Sleepy Villages In Sarawak Come Alive For Gawai Dayak

KUCHING -- It's a ritual that is repeated every year. Bookings for the flight home from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu are done well in advance to avoid disappointment.

Then there are the land travel arrangements to be made for the final leg of the trip back to the longhouse in Saratok.

Every year, in the last week of May, Sat Ranggau never fails to make that annual "balik kampung" from Klang, where he works, to his hometown in Roban, about 400km from Kuching to celebrate Gawai Dayak on June 1.

For the 35-year-old entrepreneur, it is much easier and quicker to reach Roban from Sibu than Kuching. It is only an hour's drive to his longhouse, Rumah Ranggau Lichok, from Sibu.

Rumah Ranggau Lichok, like most Iban longhouses in Sarawak, is quiet. A glaring absence is the young people. Those in their teens are in boarding school and those of working age have all migrated to the major towns to work or search for work.

The silence will be broken and things will come alive as those who have gone "berjalai" (in Iban it is literally translated as gone for a walk) return in festive mood.

Gawai, is the festival for the Ibans. It is bigger than Christmas and New Year put together. Its also that time of the year when they get to meet their loved ones, relatives, friends and neighbours.

They, like Sat, are also journeymen trekking back home.

This year, Sat's homecoming is much awaited by his parents, as he did not return last Christmas. Sat said he had a lot of unfinished work that he could not leave unattended.

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