Legend, culture history and geomorphology in the Kelabit-Kerayan Highland of North Central Borneo
This note by Frank M. LeBar examines the correlation between Murut-Kelabit origin legends and the geomorphology of the Kelabit-Kerayan highland in north central Borneo, arguing that legendary accounts of lake drainage correspond to a geologically recent breakthrough event.
Summary
LeBar draws on a Murut origin legend recorded by Tom Harrisson (1967) from Penghulu Balang Siran of Long Nuat, which describes ancestors Yassai and Berene draining a lake at Pa Rayah by piercing Mount Bangkuar, after which their descendants migrated to occupy the Kelabit plateau, Ulu Trusan, Lawas, and various Kalimantan river systems. He correlates this with Werner Schneeberger’s 1945 geomorphological analysis, which identifies the Beroewen gorge at Lobang Kwor Asai as a comparatively recent breakthrough that drained a lake occupying the Loetoet Valley and surrounding basins (p. 184). Schneeberger’s account includes a parallel native legend of a chief Kwor Asai cleaving the rock to empty the lake, and LeBar notes that the Kelabit plateau shows similar features of former lake basins now drained (p. 184).
LeBar’s central argument is that the widespread legend of lake drainage by culture-hero figures across the upper Kerayan system indicates the breakthrough event occurred after human occupation of the area, providing a rare case where legend can be correlated with objective geological evidence within a well-defined area (p. 185). He further speculates that the legend may encode the origin of wet rice culture in situ: as lakes drained, people moved from hillsides to valley floors and adapted hill rice varieties to irrigation, challenging diffusionist explanations that posit external introduction of irrigated rice (p. 185). He supports this with the Kelabit’s use of no plow or draft animal, their fallowing system, and Pollard’s observation that hill padi is used in the Ulu Trusan irrigation scheme (p. 185).