Wednesday, May 22, 2013

my heritage : Iban Pua series

Pua scarf is one of Ibans famous artworks. It is a scarf produced by Iban women. There is many types of pua scarf that were made by them, namely Pua Kumbu and Pua Sungkit.

 Pua Sungkit
Compared to the other Pua scarf series, Pua Sungkit is totally unavailable in the market in the present time. It must probably because no one is willing to go through the tedious process of its weaving journey that take some time to complete its process. In fact, the function of this scarf is exactly the same as Pua Kumbu, but the only differences between these two is the weaving technique and process during the making, where Pua Kumbu is much more easier to make than Pua Sungkit. However, due to its difficult making process, most of the Pua Sungkit are small in size and most of it were made into higher value items like costume where it was featured as skirt and only be worn by dancers of higher caliber during special ceremony.

Pua Kumbu
Pua Kumbu, a scarf with a hand-woven on a back-strap loom, represented the soul of the Iban culture. It is a woven mythological tale about the weaver and her affiliation with the spirit world.The weaving is considered sacred and it is believed to be able to mediate between man and the spirit world when spiritual power is woven into it with its designs conceived. Although dreams according to their weaving status and are thus limited in expressions till she is spiritually matured. A woman who weaved a spiritually superb Pua Kumbu would achieves a social status equivalent to that of a great warrior in Iban culture


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