Hi there Myal and all friends!
I recently went on a 4D3N trip to the Iban longhouse in Batang Ai, Sarawak. I planned the trip with a few friends with the purpose of going camping with the Ibans as well as see for myself the famed parangs in motion.
Batang Ai is a man made hydro dam and when it is flooded, many of the longhouses were relocated on (what use to be) hill tops. From a distance, we could see the longhouses overshadowed by bald hills...hills that were cleared for farming (mostly for hill rice farming) by the Ibans.
We spent a night at the first Long House called Menyiling. They are a welcoming bunch and we really had a good time chatting and getting to know them. The longhouse is rustic and without any electricity (they still use generator sets to this day despite the fact that the very dam they are living on generates electricity).
Many of their children and young adults have opted to move to nearby cities in search of work and opportunity. But some of the strong men left behind still bears the marks of an Iban.
My passion has always been traditional parangs. And this is the one place that I have found so far where the makers of the parangs are the same people who uses them. As farmers and hunters, they rely heavily on their blades. They handforge and make the parangs themselves.
One of their hand made parangs that has been tempered:
Parangs are a daily tool...liken to how a worker in an office uses a pen. Below are what the Ibans call Duku Panjang...refering to the long blades. They are general uses and used mostly in the farms. Note the style of the handle. The files are used to sharpen the blades before the final tempering.
Heirloom blades. We always tell them NEVER to sell or trade away such parangs. It belongs to the family. Some of these blades have taken lives. Such decorated blades are usually for ceremony and self defense/ kill (war time).
Below is a typical Candong. Note how the handle is shaped differently from the Duku Panjang.