| | Who would have thought that my first traditional East Malaysian cultural experience would happen outside of East Malaysia or even Malaysia for that matter? After basketball, I went out for dinner with Yee Meng and Reiner which is normal. The twist is that we suddenly invited to an open house by one of the church members from Cross Cultures and these are people that we barely knew (YM and Reiner not so bad). When we first entered the house, I immediately felt very weird as I'm here to have dinner at someone's place who I don't know at all. Very quickly my eyes scanned the environment for visual clues as to what is going on. For starters, I don't even know what is the occassion about for the open house. There was definitely something but still not very sure about it. The thing that really gave it away was one of the older women was wearing a traditional Iban costume (it's something you can spot a mile away) and apparently I heard there was "tuak" or rice wine going around. So must be an festival of sorts for the Ibanians. Then I heard people were wishing the woman and her family "Happy Gawai" which was kinda strange, but yes, it was Gawai, a celebration for the harvest in Iban culture. This was cool but still felt a bit weird in the house. I barely spoke a word eating very sheepishly and had 3 shots of tuak which to my surprise wasn't very alcoholic. It was sweet, almost like honey and very nice to drink. Before I left, someone played the gawak which is sort of like a guitar and the woman starting doing the ngajat, a dance normally performed at Gawai. I couldn't really hear the the gawak but the dance was very elegant and graceful. The only thing missing is a male dancer equipped with shield and sword. That. Would. Have. Been. Awesome. She managed to dance barefooted on a very rough concrete floor and still kept her grace and elegance and she turns about the floor. Her husband joked that the sword was on her side of the bed and that's why he is so well-behaved. The husband is an Australian. Very interesting experience though just a foretaste of the real deal. Which reminds me I should make a trip to East Malaysia someday.
|
| | Posted 5/31/2009 11:02 PM - 11 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
