A ubiquitous icon of the Ramadan season is Ketupat. Ketupat is to Hari Raya what candy canes and tinsel are to Christmas: innocuous, non-religious cultural symbols that are inextricably linked to the holiday. Images of ketupat are plastered on greeting cards, banners, cut-shots between TV programs, and so on. Decorative ketupats made of ribbon are […]
Tag Archives: malaysia
Haze
What’s a rainforest minus the rain? We’ve been finding out over here. It’s been over two weeks without a drop of rain, and things are as dry as a bone. The dry season here in Sarawak corresponds with a change in winds which bring our weather in from the south and west. Because of the […]
The Yard: Bunga Kantan
The variety of herbs and spices used in Malaysian cooking is incredible until you realize this is where all the spices came from in the first place. Plenty of spices like cloves, cinnamon, and pepper are traded around the world. Some, for whatever reason, are still unknown outside of the region. One of these is […]
Kecek-kecek
Take a moment and visit a wonderful site on the language, culture and history of Trengganu: Kecek-kecek. Kecek-kecek is the home of one Awang Goneng, who introduces himself thusly: Awang Goneng was born at a very young age, has drifted beyond the shores of Trengganu, and is feeling a crick in the neck from constantly […]
Sarawak Newspaper Suspended over Cartoons
One of our two local daily papers, The Sarawak Tribune, reprinted the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad last Saturday. Within the last few days the editor on duty resigned, the Internal Security Department called in the heads of the paper to “show cause”, and yesterday it was announced that the license of the newspaper is suspended […]
Nzingha’s Visit
Last month we had a special visitor all the way from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sister Nzingha with her mother and four children on their summer holiday. Part of her visit to Malaysia was two weeks in Sarawak, during which we were able to meet with her on a few occassions. Nzingha gave a […]
Grub’s Ready
In Sarawak, if someone invites you to come get some grub, be careful. They may be intending to serve you these lovely morsels. What you are looking at is a beetle larva that feeds exclusively on sago trees. They are about the size of your finger, though they may shrink a bit when fried up. […]
Maulid Daiba’i
I had lamented previously that I can’t seem to find any translations of Maulid Diba’i on the web. I do have a translation that was published as part of the wonderful CD performed by the Royal Malaysian Haqqani Ensemble. I used to link to the CD using this scan of the cover art. Unfortunately stocks […]