Resource Spotlight | “Traditional Weapons of Borneo: The Attire of the Headhunters — Part III: Swords & Knives” by Albert van Zonneveld
Traditional Weapons of Borneo
The Attire of the Headhunters
Part III: Swords & Knives
by Albert van Zonneveld
Borneo, the third-largest island in the world, houses an enormous natural wealth: wild jungles, high mountains, and long rivers, trees reaching high into the sky, below which a vegetation comprised of myriad extraordinary plants and flowers. Animals display a near-infinite variety: panthers, monkeys, colorful butterflies, and beautiful birds including the hornbill and the Argus pheasant, which the indigenous population considers sacred.
In the midst of this pristine nature, people first settled centuries ago. Originating from mainland Asia, they found their way to Borneo and built their lives here to create a social tapestry consisting of many ethnic groups, languages, artistic expressions, and cultural traditions, one of which was head-hunting.
The present publication entitled Traditional Weapons of Borneo. Volume III discusses the fine swords and knives of the Bornean head-hunters. The preceding volumes I and II concern shields and war clothes, and spears and blowpipes respectively. In addition to their practical uses, all of these objects can be considered as works of art with an endless variety and richness of form.
Sword | Jimpul
Collection Kooman.
Sword | Mandau
Collection Kooman.
Mandau belonging to the Sultan of Brunei.
© Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Studio portrait of a Dayak with a belada belabang in his right hand. Collection Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Photograph by Willem Tinker (1816 - 1894).
Portrait of a Dayak warrior from Sarawak with a dukn on his belt and a sumpitan in his right hand. Circa 1920. Postcard, source unknown.
Albert van Zonneveld
Ever since his early years, Albert van Zonneveld (Leiden, 1951) has been fascinated by the traditional weapons of the Indonesian archipelago. The collections housed at the National Museum of Ethnology (now: Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen) and the Army Museum (now: Nationaal Militair Museum) serving as a source of inspiration close to home, this hobby became more and more professional over time. Especially the various functions of the weapons, as a combat weapon, as status symbols, as a work of art, and as mystical objects united in a single form, made this field of research so exceptionally compelling in his view.
Van Zonneveld has carried out ample research, delivered lectures, and published articles on this subject. Beyond his Borneo trilogy, he is the author of a standard work entitled Traditional weapons of the Indonesian archipelago (Leiden 2001) and of the important monograph Traditionele wapens van Enggano. Een verdwenen cultuur van de Indonesische archipel [Traditional weapons of Enggano. A vanished culture of the Indonesian archipelago] (Leiden 2012).
