Thread: Borneo Parangs
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Old 1st January 2006, 10:38 PM   #4
Dinggat
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 29
Question

Asking my mother...
If it would be so simple I wouldn't take the effort to google through half of the internet to find informations

No, the problem is, that she simply doesn't remember. She lives here since three decades and although she still has a strong bond to Malaysia, she can't remind about the swords.
And next to that, I don't think, that these Parangs come from "my" longhouse. The swords they have there have another style than the ones I have, but I also have to say that I only know the working parangs and not the ritual ones (if they exist at all).
It's also possible that my father has bought these Parangs or got them as a gift. He is a doctor and back in the 70's he was a "Flying Doctor" in Malaysia who was flewn from longhouse to longhouse by helicopter and helped the people who were to far away from "civilisation". It's possible that some of the longhouse-inhabitants have given him one of their parangs out of thankfulness. He also can't remember exactly
And his job as a Flying Doctor was not limited to Iban-longhouses, so these Parangs can come from nearly every tribe living in Sarawak.
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