Authors Note
219 Words
Authors NoteDuring the reign of Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, the third and last White Rajah of Sarawak, the much-feared practice of headhunting was made almost extinct in Borneo. This is largely attributed to the mass conversions of the Dyak tribe to Christianity and later Islam, as well as anti-headhunting legislation passed by the Colonial powers.
However, during World War II, when the Japanese occupied Sarawak, headhunting was revived and over one thousand five hundred Japanese soldiers were killed and their heads preserved. Although this ancient ritual seems shocking, Japanese massacres of the Dyak people are well documented and the resultant headhunting was part of the guerilla warfare, instigated by the allied forces that recruited and trained them.
After the war, when the Rajah and Ranee returned to the island from exile in Australia, the Dyaks showed them a large collection of Japanese heads, all smoked, stuffed and displayed in the traditional way. It is said that the warriors related gleefully how they had sent their prettiest daughters down to a pool in the jungle to bathe. As soon as the Japanese crept up to stare at them, the Dyaks had captured and then killed them.
In 1946 the Rajah ceded Sarawak to the British government as a Crown Colony, thus ending White Rajah rule in Sarawak.
Today headhunting is illegal.
- Writer
