All photographs were taken by Kron Aken who holds the copyright.
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A number of houses in the village has been built using bricks and mortar. It has become trendy for the downstairs part of the house to be converted into a living area. In the past the underneath part of the house were where you keep your pigs and chickens. As people have relied more on paid employment rather than traditional farming, the money from their salary has been used to renovate their houses. |
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This is another view of the village. Notice the powerlines. Power has come to this village for a few years. The power supply is from Bau a town about 15 km away. With electricity, the villagers can also enjoy the comforts in life. They can watch TV, store food in refrigerators and use electric fans to cool themselves. Before electricity came to the village, house lighting were by kerosene lamps. |
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This house has unfortunately been pulled down. It was built by Chinese carpenters, but it illustrates how materially- rich the family was in those days, to afford outside contractors to build their house. In those days, all the building materials were hand sawn and obtained from the nearby forest. |
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This is a traditional Bidayuh farm house, almost all built from local forest materials. The roof and wall are made from thatched sago leaves. The floor is made from bamboo slats. Rattan are used to tied the thatched roof and bamboo slats. A feature of the farm house is the front, back and side window can be open, catching the breeze and keeping the house cool. The platform infront of the house is used for drying rice. Building this traditional house is very labour intensive and more and more people are now constructing their farm houses using metal roof, timber floor and walls. |