DAYAK HEADDRESS BEADED HAND WOVEN HAT DAVID HOWARD TRIBAL ART DAYAK HEADDRESS BEADED HAND WOVEN HAT

DAYAK KENYA HEADDRESS HAND WOVEN BEADED HAT

DAVID HOWARD TRIBAL ART DAYAK KENYA HAND WOVEN BEADED HEADDRESS

DAYAK TRIBE: "KENYA" HEADDRESS
BEADED HAND WOVEN HAT #2
LATE 19TH CENTURY - EARLY 20TH CENTURY
YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, WHITE, AND RED TEXTILE
YELLOW, RED, BABY BLUE, NAVY BLUE, WHITE, AND GREEN SEED BEADS,
BAMBOO, AND FIBER
15 X 15 X 8 INCHES

Some Dayak festivals pertains to procreation. Gawai Lelabi (River Turtle Festival) is held to pray to the deity of creation called Selampadani, to announce the readiness of daughters for marriage and to solicit a suitable suitor. Beaded and feathered headdess and hats are worn by Dayak village elders and high ranking Dayak warriors. The "River Turtle Festival" is where those men with trophy head skulls become leading contenders. The wedding ceremony is called Melah Pinang (Areca nut Splitting). The god of creation Selampandai is invoked here for fertility of the daughters to bear many children.
There is a series of ritual rites from birth to adolescence of children.

The Dayak indigenous religion has been given the name Kaharingan, and may be said to be a form of animism. The name was coined by Tjilik Riwut in 1944 during his tenure as a Dutch colonial Resident in Sampit, Dutch East Indies. In 1945, during the Japanese Occupation, the Japanese referred Kaharingan as the religion of the Dayak people. During the New Order in the Suharto regime in 1980, the Kaharingan is registered as a form of Hinduism in Indonesia, as the Indonesian state only recognises 6 forms of religion i.e. Islam, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism respectively. The integration of Kaharingan with Hinduism is not due to the similarities in the theological system, but due to the fact that Kaharingan is the oldest belief in Kalimantan. Unlike the development in Indonesian Kalimantan, the Kaharingan is not recognised as a religion both in Malaysian Borneo and Brunei, thus the traditional Dayak belief system is known as a form of folk animism or pagan belief on the other side of the Indonesian border.

Underlying the world-view is an account of the creation and re-creation of this middle-earth where the Dayak dwell, arising out of a cosmic battle in the beginning of time between a primal couple, a male and female bird/dragon (serpent). Representations of this primal couple are amongst the most pervasive motifs of Dayak art. The primal mythic conflict ended in a mutual, procreative murder, from the body parts of which the present universe arose stage by stage. This primal sacrificial creation of the universe in all its levels is the paradigm for, and is re-experienced and ultimately harmoniously brought together (according to Dayak beliefs) in the seasons of the year, the interdependence of river (up-stream and down-stream) and land, the tilling of the earth and fall of the rain, the union of male and female, the distinctions between and co-operation of social classes, the wars and trade with foreigners, indeed in all aspects of life, even including tattoos on the body, the lay-out of dwellings and the annual cycle of renewal ceremonies, funeral rites.