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Home > Borneo > Tun Tun (Pig Stick)

Tun Tun (Pig Stick)

Iban Dayak

Wood

19th century

This wooden stick is called a tun tun or “pig trap” by the Iban Dayaks. In order to catch a pig, the Ibans would devise a spring trap using the tun tun to measure the height of the impaling spike. The top of this tun tun depicts a ancestor figure whose function to lure preys. Such traps were outlawed as being too dangerous by Raja Charles Brooke, the ruler of Sarawak in the 1880’s, and with the further adoption of firearms, became obsolete. The present piece is carved from hard wood and has a dark crusty patina from years of use.

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