Dyak Questions

[Major Weenie]

Well,

I've finally succumbed, and agreed to paint some Dyaks for a fellow member of 'The Bengal Club.'  I now have a nice plastic box of 'many figures.'  I think that they were originally Eureka figures, until he did a very professional job of converting them.  Lots of thick metal blowpipes replaced with crisp brass tubes, heads moved around, gongs made out of round shields, etc. etc.  They all look very nice.

He also provided me with a veritable library of research material.  However, never having painted a single Dyak before, I naturally have questions and was wondering if any here on the LAF might be able to provide answers.

What color is a blowpipe?  Yellow? Tan?  What's it made out of?

What color is best for painting the tattoos? 'Very Dark Blue,' as in a crisp new Napoleonic French infantry coat. Or a sort of faded dark blue?

One of the many books he provided states that the Dyaks favorite colors, for clothing one assumes, were; red, blue and yellow. (No greens).  There are also mentions of 'plain cotton,' so that would mean white or off white?  There's also lots of 'bark clothing' presumably made by softening bark by beating it, or some other method.  What color would this 'bark clothing' be?  More yellow/tan?

Oh, and only those who had already 'taken a head' were allowed to wear feathers in their hats.  I suppose it's too much to hope that these are ostrich plumes (white or black) and not something in ghastly, complex colors from an exotic jungle fowl.

Many thanks,
MW

[Lowtardog]

A film wrth getting hold of is Farewell to the King   with Nick Nolte and Nigel Havers it has them fighting Japanese in Borneo and shows their weapons and clothing quite well  also their tattoos

Ther is an osprey with enemies of the queen with a plate of dyak in it
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/Queen-Victorias-Enemies-(4)_9780850459517

They appear from memory to a very black grey colour (tattoos)

In the films the clothing tends to be reds and yellows, blues also and it would be an off white I would guess through bleaching
Bark armour was I thin strips of bark rather than beating it flat I have also seen what look like samurai rain coat type adornments.
The blowpipe/spear tends to be a darker wood though I have seen them as bamboo (would also make sense)

Feathers I think were multi coloured but not sure     

[traveller]

Is this the Dyak plate:

[Lowtardog]

Is this the Dyak plate:

Yup thats the one well found

[marianas_gamer]

I have been collecting Dayak images off of the web for the last few years. Here are some of the colored images that might help folks
















I would note that all of the sumpatang that I have seen have been dark in color but they are all hunting blowpipes and not war blowpipes as they do not have blades on the end.  I am pretty sure that I have some colored pictures of the wooden armor but I am not sure if it is modern or not.  I will post it.
LB

[marianas_gamer]

Dayak armor front and back





Like I said earlier, I am not sure if this isvintage armor or a modern reproduction.
LB

[sukhe_bator]

The two sumpitans in the V&A's South & South East Asian collection are of very dark polished wood with copper and brass fittings holding the offset iron spearhead in place. The Pitt Rivers example has rattan bindings but what looks lke a curled brass foresight http://webprojects.prm.ox.ac.uk/arms-and-armour/o/Blowpipes-and-Darts/1884.18.4/

[chicklewis]

Hi, Major Weenie, the dyak blowpipes are heavy wood, no bamboo.  Did some research on how they could make them and it amazed me.  The Dyaks take a long straight pole, then build a tall platform and suspend the pole from the platform by the top.  They have a longer iron rod with a chisel end which they drop repeatedly into the pole, occasionally sharpening the chisel.  The hole created is kept filled with water so that the small chips created by dropping the iron rod into the bottom of the hole float upwards and can be removed.  They keep this up for weeks until their blowpipe is finished.  And I can't imagine how frustrating it must be when the hole exits the side of the tube in error, after they have already spent so much time making the thing.  

The figures of which you speak are all from Scheltrum, with plenty of conversions.  I have the Eureka Dyaks somewhere, but just CAN'T find them, so I re-ordered more of them this week.  

[6milPhil]

Corbis have quite a few dyak/iban images, this one has feathers*
http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/GT003459.html

Good info on artitfacts
http://www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/guidetoc.htm

*Unlikely to be Ostrich feathers as they're native to Africa, until recently when they've been farmed elsewhere. But hey there has to be some white feathers involved: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemic_birds_of_Indonesia