The people of Menyang Tais longhouse are almost completely self sufficient for food. In addition to collection food from the forest they had lots of gardens.
I think that this is tapioca.
Pineapple.
Pepper.
Some sad looking eggplant.
Papaya
Bitter gourd.
Fighting Cocks
In the evening one of the men from the longhouse tied up all of the roosters to posts in front of the longhouse. I wasn't sure whether they were tethering them close to the house so that they couldn't escape or to act as "guard roosters". It turns out they tie the cocks that are in training for cock fighting to the posts because they think that pulling on the chords strengthens their legs and gets them in a bad mood so that they are better fighters. Cock fighting is really the sweet science.
Breakfast in the longhouse
All of the rooms in the longhouses have internal connections to their neighbor's house that be either opened or closed.
The next morning it started to rain....
and rain...
and rain. Eventually, I understood why they built the longhouses on stilts.
All of the members of the Menyang Tais Longhouse were Christians. However, spirits still play a large role in the lives of the Ibans. The rainforest is full of spririts that have to be appeased in a variety of ways. Above the door of this house you can see a cross and symbol for the spirits
This door had both a photo of Jesus and a piup poster. I thought this was a pretty interesting combo!
Eventually the rain stopped and we were able to get out and explore the surrounding countryside.
I thought that this was a cool tree.
They placed offerings for the jungle spirits here.
Rice fields. Rice is the staple food of the Iban and the Menyang Tais longhouse grew enough rice to meet their needs. They grew dryland mountain rice, not irrigated rice.
Because it could take half an hour to an hour to walk to the rice fields, they built farm houses so that they could stay overnight if they needed to.
You can see Indonesia in the distance.
Rain barrel.
Our guide, Zach, and one of the Menyang Taisians leading us back to the longhouse
This little guy's parents were working in Kuching so he was staying at the longhouse with his grandparents. I think more and more of the young people are leaving the longhouse to work in the towns and cities, but it seems that they keep pretty close ties to their home. He didn't really know what to make of me at first, but he thought that it was pretty funny when I played "crash his cars" with him. It is funny how a kid who travels most places by foot and boat would have so much fun with toy cars!
This family had a young baby. The only taboo in the longhouse was to take a photo of a baby that was too young (something to do with the spirits). This little girl was old enough that she could be included in the family photo. The people that joined us in the evening were the older members of the community. The younger people were very shy and kept hidden in their houses. I feld lucky to be able to take this photo.
When we got back from our walk my two new friends were waiting for me. They yelled out "bye, bye, bye" which I have to admit is closer than anything that I could say to them in Iban.
Two good buddies.
After lunch it was time to move on to another longhouse.
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