Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Tattoo of an Iban (From Borneo)
For Borneo's Dayak peoples, spirits embody everything: animals, plants, and humans. Many groups have drawn on this power by using images from nature in their tattoos, creating a composite of floral motifs using plants with curative or protective powers and powerful animal images.
Tattoos are created by artists who consult spirit guides to reveal a design. Among Borneo's Kayan people, women are the artists, a hereditary position passed from mother to daughter. Among the Iban, the largest and most feared indigenous group in Borneo, men apply the tattoos.
These tattoos are blue-black, made of soot or powdered charcoal, substances thought to ward off malevolent spirits. Some groups spike their pigment with charms—a ground-up piece of a meteorite or shard of animal bone—to make their tattoos even more powerful.
For the outline, the artist attaches up to five bamboo splinters or European needles to a stick. After dipping them in pigment, he or she taps them into the skin with a mallet. Solid areas are filled in with a circular configuration of 15 to 20 needles.
Ritual Tattooing
Traditionally, Dayak tattooing was performed in a sacred ritual among gathered tribe members. Among the Ngaju Dayak, Krutak said, the tattoo artist began with a sacrifice to ancestor spirits, killing a chicken or other fowl and spilling its blood.
After a period of chanting, the artist started an extremely painful tattooing process that often lasted six or eight hours. Some tattoos were applied over many weeks.
For coming-of-age tattoo rituals, the village men dressed in bark-cloth. This cloth, made from the paper mulberry tree, also draped corpses and was worn by widows.
Tattooing, like other initiation rites, symbolized both a passing away and a new beginning, a death and a life.
Head-hunting Tattoos
One Dayak group, the Iban, believe that the soul inhabits the head. Therefore, taking the head of one's enemy gives you their soul. Taking the head also conferred your victim's status, skill and power, which helped ensure farming success and fertility among the tribe.
Upon return from a successful head-hunting raid, participants were promptly recognized with tattoos inked on their fingers, usually images of anthropomorphic animals.
Head-hunting was made illegal over a century ago—but even today, an occasional head is still taken.
Borneo Scorpion Tattoo
One of the great islands of the world, is part of the Malay Archipelago located southwest of the Philippines. It is also one of the few places today where tattooing continues to be practiced in a tradition that may stretch back thousands of years. Although it is but an island, it is home to several native subgroups: the Iban (also called the Sea Dayak), Kayan, Kenyah, and Land Dayak. Often times, though, these peoples are grouped under the single term Dayak, used to refer to any of the indigenous people of the interior of this lush and mountainous island. In the late 1800s, anthropologists started to become interested in the traditional cultures of the peoples of the region and several investigative expeditions were mounted. From these, as well as the work of modern researchers, we are provided a rare glimpse behind some of the symbols at work in tattooing and the meanings that they hold. As with many indigenous forms of tattooing around the globe, the art of tattooing was not simply art for arts sake. Instead, tattooing was an integral part of the culture, a ritual expression, specifically connected with spiritual beliefs. The scorpion symbol, also sometimes known as kala, was noted particularly in Iban tattoo designs by Charles Hose (a civil officer who worked in Borneo over twenty years) and William McDougall (an English anthropologist) in their 1912 publication The Pagan Tribes of Borneo. However, the authors note that the “scorpion” design is actually based on the highly stylized image of the aso, the mythical dog/dragon associated with protection from malevolent spirits. Hose and McDougall suggest that the Iban adopted their tattoo designs from other subgroups on the island and created their own interpretations afterwards. In the kala design, the claws of the scorpion were originally the back end of the dog while the hooked ends at the back of the scorpion design were originally the open jaws of the mouth of the dog. Although it has no particular significance in the scorpion design, even the rosette-like eye of the dog still persists in the center.
An old iban man's tattoo, each tattoo has its own meaning.
The traditional way of doing a tattoo..jpg)
This is called "bungai terung".
Iban Tattoo backpice... " Kelingai Ketam Nyepit" & "Kelingai Ketam Itit".Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Is This True??
When a girl MISSES You & when a boy MISSES you
Girl Facts ;
Girl Facts ;
When a girl is mean to you after a break-up, she wants you back but she is too scared she'll get hurt and knows you're gone forever!
when you catch a girl glancing at you, she wants you to look back and smile
When a girl bumps into your arm while walking with you, she wants you to hold her hand
When she wants a hug she will just stand there
When u break a girls heart she still feels it when you run into each other 3 years later
When a girl is quiet, millions of things are running through her mind
When a girl is not arguing, she is thinking deeply
When a girl looks at you with eyes full of questions, she is wondering how long you will be around
When a girl answers, "I'm fine," after a few seconds, she is not at all fine
When a girl stares at you, she is wondering why you are playing games
When a girl lays her head on your chest, she is wishing for you to be hers forever
When a girl says she can't live without you, she has made up her mind that you are her future
When a girl says, "I miss you," no one in this world can miss you more than that
*************************************
Guy facts ;
When a guy calls you, he wants to be with you
When a guy is quiet, he's listening to you
When a guy is not arguing, He realizes he's wrong
When a guy says, "I'm fine" after a few minutes he means it
When a guy stares at you, he wishes you would care about him and wonders if you do
When your laying your head on a guy's chest, he has the world
When a guy calls/texts/comments/messages you everyday, he is in love
When a (good) guy tells you he loves you, he means it
When a guy says he can't live without you, he's with you till your done
When a guy says, "I miss you," he misses you more than you could have ever missed him or anything else
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