Form and Meaning of Dayak Traditional House in East Kalimantan, Indonesia (Case Study: Lou Pepas Eheng Dayak Benuaq's House)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 207 3rd International Conference on Creative Media, Design and Technology (REKA 2018) Form And Meaning Of Dayak Traditional House In East Kalimantan, Indonesia (Case Study: Lou Pepas Eheng Dayak Benuaq's House) Laksmi Kusuma Wardani Ronald Hasudungan Poppy F. Nilasari Devina Faustine Interior Department, Petra Irianto Sitindjak Interior Department, Petra Widjayadi Christian University Interior Department, Petra Christian University, Interior Designer [email protected] Christian University [email protected] WIDEproduction [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT East Kalimantan has 74 family tribes out of 405 Dayak family tribes in Kalimantan. In the past, the dwellings of Dayak tribes were known as lamin or amin (Dayak Kenyah), luuq (Dayak Tunjung) or lou (Dayak Benuaq). This research aims to specifically discuss about the Dayak traditional house with lou Pepas Eheng Dayak Benuaq as the research object. The research uses the Erwin Panofsky’s method of Iconology to analyse the hidden meaning of the architectural and interior form configurations of Lou Pepas Eheng. Based on the analysis of data, findings reveal that the hidden meanings behind lou relate to the cosmology of the Dayak tribe regarding the harmony of human life with the universe. A house is the embodiment of the process of human life from birth till death, a representation of family values, gotong royong (an Indonesian cultural term for assisting each other), unity and social life. It is also a representation of the physical values of domestic protection and safety. A house is also a spiritual symbol of life views, norms, beliefs, philosophies and local genius of the Dayak Benuaq society that can be symbolically analysed from the building form, spatial organisation and containments. Keyword: Pepas Eheng, Hidden Meaning, Vernacular Architecture, Symbolic House INTRODUCTION part of the dwelling space is a longitudinal empty space Dayak is a term for indigenous people in the inland that is used as a gathering place for families and of Borneo. The word comes from the Iban Dayak traditional ceremonies. This traditional house contains language that means “human.” In addition there are a variety of meanings, not only as a shelter, but also as those who interpret the term as “inland” or “upstream” a representation of the way of thought, life principles, (Dinas Pariwisata & Budaya Kutai Kartanegara, 2006: and ideas that are typical of the Benuaq Dayak tribe who 33). Dayaks or also called Landers or Daye are native live in it. Lou is the totality of the physical results of the Kalimantan people who spread and live in the inlands activities, actions and work of the Dayak people. or mountains. In the past, there were wars between Building lou means building and accommodating tribal groups as an effort to seek influence and maintain cultural activities that contain the values of unity, one’s existence. As a result, Dayak people have togetherness, solidarity, a sense of tolerance, spreaded throughout the island of Borneo, forming responsibility for oneself, family, society, the universe cultural organizations in small groups or tribes that live and God Almighty. These values form the basis of the together. The Dayak tribe has more than 405 sub-tribes consideration for this research, as lou contains moral consisting of 8 large tribes and 18 small tribes. values, beliefs, and cultural wisdom of the ancestors of In East Kalimantan itself, there are 74 tribes of the Benuaq Dayak tribe which are interesting aspects to kinship (Riwut, 1993: 234). Currently, the wellknown study further. tribes in East Kalimantan are Dayak Benuaq, Tunjung Dayak, Bahau Dayak, Penihing Dayak, Modang Dayak, LITERATURE REVIEW a. A Brief History on Bentian Dayak, Basap Dayak, Punan Dayak, Dayak Dayak Benuaq tribe Kayan, Dayak Kenyah, Dayak Berusu, Dayak Lundaye, The Benuaq Dayak are part of the Luang Dayak Dayak Long Glat, Dayak Labbu, Dayak Tenggalan, and group, who together with Dayak Ngaju, Ot Danum, and Dayak Segai. Each tribe has distinctive cultural arts that Ma'ayan, formed the Southeast Borneo Barito family are interesting to study, including the art of building, in language (Haug, 2007: 10). Most Benuaq people call the form of dwelling houses. themselves 'Dayaks', not 'Luangan', as a differentiator The Dayak Benuaq tribal house is called lou or from the Muslim population of East Kalimantan and lamin in Malay Kutai language or amin (Dayak Kenyah also call themselves 'Benuaq' to differentiate language). It is a long stilted dwelling that houses 10-30 themselves from other Dayak groups. When they meet heads of households or even more with one lineage and with fellow Benuaq people, they usually introduce live together in one roof. This lou would grow longer themselves by calling the river located at the place with the addition of new families (Laxman Joshi et all., where they live, for example Benuaq Idaatn or Benuaq 2004: 2). Lou consists of dwelling spaces divided by Ohookng (Haug, 2007: 11). walls, separating one family from another. The front Copyright © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). 