Iban people: The largest ethnic in Sarawak

The Iban or known as the Sea Dayak is the largest ethnic group in Sarawak. Almost the entire state is inhabited by the Iban community.

The majority of this community live in groups in the Iban longhouse, typically located near the waterfront and close to the highway to facilitate daily activities and communicate with each other.

Tuai rumah is the person responsible for maintaining the harmony of Iban society in the Long house. They are the responsible leaders in the care of the affairs of the longhouse. This responsibility is inherited from generation to generation by every selected Tuai Rumah who heads a longhouse.

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. At some stage before the 13th century arrival of Islam in Southeast Asia they must have migrated to Borneo, tracing descent today to the Kapuas region in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Nowadays, majority of Iban society adheres to Abrahamic religions such as Christianity and Islam. Nevertheless, there are some who practice paganism. This is because they practice inherited belief hereditary since their period of the ancestors.

Inherited belief practiced by those include various god and perform miring during gawai celebration to ensure paddy harvest being performed by those better.
Iban people: The largest ethnic in Sarawak

History of Sarawak

Prior to 1841, the term ‘Sarawak’ referred to the Sarawak River area and the territory accessible from it.

Archaeologists have found traces of human existence dating back to the Middle Paleolithic phase of 40,000 to 50,000 BC.

Many of today’s indigenous tribes migrated from Kalimantan, including the Iban, who came here around the end of the 15thth century and now make up around 30% of the state’s population.

It is unknown when first the Malays came to Borneo. According to Malay tradition the original home of the race was the kingdom of Minangkabau in Sumatra.

By thirteenth century Arab traders and missionaries began to preach the doctrines of Islam throughout the Malay World. There the most important Malay state to emerge was Brunei, on the north-west coast, which was to give its name to the whole island. From the 15th until the early 19th century Sarawak was under the loose control of the sultanate of Brunei.

A Spanish report from 1520 describes Cerava (or Sarawak) as one of four chief ports of Borneo, inhabited by ‘many and rich merchants’ whose trade consisted of diamonds, camphor, aloes-wood, provisions and wine.

In 1839, the English adventurer James Brooke formed a fast friendship with the Governor of Sarawak, Rajah Muda Hassim. Brooke, invalidated from the British East India Company after being wounded in Burma, eschewed an easy retirement and set off on a voyage of a discovery aided by a sizable inheritance and a well armed ship.

He helped Hassim to repress a revolt of Bidayuh dayaks and local Malay elites against Brunei rule.

As a reward Hassim offered to install James Brooke as Rajah of Sarawak in 1841. In 1946, following three years of Japanese occupation of Sarawak, the third Rajah Vyner Brooke, ceded the country to the British Government.
History of Sarawak