Akar Nusa
High in the Ba'kelalan valley, mist lies on the rice terraces. A family carries the harvest home. In a few weeks the whole community will gather for a feast, and the best rice will be shared.
The story
The Lundayeh and the Lun Bawang are the same people with two names. Lun Bawang is the name used in Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan. Lundayeh is the name used in Sabah. They live in southwest Sabah (including Labuan), the Limbang and Lawas area of northern Sarawak, the highlands of North Kalimantan and Brunei's Temburong district.
About 50,550 Lun Bawang live in all. The 2020 Malaysian census counted 26,450, of whom 6,941 were in Sabah and 17,676 in Sarawak. Indonesia's count was about 23,000 in 2007 and Brunei's 1,110 in 2021. Their language, Lun Bawang, has many dialects.
They are farmers who grow both hill rice and paddy rice. A good rice harvest brings prestige, and it is shared at large feasts called irau. Salt was made by evaporating brine from salt springs, a skill that mattered for trade.
The Lun Bawang are related to the Kelabit, and both belong to a cluster of Dayak peoples known as Apo Duat. Dayak is a loose umbrella word for over 200 groups on Borneo, each with its own speech and customs.
Before the 1920s most Lun Bawang followed older beliefs. Missionary work of the Borneo Evangelical Mission under the Rajah's rule led to a Christian majority.
Today national borders cut across this people's lands, so one family can have relatives in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.
Where you can still see it today
- Irau Aco Lun Bawang in Lawas, held each year on 1 June.
- Kaamatan in Sipitang, which Sabah's Lundayeh celebrate every second year.
- Nuba Laya, a rice dish that centres on Bario rice, shared with the Kelabit.
- Kelupis, rolls of glutinous rice.
- Ba'kelalan and the Bario highlands, reached by small plane or long road from Miri and Lawas.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
We could not open a DNA study of the Lundayeh or Lun Bawang alone, so we make no claim about their mother or father lines. A 2022 review says Borneo natives speak Austronesian languages and that Sabah natives are close to Taiwanese and Philippine native peoples. That is a regional picture, and the Lun Bawang are not singled out in it.
Malaysians we have tested may see a region estimate that points to the wider Borneo and island Southeast Asian family. That is a broad reading, not a statement about any one community.
DNA does not decide which people you belong to, your religion or any legal status. A border line on a map does not decide kinship either.
