Rice-harvesting traditions in the region were brought to life as the Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) celebrated its second World Harvest festival.
Formerly known as Gawai Tourism Night, the festival was expanded last year to include troupes from neighbouring countries that share similar cultures of planting and harvesting rice.
This year’s edition of the festival saw groups from China, Indonesia and Thailand come together with a group from the National Arts Academy in Kedah and three Sarawak groups to conduct workshops and perform in concerts.
One of the festival highlights was a play on legendary Iban warrior Rentap and his battles against the White Rajah’s troops at his fortress on Bukit Sadok.
For the play, the lake area at SCV was transformed into a vast open-air stage, with longhouses built along its banks and the lake itself representing the river on which villagers travelled and battles fought.
A tall bamboo platform represented Bukit Sadok and on it, perched precariously, the actor playing Rentap performed a series of rituals and war dances.
Although the final battle ended in defeat for Rentap and his warriors, the play concluded on a celebratory note with all the actors singing and dancing together in the final scene.
The play was the prelude to the finale of the Miss Fair and Lovely pageant held in conjunction with the festival, which featured 13 finalists dressed in full Iban traditional attire.
Student Raden Ira Faraniza Mohd Iskandar, 23, was crow-ned Miss Fair and Lovely,.
She won RM3,000, a scholarship for a diploma programme at a local college and various other prizes.
It was a doubly successful night for the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) student as she also won the Miss SMS Vo-ters’ Favourite subsidiary title.
First runner-up was 18-year-old radio deejay Siti Khalizah Alihan, who also picked up the Miss Hollywood Personality subsidiary title, while Martina Justine Rajang, 23, was second runner-up.
Two other subsidiary titles of Miss Beautiful Skin and Miss Top Photo Photogenic both went to Lucy John Chan, 22.
Formerly known as Gawai Tourism Night, the festival was expanded last year to include troupes from neighbouring countries that share similar cultures of planting and harvesting rice.
This year’s edition of the festival saw groups from China, Indonesia and Thailand come together with a group from the National Arts Academy in Kedah and three Sarawak groups to conduct workshops and perform in concerts.
One of the festival highlights was a play on legendary Iban warrior Rentap and his battles against the White Rajah’s troops at his fortress on Bukit Sadok.
For the play, the lake area at SCV was transformed into a vast open-air stage, with longhouses built along its banks and the lake itself representing the river on which villagers travelled and battles fought.
A tall bamboo platform represented Bukit Sadok and on it, perched precariously, the actor playing Rentap performed a series of rituals and war dances.
Although the final battle ended in defeat for Rentap and his warriors, the play concluded on a celebratory note with all the actors singing and dancing together in the final scene.
The play was the prelude to the finale of the Miss Fair and Lovely pageant held in conjunction with the festival, which featured 13 finalists dressed in full Iban traditional attire.
Student Raden Ira Faraniza Mohd Iskandar, 23, was crow-ned Miss Fair and Lovely,.
She won RM3,000, a scholarship for a diploma programme at a local college and various other prizes.
It was a doubly successful night for the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) student as she also won the Miss SMS Vo-ters’ Favourite subsidiary title.
First runner-up was 18-year-old radio deejay Siti Khalizah Alihan, who also picked up the Miss Hollywood Personality subsidiary title, while Martina Justine Rajang, 23, was second runner-up.
Two other subsidiary titles of Miss Beautiful Skin and Miss Top Photo Photogenic both went to Lucy John Chan, 22.
Source: The Star
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