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Christine Padoch, Bobby Anak Nyegang & Itin Anak Langit
A bilingual book in English and Iban. 2025, Areca Books.
The story of a great Iban longhouse and its rice-growing landscape that were submerged beneath the waters of the Batang Ai Dam in Sarawak.
In 1973, the great longhouse at Nanga Jela stood high above the Engkari River, a tributary of the upper Batang Ai in Sarawak. The 38 Iban families who lived there practiced a multi-staged form of agriculture , cultivating 67 varieties of rice, 11 varieties of glutinous rice and other crops. The rocks, hills, streams, and swampy places of Nanga Jela made up parts of a complex, human-shaped landscape that was also a living history, a book of tradition, a source of identity, and a representation of social relations. The stories written into this landscape matched and complemented the people’s great songs, epics, and genealogies. In 1985, this landscape disappeared beneath the waters of the Batang Ai Hydroelectric Dam. Return to Nanga Jela offers a glimpse of a moment in the past of a landscape, a longhouse, and a distinctive way of life that has vanished.
Hardcover, 222 pages.
ISBN:9789675719516
Christine Padoch, Bobby Anak Nyegang & Itin Anak Langit
A bilingual book in English and Iban. 2025, Areca Books.
The story of a great Iban longhouse and its rice-growing landscape that were submerged beneath the waters of the Batang Ai Dam in Sarawak.
In 1973, the great longhouse at Nanga Jela stood high above the Engkari River, a tributary of the upper Batang Ai in Sarawak. The 38 Iban families who lived there practiced a multi-staged form of agriculture , cultivating 67 varieties of rice, 11 varieties of glutinous rice and other crops. The rocks, hills, streams, and swampy places of Nanga Jela made up parts of a complex, human-shaped landscape that was also a living history, a book of tradition, a source of identity, and a representation of social relations. The stories written into this landscape matched and complemented the people’s great songs, epics, and genealogies. In 1985, this landscape disappeared beneath the waters of the Batang Ai Hydroelectric Dam. Return to Nanga Jela offers a glimpse of a moment in the past of a landscape, a longhouse, and a distinctive way of life that has vanished.
Hardcover, 222 pages.
ISBN:9789675719516