Lun Bawang and Kelabit Potteries of Sarawak

Abstract

In 2013, an ethnographic study of the Lun Bawang and Kelabit potteries in Sarawak was undertaken by the authors and staff of the Centre for Global Archaeological Research (CGAR), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang and the Sarawak Museum Department, Kuching in the district of Lawas and the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak (Fig. 1). The primary objective of the study is to locate the few remaining Lun Bawang and Kelabit potters in these regions in order to gather data and information on traditional pottery technology, types and functions. It is also hoped that the findings of the study can provide some useful insights into the connections between the past and present pottery-making traditions in Sarawak. The Lun Bawang and Kelabit potteries have been studied since the mid-1950s by a number of researchers such as Harrisson (1955), Morrison (1955) and Janowski (1991). Harrisson’s (1955: 301) work, however, was focussed mainly on the distribution and general characteristics of native pottery in Sarawak and Sabah. He made brief mentions of the possible links between the traditional and prehistoric pottery of Borneo. Morrison (1955) reported briefly on the Lun Bawang pottery-making in Ba’ Kelalan, Lawas. Between 1986 and 1988, Janowski (1991) studied and reported in detail about the Kelabit pottery-making at the village of Pa’ Dalih in the Kelabit Highlands. Although these previous studies have provided useful records of traditional pottery-making of the Lun Bawang and Kelabit, they are too brief and not comprehensive enough for understanding the traditional pottery-making of Sarawak. This study is therefore an attempt to fill the gaps in knowledge about the traditional pottery-making of the Lun Bawang and Kelabit which is now a dying tradition.