Vanishing beauties of Dayak: The last tribe of long ears
The Dayak people who live in the upstream area of the Mahakam River in Southeast Asia have rich traditions and cultures that are still inherent in their daily lives.
A culture for Dayak women includes a belief of beautifying herself. They do it with tattoos and elongating the ears.
Dayak Bahau people, especially the Bahau Long Gelaat Tribe in Long Tuyoq village, an area located on the deep inside the Heart of Borneo in East Kalimantan, most of the elders are still having the long-eared tradition
In local language this practice of keeping long ears is called telingaan aruuk, a very unique tradition adapted from their ancestors.
Earlobe piercing process itself began since childhood. When a baby girl turns 4 years-old, her ears will be pierced to make her familiar with the piercing so that the hisang-earrings for elongating the earlobes can be worn
The increasing age is followed by the increasing the number of hisang. When a woman is married, the total hisang could be about 20 pieces in each ear, depending on the social status in her community.
There is also an assumption that the purpose of lengthening the ears is not to show the noble status, but a symbol of patience. If it is used every day, patience and the ability to withstand the suffering of the heavy hisang will be stronger.
Even though they have long earlobes, it does not bother the Bahau Dayak women in their daily activities, whether it's farming, land-clearing, feeding livestock even making handicrafts.