The Braang Tribe

Origin of Bra’ang Community.

Bra’ang Community is one of the splinter group from a larger Biatah Tribe which is one of the Dayak’s tribes of Borneo Island. This community name came from a family clan known as Bra’ang.

According to the Bra-ang legend, the Biatah’s tribes evolved from the big explosion by the lightning on the lime stone rocks found in one of the several mountains ranges between Sarawak and Kalimantan Border known as Mount Songkong. This was because the dayaks did not have any scientific explanation and they would always see how lightning strike, so they built their belief that when the lightning strike the lime stone rock, human being appeared from that as all human being at that time then, lived in the cave. However, as we all know now, basically this Biatah tribe could be just one of those primitive and stone age habitants found in several caves throughout the island of Borneo including the famous one, the Batu Niah Cave in Miri, Sarawak. Based on the historical records, Batu Niah’s inhabitants were existed as far back as more than 40,000 years ago.

2. Movement of the Bra’ang community.

As the Biatah Tribe become more and more intelligence, they realized that planting crops for their food would be far better than just depending on the jungle produce. Besides, living in the cave was not ideal anymore as space became a problem when its population started to grow and hence building a longhouse where it could be extended to meet the demand of the population. But when they started planting crops and living in a build-in house, they received continuous attacks from other less intelligence/civilized cave tribes and hence they decided to move north ward to Sarawak(as it known today)side where land were vast and free from any inhabitants. Many went further to as far as Mount Siburan (about 50 kilometers apart a long distance in the past as it took at least two to three weeks walking on foot), while some splinter, like the Bra’ang’s family clan decided to stop at the nearer mountain ranges and hills which eventually name after the clan as Bra’ang Mountain and Range.

When Bra’ang clan finally settled down, a smaller group decided to build a longhouse at Bilimbing (western side of Bra’ang mountain range) slightly nearer from the place of origin while majority chose to go further and build their first longhouse at a place call Bung(Hill) Sebagag(Northern range). However, as the population grow bigger and bigger, some more adventurous group moved down to river valley known as Abang. Two spots were chosen, one in Bayur, a lower part of the river while another spot known as Peyang (because of a lot of jungle fruit call Peyang or wildly known as Kepayang trees found here) on the upper part of the river.

When those still at Sebagag saw some of their relatives moved down to valley and plain, many decided to move to another hill top, known as Bung Wa . But as time past, the place became very congested and some splinter group decided to move to Bung Tebesik while some still remained at Bung Wa. However, after a while this group also decided to move to a lower part of Bung Wa. Again space and shifting cultivation (hill padi planting) took a toll. Hence some from Bung Wa and Bung Tebiseh, decided to follow their relatives and friends in Payang while a smaller group both from Bung Wa and Tebesih decided to form a new temporary farm houses in Sigandar(eventually became Kampung Sigandar) for bigger land area for their farming activities. As a result of this movement, Kampong Payang is the biggest among all the kampongs.

Hence in pre- 1970s, the Bra’ang community were comprising five major locations namely, Kampong Bra’ang Wa, Kampong Bra’ang Tebesik, Kampong Bra’ang Payang, Kampong Bra’ang Bayur and Pelaman Sigandar. Even though they were living separately, many of their community’s animistic rituals and festivals were celebrated together regularly. They still share the farm land, fruit orchards and many other communal land areas as basically they are all descendant of a single family clan of Bra’ang. Except for Kampong Blimbing, it was a kind of isolated from the rest of Bra’ang community due to its geographical and historical factors.

As education and luxury living slowly invaded the Bra’ang community, the younger group started seeing the convenience of living in lower valley and plain. Hence towards late 1960s and early 1970s, Bung Wa final remnants moved to Kampung Taburang and Bung Tebisek remnants moved to Kampung Bidak.

Written and documented by James Agro.