Dayak parang ilang Handle
 

An very rare handle

Yes and the exact type I want to get when I grow up (and have money again :rolleyes: ).

Is this rare due to the silver on the hilt?

Did you get this from eBay (saw another identical to this)?

Hi Battara yes I did get this one from ebay it is 19 centh and also rare with silver on the handle on the top off the handle same design as they use on heads

It was very cheap it surprise me that it was not recognised as an important piece.

Ben

Congratulations Ben!

Are those stylized leeches on the first hilt picture? I have heard that they were put there to give the Mandau a taste for blood.

Nicer than I assumed - congratulations.
That's the problem with buying from pictures; you usually get some kind of surprise. In this case a positive surprise. ;)
I was no 2 and my top bid, based on the insecurity because of the pictures, wasn't what most people would consider a bargain???
But compared to the prices of some top dealers in Amsterdam it of course was relatively quite cheap.

Could you please also share some pictures of the blade and sheath?


Michael

Hi thanks Here are some more pics the strange thing about the blade is that
the blade is concave and the otherside is convex this is normal with an parang ilang but the crowit at the handle and the point we see not at an parang ilang .
I did not see from the pic that this mandau had no flat blade , and that the carry band was complete I only saw that it was the old style carry band.
But scabbard style looks like 1850 or earlyer.

Here are some pics

Nice catch Ben!

I find the carved rib over the Tumpal (Tree of life) motif on the handle very unusual. Have you seen it before?

On the crowit and point I am not sure what you mean?
Maybe you could post some close ups of those parts of the blade and explain?
It's hard to see on the, quite dark, overall picture of the blade.

Don't you think the silver work resemble motifs found on Melanau hilts? :confused:

Bill, I think that the leech and taste of blood story is something made up outside Borneo.
But of course I might be wrong?
Like the story about the brass dots representing amount of taken heads etc.

Michael

Hi Michael,

Always hard to tell what is an "urban rumor," and what is authentic. I got the idea about the leeches from "Iban Art," by Heppel.

The idea about the brass dots representing number of heads always seemed off to me because they were most likely in place when the blade was first made.

I guess it could be possible that a Dayak could have a blade made counting previous heads taken, though it would have been a lot of heads for so many dots.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Iban Art, published 2005, is a very nice book.
The leeches making the sword familiar drawing blood is in the book a saying that they attribute to Saribas, an area where one of the Iban groups live.
I think that's a cool but more recent explanation from the time after headhunting was practised.
The Parang Ilang is a sword that the Iban got from the Kayan in the 19th C (according to Shelford and other sources).
The original meaning for the motif IMO must be found among the Kayan.

Michael

Hi thanks for your reply

The dots in the mandau is not an rumor there are some mandau s and pakayuns who have very litle amount off dots in the weapons that it could be true that this was in use for a little time for each head an dot.
( we see some mandau s with 100 dots or more but these are more to make the sword more fancy )

Take a look at this mandau is has very nice in lay but look at the other side the way they put in the dots

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=mandau

The handle s the top is an milano handle second one land dayak third murut
and last kayan so I think the handle off this mandau is not melanau .

take a look at the crowits I never see 2 on an kayan mandau we find this combination the most at the Iban people with their mandau 's .

so this one might be one off the first type that the Iban did get from the kayan ( but not sure about this that what I like to find out any information about this is welcome )

Hi Michael what you say about the Heppel book I have to agree with you

The same for
the Zonneveld s book see the information about the parang nabur that is in it.
And the jimpul s that one in there is not an jimpul.

Ben

Hi Ben,

Maybe on the "spooky" Mandau the dots could be heads?
Or it's just an unusual Mandau all over?

On the Melanau influence it was just the motifs on the silver grip I was referring to, not the antler hilt of course.

Both the Murut and the Land Dayak could have had contact with the Melanau for influence on their silver work on your nice swords?
Let's agree at least that it's probably made along the coast of Sarawak?

