Encounter With My Faded Past

In November 2017, I spent a few days in our ancestral village, Dasbidyadharpur (Satyabadi, Puri, Odisha), where we still own some land. It must be a few decades since I spent more than a day at a time there. It is a deeply rural place, both in terms of infrastructure and cultural setting. Most of the villagers recognised me as the grandson of so-and-so and the son of so-and-so. It was an encounter with my faded past. People there uphold a form of life that is rooted in centuries of tradition, which seemed to have been undermined variously by the new developments in post-independence India. In the few days I lived there, everyone was eager to share with me their personal stories of triumph and tragedy. These stories gave me a feel for the complications of being a paddy farmer in India today. But the village air was clean and the nights were starry. Around the village, vast paddy fields laden with paddy kernels rolled out far into the horizon. The experience led me to imagine some kind of a retreat there, where people from different contexts could come to engage in activities and conversations with the villagers, to enhance mutual understanding and envision new futures.

Gawai 2012 in Lawas: Another Name-Changing Experience

From David Panai to David Panai Satu

This time, I spent my Gawai holidays (1-2 Jun 2012) in Lawas, Sarawak. The main attraction was to experience Gawai in the Lun Bawang way. It was once again my Lun Bawang student, Elisha, who created this interest in me and facilitated my travel from Kuching to Lawas, via Kota Kinabalu. I felt very comfortable in the small-city environment of Lawas. I was made to feel very welcome by Elisha's family. In the true Lun Bawang tradition, I was symbolically adopted into the family, when I inherited the family name Satu, in the presence of Elisha's paternal grandparents. Thus, I became David Panai Satu and Elisha became my nephew. In the process, I acquired a new father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews! At one point, I was so overwhelmed by the intensity of this inclusion, I just couldn't control my tears . . .

Gawai in Lawas was a community fiesta, in which religion, culture, and society came together in mutually reinforcing ways. Prayers, handicraft, costumes, community sports, music, dance, traditional food, and messages of Lun Bawang unity were what I chiefly experienced during my short stay there.

PS: Here is the story of how DP became David Panai in the first place.

DP or David Panai

Today I was very proud to be rechristened David Panai (a new expansion of my nickname, DP!), by a senior member of the Lun Bawang community, Rotarian Patrick Panai, who is also an Elder in the Borneo Evangelical Church (or SIB, Sidang Injil Borneo).

Upon the invitation of Mr Fred Black, my Chonglin Park friend, I was attending this church service at SIB today. After prayers and hymns, Patrick was making announcements before starting his talk on St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. He was welcoming the visitors when he spontaneously expanded my nickname DP to David Panai after welcoming me to the church.

Later, Patrick said it was common for the Lun Bawang to give an ethnic name to a visitor, to facilitate easier recognition and assimilation within the community. To me, this was a precious gift and it makes me feel very privileged! I knew a little about this Sarawakian ethnic group from my Lun Bawang student, Elisha Batuncang, who seemed pretty serious about his ethnic identity. This was important to me as I am only too aware of the assault of modernity on traditional cultures around the world. Today, I feel I am born again, as a Lun Bawang!

What a unique privilege!