265 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 207 According to sources from Mollinckrodt's research Kalimantan was animism and dynamism, referred by based on the similarity of farming tools, hunting tools, the Central Kalimantan Dayak tribe as “Kaharingan” war equipment and traditional ceremonies of death, and religion. Kaharingan people believe that the worship of ancestral spirits, it can be assumed that the environment is full of spirits: spirits that occupy the Benuaq Dayak tribe originated from Central pillars of houses, rocks, trees and rivers (Bonoh, 1985: Kalimantan, in particular, a border area between Cetral 18). Kalimantan and Sarawak (Departemen Pendidikan dan As according to animistic beliefs, the Dayaks Kebudayaan, 1982: 31). At their place of origin, they strongly believed that humans consisted of both evil were called the "Luangan" tribe. Because of the natural spirits and good spirits. There are spirits that give conditions and the pressure of the Ibans from the North, goodness, there are spirits that are destructive, and there they moved away from their lands of origin and finally are spirits that disturb other creatures. A good spirit is a reached the East Kalimantan-Kutai Regency spirit that does many good things during its lifetime, (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1982: 31). while an evil spirit is a spirit that during many lifetimes After arriving at East Kalimantan-Kutai Regency, their does a lot of evil and disturbs other beings. These spirits names were changed to "Benuaq", derived from the live in a place called Mount Lumut which is a place that name of the place "Benuaqkn", as according to their is considered sacred. The people believed that Mount own tribal stories. Lumut was the first place where humans were created The place was originally inhabited by the Benuaq and the place of return for humans after death Dayak tribe named Bombay or Benuaqkn. They settled (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 1982: 37). and developed themselves in Bombay. There was a In the dynamism beliefs, the Dayaks believed that belief in the Benuaq Dayak tribe regarding the place: the flora and fauna or the natural surroundings have the there cannot be more than 40 youths. If there were more power to spread happiness or misery to their lives. For than 40, they must move elsewhere. Hence, around example, if there is a honey bee in the middle of the three hundrerd years ago a migration movement took field, it is a sign of death. On the contrary if there are place in which some of the people moved towards the ants and anai-anai (a type of larva or termite) in the Kedang Pahu river, some towards the Nyuatan River, middle of the field, it is a sign that they will be blessed and others toward the Idaatn River. The Dayak tribe with many crops. Banyan trees were considered sacred who migrated to the Kedang Pahu River, initially settled trees because they were believed to be places where evil on Muara Pahu, but because of Islamic influence they spirits lived. That is part of the original Dayak tribal moved inland towards the Kedang Pahu River, in Muara beliefs in the past. Although Catholic and Christian Lawa sub-district, Big and Small Bentian sub-district, religions carry cultural acculturation that was positively and Damai subdistrict, of which there was a village accepted by Dayak tribes, they were still bounded by called Jengan Danum which means watery tree. There dynamism beliefs. This is evident in the preservation of were indeed many trees that contained water and were traditional ceremonies such as death ceremonies resistant to water, such as Bengkirai trees. As for the (kwangkai) and pelas kampung ceremonies or cleaning Dayak tribe who migrated towards the Nyuatan river, the village (Ngugu ceremony). These ceremonies were they headed to a place called Senteaau, according to the usually led by Kepala Adat (custom chiefs), Pewara name of a village in their place of origin in Central and Belietn (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Kalimantan. From here they spreaded to Jempang sub- 1982: 38). Ceremonies carried out by the Benuaq Dayak districts, such as Mancong and Tanjung Isuy villages, tribe include life rituals (birth, healing, peace, marriage) to Muara Muntai sub-districts such as Ohookng and and rituals of death (param api, kenyau, kwangkai Lamin Prigi. While the Dayak tribe who migrated to the ceremonies) (Emanuel, Dyson, and Matthew, 2013: Idaatn River spreaded to the Muara Wahau sub-district, 44). and among them there was a village called Dempar. From these places, there were those who eventually c.