Heirloom beads from Borneo
Many cultures around the world have an special bond with beads. It happened, for example, with glass beads in West Africa, when the first regular boats arrived from Europe in the 15th century. Other cultures have an specific interest in other kind of beads, like carnelian gemstone in the Middle East or turquoise in the Arabian peninsula.
In Borneo, glass beads still hold significant cultural and historical importance, although most beads were and are imports, as there was never a significant local glassmaking industry.
Cave dwellers in Borneo crafted beads from shell, bone, and teeth, as it has been researched from archaeological sites. But the earliest import beads around Southeast Asia originated in India, with Chinese beads appearing around AD 1200.
By the 19th century, imported beads from England, the Netherlands, Venice, Bohemia, and China flooded Borneo.
The meaning of Borneo heirloom glass beads
According to different tribes in Borneo, beads possess enduring power, both physically and spiritually, from which owners draw strength; older beads are particularly valued as they keep the power of previous generations.
All these glass beads are integral to rituals related to healing, childbirth, and community ceremonies. They also serve as payment for tattoo artists and as dowries in weddings. Additionally, beads reflect status and wealth, and as a result of that, traditional costumes today feature more beads than ever.
Beadwork is primarily done by women, who use beads on headdresses, necklaces and belts. Colorful seed beads also adorn several daily objects, like hats and baby carriers. The beads can be combined with brass bells, metal (silver), carnelian (both from Borneo mines or from India) and animal teeth, all included in the composition with the purpose of strengthen the powers of the beads.
Heirloom beads are highly valued by the Dayak tribes, especially the Kayan, as part of a family’s prestige, wealth, and currency. Dayak longhouse chiefs had the privilege of first selecting new goods or beads that were arriving to the village.
Most important types of Borneo beads
- Rayed-eye beads (lukut sak badak and kelam song) are Borneo’s earliest heirloom beads
- Carnelian beads have a long history in Borneo and were used for their healing and protective powers
- Blue barrel beads (“Let beads”) are particularly valued by the Kelabit Dayaks, considered Borneo’s most ancient heirloom beads
- Green Bubbly-Glass ‘Bear’ Eye Beads (kelam buang) were especially valued by the Kayan and Kenyah Dayaks
- False chevron beads were made to imitate early drawn Venetian chevrons after the arrival of Europeans in Southeast Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries
- Striped Beads (kelem bela) are wound barrel-shaped beads of blue or blue-black glass with applied longitudinal trails of red, yellow, green, and white
- Swirled-eye beads (Lukut sekala) are a group of small lamp-wound oblate beads of black glass, with filigree and swirled-eye inlays; the true lukut sekala is Borneo’s most highly valued heirloom bead
Many Borneo heirloom beads have been copied over the centuries, and had been integrated in the ornaments with the rest of the beads.
Borneo’s rivers served as ancient highways for beads traveling from the coast inland to the Dayak, with the Kapuas River being an important trade route. This is how all these trade beads, coming from as far as Europe or China, arrived to remore villages up in the Borneo mountains.
Bibliography:
“Heirloom beads among the Dayak of Borneo”, Campbell, Barbie, BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers 34 (2022)
“Beads of Borneo”, Munan, Heidi, Editions Didier Millet, 2005
“Beads in Indonesia” Adhyatman, Sumarah – Arifin, Redjeki, Penerbit Djambatan, 1993
