak Forestry and visited Kampung Loagan Benut.

Despite its remoteness, the newly-built longhouse has modern amenities. The villagers get electricity from a generator and own television sets and refrigerators.

Many of the villagers are farmers who plant vegetables and padi, catch fish and sell them to middlemen from Marudi and Miri. They are also involved in eco-tourism activities with the help of government agencies

Originally, the Berawans of Loagan Benut settled in Sungai Lelak Tinjar in Baram but moved to the lake more than a century ago.

According to one villager, those wearing red shirts would fall sick after visiting the lake, which covers 650ha in the centre of the park.

The places of interests in the Berawan homeland are the lejeng or sacred Berawan totem poles, where warriors were buried.

There are three burial grounds for the Berawan community within Loagan Bunut National Park.

These grounds are located in Pulau Bukit Tengah, Sungai Bunut and Sungai Bunan. Pulau Bukit Tengah is used for the burial of high caste Berawans while commoners are buried at Sungai Bunut.

The villagers use a unique way to catch fish – casting a net called selambau from a small wooden hut floating in Sungai Bunut. Each selambau belongs to a Berawan family and is passed down from one generation to the next.

Berawan Beliefs

The Berawan, a group in Sarawak believe that death is a process that is linked with the decomposition of the body. A spirit is trapped in its body until the body is free of flesh.
The Berawan practice secondary burial, as do many other people around the world.
In secondary burial, the body is ritually treated twice: once shortly after what we (but not they) call the moment of death, and again when the soul is understood to have departed.