Iban people is categorize under the Malay Pronto group which is the same as Sumatera Malay and Peninsular Malaysia. Historically, the Iban originated from Kalimantan, Indonesia. Among the famous legends and history of ethnic inclusion is initially they entered through the Batang Ai, Kapuas, namely the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.
The Iban are one of the groups collectively often referred to as Dayaks (which also includes Bidayuh, Kenyah, Kelabit, Kadazandusun, and many others). The Iban rumah panjai (literally ‘house long’) is still being commonly constructed.
A longhouse is a terraced street of separate dwellings covered by one roof. Each family who stays in the longhouse has their separate room.
In a traditional longhouse, all of these spaces are framed in timber, with hand-adzed timber floors, palm thatch roofs and bamboo or timber wall cladding. The use of local materials and the setting that create harmonization with the local environment and climate contribute to the provision of comfort to the occupants.
Their floors are raised from the ground on timber piles, sometimes a meter or so off the ground and sometimes much higher depending on the topography.
Most of the Iban who live in the longhouse still practice shifting hill-rice agriculture, supplemented by the cultivation of perennial cash crops, most notably rubber.
Longhouse are customarily constructed on areas of elevated ground near rivers and other watercourses, and preference is for a flat floor platform for the entire length of the collective ruai, so their length can mean that a longhouse’s extremities are the equivalent of a few storey from the ground.
Every longhouse is headed by headman called tuai. Every family stayed in the longhouse has their separate room. Communal activities are carried out on the ruai (verandah).
Longhouse are used to being moved periodically when necessitated by shifting cultivation practices, or split because of a dispute over leadership or community direction.
Iban longhouse
