Chinese kings of the Shang and Zhou dynasties weren’t the only ones who required their slaves to be sacrificed upon their death; human sacrifices also took place closer to home, the National Museum’s ongoing Coffin Exhibition — Tradition and Mystery shows.
The ancient tribes of Borneo, for instance, conducted ritual killings of male and female servants whenever a village chief died.Males were thrown into a pit, while females were bound and starved. Their remains would then be placed at the base of an intricately chiselled totem pole called a klirieng as an offering of protection and companionship for the dead.
People who find this fact hard to stomach might want to think twice about visiting the museum’s latest exhibition.
Currently, the museum is hosting 30 coffins sourced from the different cultures and tribes within the country and around the region — big ones, tiny ones, plain ones, elaborate eye-popping ones, conventional ones and even those that look like works of art.
“It was an idea that came up during a brainstorming session,” said National Museum director-general Datuk Ibrahim Ismail, 55.
“We thought it would be interesting to expose the public to the customs and traditions of other cultures. For instance, some people don’t understand why it is necessary for music to be played at certain funeral processions. They close their eyes when a coffin goes by. We hope to change these perceptions,” he explained.
Throw in some eerie mood music and life-sized props, and you’ve got the recipe for a great (and hopefully educational) Malaysian day out. For the past week or so, visitors young and old, have gasped and shuddered at the sight of these funereal artefacts. However, the museum’s pièce de résistance had yet to arrive.It is one of the most expensive caskets in Malaysia on a much-publicised loan from Nirvana Memorial Park. According to Ibrahim, since the exhibit opened on April 1, a number of visitors had asked to see this 14-carat gold-plated Chinese coffin worth RM388,800. Ibrahim himself was getting twitchy beneath his brown corduroy suit at the delay.
But his worries proved unfounded when, in a few drawn-out minutes, a big black hearse tooted up the driveway.
Stylish send-off
The door to the hearse glided open to reveal what looked like an enormous golden nugget inside, causing one astonished bystander to go, “Whoa!”“No pantang, ah?” Public affairs general manager Datuk Freddy Chan of Nirvana joked, before he snapped on a pair of latex gloves.
That is rule No 1 when you’re dealing with something as lavish as this. No bare hands.
Surface scratches can easily undermine the value of what is considered the Gucci and Prada of caskets. Slick and shiny as glass, it is similar to the ones used for music legends James Brown and Michael Jackson. The coffin would be displayed at the museum for only three days.
“So far, we haven’t received any orders for it yet,” admitted Chan to a visibly disappointed audience.
Because the coffin consisted of gold on the outside and another type of metal on the inside, it took eight men to haul it into the exhibition area.
Heavy coffins are not unusual to the Chinese, of course. In the past, some have weighed up to a whopping 600kg. In fact, wealthy Chinese families tend to splurge on solid wooden caskets that weigh much more. These colossal caskets usually required a manual rope-lift to hoist and lower them into the grave.But make no mistake, coffins are also seen as status symbols in many other societies.
“The only difference, apart from the design, is that in most tribal cultures the entire community participates in coffin-making when someone dies,” said Ibrahim. “They source their materials and paints from nature. It’s free.”
The ones on display aren’t your run-of-the-mill caskets. They are remarkable works of art, born of tragedy and shaped by culture.
Aristocratic families from the Kelabit tribe in Sarawak, for instance, used a lungun, a coffin swathed in colourful fairytale-like motifs and carved in the shape of a mythical animal called the balan tanah, a cross between a dog and a dragon. In the olden days, it was kept in the family apartment within the longhouse.
And why not? It was beautiful.
Then, there’s the hollow log coffin of Indonesia. Called an erong, the one at the museum was painstakingly crafted to look like a life-sized buffalo. However, its form may vary, and there are also erong that resemble pigs or boats.
“It took us three months of research to track down the coffins and set up the exhibits,” said Ibrahim.“Some of the coffins belong to the museum’s permanent collection, but mostly, we had to travel outstation to scout for new artifacts.
When we chanced upon an interesting discovery, we would deal directly with the community leaders, like we did when we acquired the 40-year-old coffin from Wat Siam in Tumpat.
“Other times, we asked for assistance from the local museum or looked in antique shops. Oh, yes, don’t be surprised if you find dusty, old coffins in them,” he grinned.
Although the coffins on display are empty, Ibrahim revealed that it wasn’t always so with some. Such was the case with the rattan death chair from Luzon Island, Philippines, which used to house the cadaver of a nobleman over 500 years ago. The corpse, it is said, was placed in a sitting position and taken to a special site where it was left to decompose.
The bones were then collected and placed in a burial jar as the final resting place.
■ The exhibition will be held until June 20. For enquiries, call the Department of Museums Malaysia at (03) 2267 1048/1049/1051/1088.
Source: The Star [April 23, 2010]