Cultural History In Focus | “Revisiting Imun Ajo’ Uyan: An Ancient Shamanic Bronze Figure from Central Borneo” by Antonio J. Guerreiro
Revisiting Imun Ajo’ Uyan
An Ancient Shamanic Bronze Figure from Central Borneo
by Antonio J. Guerreiro
Small bronze shamanic charms and amulets from Borneo are rare (AVE & WERFF, 1973; BOCK, 1982 [1882]; CORBEY, 2018; GUERREIRO, 2022). The figure named IMUN AJO' UYAN originates from the Baluy Kayan in the Belaga area in the interior of Sarawak. It is a unique masterpiece of bronze making which has no other parallels on the island of Borneo. Its iconography, depicting a figure with a grand cap or coronet in the form of a Rhinoceros hornbill's head, pierced, elongated earlobes, and other features, evokes Southeast Asia Bronze Age representations. Notably, these elements parallel those from the Dong-son culture of Tonkin, Northern Vietnam – about 8th century BCE – 1st century CE – that spread southwards from mainland Southeast Asia and along the coasts of Annam (BELLWOOD 1979, 1997; BEZACIER 1972; HEEKEREN, 1958). Other features also relate to the Dian Bronze culture of Yunnan, in southern China, that dates from about the 2nd to the 1st century BCE (HIGHAM, 1996).
The Imun Ajo' was cast using the cire perdue or "lost wax" process from a mold. Its style shows very interesting details that are also typically associated with Bronze Age culture in Eurasia, i.e., concentric circles, spirals, cords, ropes, and braided hair, which also appear on some ancient Indonesian bronzes (see figures 0, 1, 2, 3, 4). The classic studies on Dongsonian artefacts, including more recent research, have been largely centered on the bronze drums of various sizes and diverse periods. Findings of such drums, to date, have not been substantiated in Borneo (BERNET KEMPERS, 1988; GOLOUBEFF, 1929; HEGER, 1902; JANSE, 1931). Small figures and other items associated with the Dong-son, including ceremonial implements, weapons, and ornaments, have also received less academic attention. Interestingly, the Imun Ajo and a few known Dong-son figures appear to share a similar iconographic theme: playing a mouth organ, as revealed by the gestures of both figures' hands. In addition, the articulations of birds, including hornbills, also appear in the Dong-son repertoire of decorative patterns (HOOP, 1975 [1949]).
Fig. 2
Courtesy of Antonio J. Guerreiro
Ancestral figures such as the Imun Ajo' were invested with agency. As a ritual object, it resonates within a wider cosmological frame. In this perspective, it can be considered as a 'personage' with the ability to spread, to foster itself, through biographical and memory-making events that further traced and enhanced its materiality and accumulated history (GELL, 1998; KOPYTOFF, 1986). This involved chiefly and shamanic leadership that, in part, demonstrates and legitimizes the ritual display of certain ceremonial objects. The political and socially reverberating effects of such leadership and their displays could spread an object's fame throughout an ever-widening network of kinship and social relationships. Power is enhanced as it emanates from these objects at pivotal or key ceremonial moments. Conversely, this may reflect a 'hidden' dimension embedded in the object that not only represents a priest's or chief's agency, but a sense of their expanding spiritual power. Objects that become 'animated' by such forces, especially during feasts, are meaningful for the whole community. In age-old practices, especially shamanic rituals, an object's agency interacts with the spirits, e.g., ancestral spirits or those of the recent dead, including benevolent or evil spirits that the shaman might meet during his journeys in the spirit world. Shamanic rituals are important to the Kayan peoples, who are comprised of numerous subgroups that are spread between Sarawak, East Malaysia, and Indonesia (Kalimantan). (GUERREIRO 1994, 1994; ROUSSEAU, 1998).
Besides being used in household healing and purification ceremonies, the Imun Ajo' was present at community rituals, even those of a large, impressive scale. From the data supplied by Harrisson (see box herein; HARRISSON 1964), it appears that this figure was used in what are known as the dayung kian rites, which play a central role in the Dangé, a great feast that lasts for seven days. The focus of this ceremonial outpouring is to augur for the harmonious development of 'Life' (urip) and for the well-being and health of the community. For several centuries, the core rites and invocations of dayung kian have been kept by Uma Agieng hereditary chiefs and priests/priestesses. During this period, this group migrated over the mountains from the Baram basin to the Bahau River and then to the Apo Kayan area. Eventually, they returned to Sarawak in the early 19th century via the Baleh River, which in Kayan is known as the Jengayan (DING NGO, 1987; DING NGO, n.d.; MERING NGO, 1989, 1991).
