Puntumid: Great spirit of the heart of Borneo

Puntumid is said by the people of the Kelabit Highlands to be a manifestation of the Ada’ Rayeh, or ‘Great Spirit’. It seems likely that a belief in a spirit described in local languages as ‘Great Spirit’ exists widely in the highland area recently designated the ‘Heart of Borneo’ by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), including among the hunter-gatherer Penan, who call it Bale Ja’au (see Janowski, forthcoming). There are, in fact, two Kelabit terms which can be translated as ‘Great Spirit’: Derayeh and Ada’ Rayeh. The two terms are essentially the same semantically; Derayeh is a shorter form of Ada’ Rayeh. Through their relationship with Derayeh or Ada’ Rayeh people attempted in pre-Christian times (until about the 1960s) to accumulate and manage the power or life-force – lalud – of the cosmos. Ada’ Rayeh and Derayeh seem to be male and female manifestations of the Great Spirit. Through rice-growing, women relate to Derayeh, while through hunting and forest activities men relate to the Ada’ Rayeh, through Puntumid (see Janowski in press and Janowski forthcoming). Puntumid was regarded in pre-Christian times as the owner (‘it is his’ – iah wen) or ‘king’ (rajah) of the entire landscape and forest. He was and still sometimes is encountered by men in the forest, manifesting in a human-like giant form. As a spirit, Puntumid is not ‘seen’ with the eyes (ne’ar), but he is ‘perceived’ (kelit). He is said by those who have ‘perceived’ him to be white (buda’) and to have red bracelets; whiteness (or transparency) is a characteristic of spirits and red is said to be the only colour they can see. Men used to pray to Puntumid for hunting success, and he is said to approach certain young men with a view to friendship, an offer young men now refuse, because they are Christian and Puntumid is now regarded as setan (a Malay word used by local Christians to refer to demon, bad spirit, devil). Our neighbour in the community of Pa’ Dalih, Balang Pelaba (‘Forever a Spirit Tiger’), was a friend of Puntumid’s in his youth, before World War II. To those with whom he made friends, including Balang Pelaba, he gave powerful substances known as tabat, which could heal and kill. Puntumid is potentially dangerous; he is said to hunt humans and to eat their spirits. He insists on certain behaviours in the forest, particularly in relation to fire; he does not permit people to heat cooked rice on a fire or to throw citrus peel into a fire in the forest, and threatens to eat their spirits if they do these things. However, people