Sunday, August 17, 2008

More about the Dayak bamboo bridge


These kids stay at a longhouse village in the highlands up the Ulu Penrissen in Sarawak. Routinely, they have to walk about 3-4 hours each way to reach market at the foothills with their goods,crossing Sungei Sarawak via 2 of these bridges. The altitude and inaccesibility of the village had ensured their survival from marauding enemies since ancient times.

But modernity has caught up.

The construction of a large dam will soon flood the villages and alter their traditional way of life forever. The villagers will be moving closer to civilization and hopefully assimilated. The elders that spoke to us are resigned but quietly optimistic....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmmm....where have I heard that before ?

Hermes said...

"The elders that spoke to us are resigned but quietly optimistic...."

Poor people. Bet they won't feel the same in a few years.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

I guess not much is far from "civilisation" any more! Hopefully they will assimilate. I think it is always hard because the people don't get much help or not the right one. The children will have it easier. They usually embrace quickly new ways. Hopefully a lovely, interesting school.

Hort Log said...

I hope they'll do well.

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