BIDAYUH TRADITIONAL COSTUME
 
By
 
Jonas Noeb, Henry Langgie and Gerald Gilbert Oscar Sindon*
 
 
Early Bidayuh Attires
 
The early attires of the Bidayuh were made from materials obtained from the jungle.  Long before the advent of Malay and Chinese traders, the loin-cloth of Bidayuh men was made from the inner bark of a tree, Artocarpus elasticus, which the Bidayuh called boyuh.  The loin-cloth was called tahup temran. The skirt of Bidayuh women too was made from similar material.  It was called jomuh kenwa. In addition to the jomuh kenwa, they also wore two coils of fine rattans around the waist; one is called rimba bijuri  and the other one, rimba bombuo.  Rimba bijuri is red while rimba bumbuo is black.  The women also wore bangles called gorang girogot, sirotoh or jaka.

Footnotes
Tahup temran is a bark loin-cloth.  Temran or timoran  is a type of boyuh tree.  The soft inner bark of the tree is cut, slit open and peeled off.  It is then beaten continuously and carefully.  After that it is soaked in water and washed.  It is then dried up.  When it is dried, it is made into a loin-cloth for men. [Back]

Jomuh kenwa is a bark petticoat.  It is made from the soft inner bark of a boyuh tree. [Back]

Rimba bijuri or simed is a coil of fine red rattans which is fashioned into a girdle.  It is made by coiling and ramming fine rattans into a container and then boils them together with slices of bikudu roots (Morinda sp.) and crushed leaves of a tuboh tree for a few days.  The result is that the rattans will turn red permanently. [Back]

Rimba bumbuo or bentang is made either by putting fine coils of rattans in black mud together with crushed sirugam leaves for a week or by boiling fine rattans together with bua tuboh and crushed leaves of tuboh plants for a few days.  The result is that the rattans will turn black permanently.  The rimba bumbo, which is black, is worn around the waist as a girdle by the older women. [Back]
 
 
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# Paper presented at the Bidayuh Traditional Music, Songs, Dance and Costume Workshop held at Museum Tun Razak, Kuching on 16 - 17 May 1998.

* Mr. Jonas Noeb is a Headmaster of SRB St. Teresa, Serian.  Mr. Henry Langgie (BBS) is an Agency Manager of Arab-Malaysian Insurance, Kuching.  Mr. Gerald Gilber Oscar Sindon is a schoolteacher.

Received on November 16, 1999.
Published on the Internet by courtesy of Mr. Ahi Sarok (January 05, 2000)
Re-Published for bidayuh dotcom by courtesy of  Mr. Ahi Sarok (May 03, 2000)

Citation:
Noeb, J., H. Langgie and G. G. O. Sindon. 1998. Bidayuh Traditional Costume. Paper presented at the Bidayuh Traditional Music, Songs, Dance and Costume Workshop held at Museum Tun Razak, Kuching on 16 - 17 May 1998. 10p. (http://www.geocities.com/dayung_biatah/bidcostum.html)

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