tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57870071823283515632023-11-16T02:08:41.798+08:00lemetingPepeng Itam Tagengzzeizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00316113833905553153noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787007182328351563.post-61963789703035185122008-06-05T22:32:00.003+08:002008-06-05T23:14:23.557+08:00<div align="center"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">Coen Festival</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#3333ff;"><strong>by Clement Langet Sabang</strong></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#cc0000;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#333333;"><em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Coen</span></em> ( <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#cc0000;">pronounce as Chowen</span> ) </span><span style="font-size:100%;">have, for a long time been a major festival among the <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Kenyah </span><span style="color:#ff0000;">Community</span></em>. Normally celebrated at the end of harvesting season, to mark the worriors retrned from a successful headhunting expedition. Nowadays, it is fixed on the 1st June every year as a festival of thanks-giving as well as merry making for the Kenyah of upper tinjar, Baram in the Miri Division, Sarawak.</span></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#333333;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#ff0000;"><em>The Coen <span style="color:#000000;">or </span></em><span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Suwen </em></span><span style="color:#000000;">in some Kenyah Kenyah dialects is said to have started since time imemmorial but practice stopped in the 1950's for some unknown reasons. Since then, numerous efforts to revive it failed because resistance from the elderly folks due to fear of taboos usually accociated with it. Others also feared that the festival might contradict the Catholic Church's teaching.However in 1997, after many meetings and discussions, I managed to to persuade the <em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Lg</span></em> <em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Luyang Cebup</span></em>, a subgroup of Kenyah to hold one with the intention to have it documented for the Sarawak Museum. Few years later, residents from other longhouses in upper Tinjar expressed interest to have a common festival for everyone. After some discussions between community leaders as well as intellectuals from the <em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Cebup, Uma Pawa' , Badeng, Tebalau, Seping, Lirong</span></em> and <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Penan </span></em>from the respective longhouses, finally , agreed to accept Coen as their common festival. Therefore in 2003, Lg Panah hosted the first common Coen in conjunction with the Gawai Dayak. Then followed by the other longhouses namely; Lg Nuah(2004), Apo Gon(2005), Lg Sobeng ( 2006), Lg Dunin (2007) and </span><span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Lg Luyang (2008).</em></span></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;">The Coen is celebrated by residents from seventeen longhouses under the purview of <span style="font-size:130%;"><em><span style="color:#3366ff;">Persatuan</span></em> <span style="color:#3366ff;"><em>Lemeting Ulu</em></span></span>, which is officially knwon as Persatuan Masyarakat Kampung Lemeting Ulu tinjar or in short called <span style="font-size:180%;color:#3366ff;">PERLU</span>. PERLU , an accronyme mooted in 2003 is taken from the following words: PER (PERsatuan), L(lemeting), U (ULU) . the shorten name made it easier for everyone to refer to this associaiton, even among the elderly folks in the village. On top of that, the word PERLU in Malay refers to soemthing <em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">'very much needed'</span></em>. The meaning means a lot to all the members, because the various ethnic groups form the upper Tinjar hardly have a common paltform to cater for their socio-economic struggles. As such, <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#cc0000;"><em>one of the objectives of PERLU is to nurture the</em> <span style="color:#cc0000;"><em>social</em></span></span><span style="color:#cc0000;"><em> cultural activities of the area.</em></span></span> Thus, Coen is one of the activities that the associaiton have been actively celebrating over the years. every year the longhouses concern take turn to host this big event.</span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Meanwhile, in 2006 the committee members of PERLU agreed to rename the festival into <em><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">Coen</span></em> <span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><em>Festival</em></span>. The rebranding is said to be necessary beacue the term Coen is only understood by people from the above longhouses only. Therefore in order to get a universal appeal, the festival has to be given a new name. This is said to be important for purpose of marketing, beacuse the committee feels Coen Festival has the portential to beacme a unique tourism product for Sarawak in the near future.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#cc0000;"></span> </div>zzeizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00316113833905553153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5787007182328351563.post-35660580273209693662008-06-05T20:13:00.002+08:002008-06-05T22:31:06.990+08:00<div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><em>Selamat Tuai/Selamat Datang/Welcome</em></span></div><p><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Welcome to Lemeting blogspot, the old name for Tinjar River .Consist of 17 longhouses namely ; 1. Lg Batan, 2. Lg Luyang, 3. Apau Gon,4. Lg Aya, 5. Lg Dunin, 6. Lg Lg Pelawai, 7. Lg Sobeng, Lg Aton, 9. Lg Nuah, 10.Lg Selapun, 11. Lg Pala, 12. Lg Lobang, 13. Lg Puah, 14. Lg Buken, 15. Lg Liau, 16. Lg Kerong, 17 Lg Sebatang, all in the upper reaches of Tinjar River.</span></em></p><p><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">Majority people live here are the Kenyah and Penan. The Cebup dialect is spoken mostly by everyone. The Kenyah Community along Tinjar River are united thru their long houses and their unique culture.</span></em></p><br /><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"></span></em></div><br /><div align="left"><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"></span></em></div><br /><div align="left"><em><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"></span></em></div>zzeizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00316113833905553153noreply@blogger.com0