Azra & Amanda:Kelabit @Borneo Hornbill Festival 6.0

The Highlanders  @Borneo Hornbill Festival 6.0
The Kelabit in the highands, like many other indigenous communities in Sarawak live in longhouses, although recently many families built single houses scattered around in the villages. Today, there are 16 villages in the BARIO, which include Pa’Umur, Pa’ Ukat, Pa’ Lungan, (located along the Depbur basin), Long Dano, Pa Dalih, Ramudu (located along Kelapang basin), and Pa Ramapuh Benah, Pa Ramapuh Dita, Pa Derung, Ulung Palang Dita, Ulung Palang Benah, Padang Pasir, Kampung Baru, Arur Layun, Bario Asal and Arur Dalan, in the Merariu river basin. There are 4 other Kelabit settlements located further down the tributaries of the Baram River: Long Peluan, Long Seridan, Long Lellang and Long Napir.(http://www.unimas.my/ebario/community.html)

Kelabit Beauty:Amanda Martin(Right)
Finalist Miss Sarawak Ethnic Org Ulu 2014
 Borneo Hornbill Festival 6.0

KELABIT MEN(Azra Tilai(Centre):MR SARAWAK ETHNIC 2014
 Borneo Hornbill Festival 6.0

Kelabit Folklore. 

One popular myth among the Kelabit is that all human kind were originally from the highlands until a big flood flooded the whole earth. Many people had to build rafts to survive and were brought to the coastal areas by the water. However, some had build big and heavy rafts, and therefore were stranded on the highlands. And, that is why and how the Kelabit remained on the highlands to this day.(http://www.unimas.my/ebario/community.html)

Kelabit Beauties - Miss Sarawak Ethnic Org Ulu 2009-2013
 Alumni Borneo Hornbill Festival
Kelabit Beauties -Winner Miss Sarawak Ethnic
:BHF 2009(Evelyn) ,BHF 2010(Stephanie)
Kelabit Beauties : BHF 2011(Finalist),
BHF 2013(1st Runner Up-Jessica Ngo) ,BHF 2013(Finalist-Ribika Luna)

Finalist MISS SARAWAK ETHNIC ORG ULU 2014

In fact, Amanda Martin is 6th Kelabit Lass @Borneo Hornbill Festival

Kelabit Costume@Miss Sarawak Ethnic Org Ulu 2014
:themagicshutter for Borneo Hornbill Festival 6.0

Kelabit Costume@Malaysia Tourism Centre
Closed Door Judging
Long earlobes were regarded as a form of beauty in the olden day.
Related Posts:Cultural-perceptions-of-beauty
elongated-ears-of-kayan-maiden

AZRA TILAI-MR SARAWAK ETHNIC 2014 

& MR BORNEO ETHNIC 2014

Azra is 1st ever Kelabit hunk participated @Borneo Hornbill Festival

Closed Door Judging@SSM 10th Floor KL Sentral June 2014
Azra Tilai(Left): Kelabit Contestant @Borneo Hornbill Festival 6.0
Winner for MR SARAWAK ETHNIC 2014..read more....link

Kelabit Costume-Mr Sarawak Ethnic 2014

themagicshutter for Borneo Hornbill Festival 6.0
Read More:KELABIT VEST

A Kelabit Father & Son:
LONG LELANG(Lellang)BARAM SARAWAK

Kelabit's Bead Vest ..

kelabit-people-The highlanders
The Kelabits of Sarawak First "discovered" around the turn of the 20th Century, the Kelabits, a tribe of fierce warriors and headhunters who saw off anyone entering their territory, were generally given a wide berth by neighbouring tribes Culturally and linguistically, they are distinct in many ways from the other thirty or so tribes in Sarawak.

Beads have literally rolled their way round the world, picking up, along the journey, bits of culture, lore and drama.

HAVE beads will travel. That seemed to be the case back in the days when traders explored new territories to ply their wares (.http://www.thestar.com.my/Story)

“Beads really got to travel around, from one continent to another, from the coast to the highland, from one generation to another. They are resilient.”-HEIDI MUNAN

AZRA TILAI @BORNEO HORNBILL FESTIVAL 2014
Kelabit's  bead vest, was part of the traditional attire
 for special occasions like weddings and celebrations

Azra-tilai-is-mr-sarawak-ethnic-borneo.(LINK)

KELABIT WARRIOR  TRADITIONAL COSTUME @BORNEO HORNBILL FESTIVAL 6.0
https://www.facebook.com/themagicshutter

KUCHING SARAWAK MUSEUM
Vests and headgear made of beads of the Kelabit tribe.

KELABIT COSTUME: VEST

KELABIT WOMEN'S VEST

Kelabit People - The Highlanders

The Kelabits of Sarawak First "discovered" around the turn of the 20th Century, the Kelabits, a tribe of fierce warriors and headhunters who saw off anyone entering their territory, were generally given a wide berth by neighbouring tribes Culturally and linguistically, they are distinct in many ways from the other thirty or so tribes in Sarawak.

Under broad conical hats, they wore their hair long at the back or done up in a bun held in place by pins of metal or horn. Around the waist hung a long sword-parang with a curved staghorn hilt and wooden scabbard. 

THE KELABIT..

The men had two holes on each ear, pierced during infancy. 
The bottom hole was adorned with heavy brass ear rings which greatly extended the ear lobes so that they often hung down to the shoulders.
In the upper hole, kept open by wooden plugs, the warriors wore leopard's fangs.
 The women had elaborate tattoos, a fine lacework of dots and lines, on almost the entire lower limb, from the foot to well up the thigh, so finely decorated that from a distance, it looked as though they were wearing blue-black stockings. 
They also wore brightly coloured skull caps, and their eyebrows were plucked for the sake of beauty.

This picture from the 1950s shows a Kelabit man a
nd his son with full-blown bead accessories. – Sarawak Museum 

Their homeland, now called the Kelabit Highlands, is pretty much a large plateau ringed by a series of jungle-covered mountain peaks.Lying at an altitude of between 3400 to 6000 feet above sea level in the north-eastern corner of Sarawak, their territory extends to the Sarawak edge of a central mountain spur that divides Borneo along the middle.

Bario the Land of the Kelabits

"Bario is located in Kelabit Highlands, 3280 feet above sea level. Due to this geographical barrier, this wonderful place is isolated from the rest of the world. The main activity in Bario is agriculture. The cool climate with an average 20°C in Bario enables the residents to cultivate citrus fruits (oranges), coffee and sugarcane. However, Bario rice is the most popular and significant agricultural product"

On the other side of this spur lies the Indonesian state of Kalimantan, formerly part of Dutch Borneo.One of the smallest tribes in Sarawak and, now, a branch of the Orang Ulu, the total Kelabit population of about 6000 people represents a mere 0.4% of Sarawak's population of 1.5 million, just 0.027% of Malaysia's 22 million. 

The Kelabit, who have close ties to the Lun Bawang, are an indigenous people of the Sarawak Highlands in Borneo with a minority in the neighbouring state of Brunei. The elevation there is slightly over 1,200 meters.

The Kelabit language, which belongs to the Borneo–Philippine branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages

Beaded and tattooed beauties of the Kelabit tribe.
All Kelabit women are tattooed when they reach the age of sixteen. Bold zigzag bands are traced on the forearm, not completely encircling the limb, and strikingly decorative geometrical designs are tattooed on the thigh, the shin, and sometimes, on the knee-cap. They wear strings of large blue beads around the waist and wrist, and necklaces of smaller beads.

KELABIT costume@Keligit Borneo Hornbill Festival KL 2011(MATIC-Jln Ampang)