Thanks for the close ups.
Now I see what you mean and agree that it looks both unusual and interesting.
I also think that your Mandau is a "transition sword".
Maybe early Iban made Mandau, as you suggest, before they became more usual in the end of 19th C.

Michael

Hi Michael,

Do you have an "original meaning for the motif found among the Kayan?" Or could it be the same?

It seems that a great number of these hilts have similar carvings, so it seems to be an important symbol.

Some symbols are rooted in antiquity and faithfully reproduced while others have lost their original meaning and are just copied because they have been there a long time.

I very much appreciate your knowledge and am going to post a few of my Dayak pieces in the hopes of learning more.

Curious Bill

Hi Michael yes in the Sarawak part maybe the North that part that is close to the Muruts you see the murut one have it too and the scabbard also your nice rare pakayun has also nice silver on the scabbard

The spooky mandau they could be heads

Yes I think this one and the pics you show me from that nice mandau
could be transition swords

would be nice that maybe you post them here


Ben

OK,

Here is my Mandau, that we discussed off-forum, with an abundance of crowit.
I don't have it around at the moment so I will have a closer look at the blade later today.

Michael

Hi Bill,

Missed your post first because it came before Ben's.
I will try to find time tonight, or tomorrow night, to go through some of the old works and different ideas on what the "leech" motif represents.
I prefer to base it on quotes so everybody has the same sources to form their own opinion on this.
Look forward to see your Dayak pieces.
Maybe in a separate thread, so we can limit this thread to discuss Iban-Kayan transition Mandau?

Michael

Of course

Hi Michael here some blade s yours has the style off the oldman jimpul

and some more

Thanks Ben,

Yes it resembles the style of the old Jimpul more than the Ilang.
Not home yet for a couple of hours but will post blade comments as soon as I have it in front of me again.

Michael

Back home, the blade is not flat but concave/convex like a Parang Ilang.

Michael

Hi Michael you see that it is rare blade with the 2 crowits on an convex concave blade I try too look up the handle in Hein but nothing like it
I have to ask Arjan about it he make s a study about Mandau Handle s

Let me know if you see handle or blade like it


Ben

Here is another odd Iban parang.
It has a "half-crowit" and the point is not as pronounced as for a Langgai Tinggang or a Niabor.
The long blade is flat with fullers and incised with phyllomorphic design on both sides. Look carefully at the point and you can see the design.

Michael

Some other handles

Hi Michael yes There is no classification for this type so I called it sea dayak sword or mandau sometimes you see campilans on north borneo with the same point (not the design but is very nice we find these on Jimpulls)
this could be also be an transition sword between the Iban and other dayaks
The short handle is typicall Iban .

Nice Kenya/ Kayan handle s Marcokeris

here an old style handle as we can see in Qeur Durch Borneo very different from what we see on the later mandau s

Hi Ben,

Sea Dayak sword seems to be a fitting name until it has been classified.
I haven't seen any other Dayak parang resembling this one so far.

Nice hilts Marcokeris and Ben!

Michael

Hi Arjan can you take a look in leiden about this handle ??

Ben

Ben,

I don't think Leiden is the proper place to find resembling hilts to ours.
This because of the non Iban bias in their collection.
I had a look myself in their collection archive and didn't find any close to yours.
On my hilt it looks clearly influenced by two of the old Kenyah hilts collected by Nieuwenhuis?
By influenced I mean that that's the closest resemblence of the hilts in their collection. Not that they are identical in style.
Maybe the Kenyah resemblence is another reason to classify this as a transition sword before the Iban adopted the Ilang as their own parang?
Here is a picture of the hilt from another angle for comparison.

Michael

PS Don't you think your hilt a bit resembles the old ones in Tromp's article, collected in Koetei?

Hi Michael

I don t think so because if you look at that type off hilt you see a face and the back off the handle is almost straight .
I see also no type off hilt in Hein so would be difficult to trace it

your hilt is also a nice one
Ben

Hi Ben,

I don't see a face on all the hilts in Tromp?
And not on the example I have enclosed.
But I don't think they have the Tumpal motif either.
So it was just an idea on a slight resemblance and a possible connection?

