Bidayuh
The
Bidayuh (formerly known as
Land D(a)yak) is one of the main indigenous ethnic groups now settled in areas of southwest
Sarawak and the adjacent areas of west
Kalimantan. In Sarawak, most of the Bidayuh population are found within 40 km of the geographical area known as Greater Kuching, within the Kuching and Samarahan division. Today more and more Bidayuh have migrated, and live in Kuching, which is the capital city of Sarawak.
Predominantly Bidayuh areas are: Lundu, Bau, Penrissen, Padawan, and Serian. Most of the Bidayuh villages can be found in the rural areas of Lundu, Bau, Padawan, Penrissen and Serian district. The area in which they live is mainly in the basin of the
Sarawak River and hilly to mountainous forest, traditionally worked by shifting agriculture and hunting based around farms populated from parent villages situated on the hills for protection. Today, almost all the traditional
longhouse-villages have been replaced by individual houses, by roads and there is some plantation agriculture and a reduced emphasis on the growing of hill-padi. Fruit trees, especially
durian, remain important property markers. The distinctive architectural and cultural feature of the Bidayuh was the headhouse, now adapted as a symbol.
In Sarawak there are generally said to be three main linguistic groupings (
Biatah;
Bau-Jagoi;
Bukar-Sadong) but these can be broken down even beyond the list referenced below as most people can be distinguished by locals down to village level through smaller differences in vocabulary and intonation. Each area speak its own dialect:
# Lundu speak
Salako & Lara# Bratak, Singai, Krokong and Jagoi speak
Singai-Jagoi# Penrissen and the Siburan vicinity speak
Biatah# Bidayuhs who live around Serian such as Tebekang, Mongkos, Tebedu to Tanjung Amo near the border of Kalimantan Indonesia speak
Bukar-Sadong.# Bidayuhs in Padawan speak several but related dialects like
Pinyawa, Braang, Bia', Sepug & Emperoh.The dialects are not mutually intelligible and
English or
Malay tend to be used instead.
Religion was traditionally
animist but since the
Brooke era,
Christian missionaries bringing education and medicine and, post-colonially, Malays bringing political influence have drastically reduced its influence (although vestiges often remain). Most villages have either a
Roman Catholic or
Anglican church or a
mosque - rarely more than one or the village would tend to split. The Biatah people living around the Sarawak River tend to be Anglican while the people of the Bau area tend to be Catholics. Muslim villages are extremely rare.
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Ethnologue language tree
