Borneo Iban Longhouse — Community Life
849.00 د.إ
An Iban Dayak longhouse community in Sarawak, Borneo, photographed on the ruai (communal veranda) — the extended family life of the longhouse, the traditional beadwork and pua kumbu textiles, the children playing along the veranda.
Description
The Iban people of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo traditionally live in longhouses — single communal structures housing 20–100 individual family apartments under a single elongated roof, with a shared communal veranda (ruai) running the full length of the structure. The ruai functions as the longhouse’s social, economic, and ceremonial space where weaving, ceremony, hospitality, and daily life are conducted collectively. This photograph was made at a longhouse near the Batang Ai reservoir in the Sri Aman division, with the facilitation of a Sarawak Tourism Board cultural liaison and the community’s formal agreement. The composition looks along the length of the ruai — a 60-metre covered veranda — with family activities visible at multiple points: a grandmother weaving pua kumbu, children running, elder men carving. The traditional pua kumbu textiles hung on the veranda wall provide a background of extraordinary weaving complexity.