Michael

Hi Michael I think this type off handle might be older then the tromp handle
because the lip at the back side we see disappear after 1900.


Ben

Here two pages from Holstein book

Hi Marcokeris can you tel me the writer from the book and what name the book have



Ben

Hi Ben
the author is P. Holstein (a french collector)
The name of book is "Contribution a l'etude des armes orientales" edit in Paris in 1931 (french language!)
This work is divided in two big books:
the first is about description of oriental white weapons (india and indonesia),
the second is about author collection (extraordinary!) and all books are many plates
Even if it was edit in 1931 the quality of plates is really very good.
The book is rather rare (mybe is still possible to find a copy in ebay at good price).

Thanks Marcokeris for sharing these nice illustrations.
I somehow didn't see them last time I read the books.
Pierre Holstein's classical books are extremely expensive but fortunately they have them in one of the museum libraries here.
The text of the pages I read was only descriptions of the featured weapons, not cultural background etc. But the weapons in his books are all great.

I noticed that all of the illustrations on the these two pages were familiar.
It seems as if he has "ripped" most of the illustrations from Tromp and Hein's works?

Michael

Hi Ben,
sorry for the late reaction I was very busy making www.thehornbill.com
so I didn't have any time to answer.
The discussion is very interesting.
Leiden has as far as I have seen not a mandauhilt like the one you listed in the beginning of this thread.
what I think is that it is maybe an Iban imitation of a Modang hilt.
the shape is very rare and I don't think you'll find easy another like this.
on the silverwork: I know that the Maloh tribe who produced as well as the brass corsets for the Iban also most of the silverwork.they are likely originated from a mixed race of indigenes and Hindu -Javanese invaders.
This could declare the more ar less "non-Iban" style in the silverwork.
(source: metalworking in Borneo ,V.T King and J.W.Christie)

Arjan.

Tromps handles
 

Hi Michael,
Some of Tromp's handles surely has faces but indeed not on all
I have seen them in Leiden and some of them are in the typical Koetei style with face.I have the idea that the face on the grip fade away after 1900 when headhunting was'nt practised as often as before the great peacemaking.

arjan.

Hi Arjan,

Interesting idea about the faces fading away later.
Is it just an unconfirmed idea or do you have any indications of why that could be the case?
I had the idea that it was the other way around based on how rare the old non-face hilts, those combined with high class blades, are?
Why do you think Tromp shows the non-face first and then the hilts with face?

Michael

Hi Michael,

its not just an idea,during my vistit in leiden I saw many "faced" mandaugrips in the collection who where collected before 1900.
the old one seems to have bigger noses,faces with more expression.
on the late models (around 1900) the faces are smaller and less expressive.
on later models its completely gone.
also on other models from other tribes you rarely see a face an mandauhilts after 1930.
indeed shows Tromp the non-faced mandau earlier because he also writes that the faced mandau was quite common in those days and the non faced quite rare. ( we speak about pre 1900)

Arjan.

Hi Arjan,

Reading your comment I realized that maybe we have the same view?
19th C and earlier the non-face hilts were quite rare to find among Koetei/Kutei mandaus, maybe an older or more exclusive version (like the Nieuwenhuis Mandau)?
In 20th C they became more popular again.
One reason could be that headhunting stopped as you suggest.
Another reason could be that Christianity entered the scene among the Dayaks and the face handles were connected to the old beliefs?

Michael

Hi The headhunting didn t stop after 1900 in word war 2 japanese soldiers
did loose their heads in Borneo

Hi Arjan that was what I was thinking too about the Hilt that it was imitated
by the Iban because it has Iban influence also the blade
thanks for your search.

Also Thanks Michael for the Holstein stuff very nice did you notice that there is an good picture off an Bayu


Ben