The Imun Ajo' belonged to the Kayan Uma Nyavieng subgroup, whose genealogy originates with the high deity, Belare' Ubong Do, the 'Thunder at the top of the world'. This figure was collected in the early 1960s by Tom Harrisson (1911-1976), then curator of the Sarawak State Museum (now Borneo Cultures Museum) in Kuching, during one of his visits to Belaga. In Belaga, Harrisson had befriended, at Uma Agieng, the community's leader, an aristocratic maren or chief named Lake' Balieng Avun, who was also a shaman and a respected ritual specialist (dayung aya'). He became Harrisson's main informant for sourcing Kayan traditions. Lake Balieng was knowledgeable in the old Kayan adat (Adat Dipuy) as well as the new cult, Adat Bungan, that centered on a female deity, Bungan Malan. This cult was adopted by the Baluy Kayan in the 1950s (ROUSSEAU; 'Introduction' in BALING AVUN, 2002). Besides the Imun Ajo' figure, in Belaga Harrisson additionally obtained, also for the Sarawak Museum, another charm, including a small bronze toggle in the shape of a wrapped water turtle linked by a connective girdle to a neatly bound stone.
The original Imun Ajo' is one of the crown jewels in the collection of the Sarawak State Museum (now Borneo Cultures Museum). The whole story of Umun Ajo' Uyan, a sacred relic (pesaka' alang atak'pu'un kayan) to the Baluy Kayan people that was last ritually used in 1933, remains to be told. A forthcoming article in the Sarawak Museum Journal will present a detailed account of its nature. For the time being, let me just say that it is housed in the Museum's storage in Kuching, along with the Museum's most valuable items. In the 1960s, Harrisson had the brilliant idea of producing a bronze replica of the figure, which was made under the British Museum's supervision in London. After they divorced, the replica was kept in the Netherlands for a long time by Harrisson's ex-wife, Dr. Barbara Harrisson (AVE & WERFF, 1973). She parted with it before she passed away in 2015. Harrisson's facsimile of the Imun, Ajo' is currently in the UK.
Author’s Notes
IMUN AJO’ DEITY FIGURE DIMENSIONS:
H: 15.5 cm
W: 4 cm
D: 4 cm
WRITTEN ON AN OLD MUSEUM FILE CARD KEPT AT THE SARAWAK STATE MUSEUM, THE FOLLOWING IS RECORDED:
“Bronze figure (Imun Ajo’) — a focal item in the main Kayan shamanistic and spirit [cult (?) missing word (AJG)] involving rite of adat [dayung AJG] kian (last used in 1933)”
KEPT IN SAFE. BOX No. 3, SARAWAK STATE MUSEUM. THE SARAWAK STATE MUSEUM WAS FOUNDED IN 1888 AND IS THE OLDEST MUSEUM IN BORNEO.
(AS RECORDED BY DR. A. J. GUERREIRO Sarawak Museum Campus)
This article was generously provided by Antonio J. Guerreiro.
Antonio J. Guerreiro
Dr. Antonio J. Guerreiro received his Ph.D at EHESS in Paris (1985). After initially focusing on architectural, social and cultural anthropology studies, he later gained insight and expertise in museography. Dr. Guerreiro has researched Hindu-Buddhist iconography and architecture in Southeast Asia, and has since the 1980’s extensively published on Malay-Indonesian ethnic cultures with a special focus on Sumatra and Borneo. While lecturing in the field of material culture studies,- i.e. vernacular architecture and sculpture - Dr. Guerreiro has worked as a consultant for various museographical projects in France and abroad besides curating/co-curating diverse exhibitions. During the 1990s, he was a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology, University of Tokyo.
He is currently a Senior Research associate at the Institut de Recherches sur l’Asie (IrASIA, CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France) and a member of ICOM-France (Unesco-Paris). He is also Secretary-General of the Society of Euroasiatic Studies at the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. In 2017-2018 he was a Research Fellow at the Sarawak Museum Campus Project (SMCP) and Heritage Trail project in Kuching (Sarawak, Malaysia). Dr. Guerreiro is still doing consultancy for the Museum while conducting research on woodcarving traditions, museum collections and the conservation of monumental structures of the Orang Ulu peoples of Sarawak. He is also actively engaged in researching colonial photography in Borneo (Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei, Kalimantan).
Colophon
Authors | © Antonio J. Guerreiro
Publication | Art of the Ancestors
Date | August 30, 2025