WORK is underway to recover several burial poles of cultural value from a river near the industrial town of Bintulu, state Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah told the state assembly today.

Bintulu, an oil and gas town, is about 350km from Kuching.

Karim said the recovery of the poles, known as klirieng in the language of the local native group from Sg Penyarai in Tatau – a district in the Bintulu division – is under a heritage protection programme.

He said his ministry is working with Sarawak Museum Department, Council for Native Customs and Traditions, Sarawak Forestry Department, Tatau district office and local community leaders “to expedite work in protecting and preserving” three klirieng that had been found in the shallow Sg Penyarai.

In a press conference later, Karim said the klirieng were dumped into the river after a shaman had blamed them for floods that had inundated villages along Sg Penyarai.

“They believe (the klirieng) were responsible for the flood. They referred their misfortune to the shaman, who asked them to get rid of the keliring,” he said.

According to news reports, the Museum Department was told that nine poles were ditched into the river.

The poles were discovered by villagers down river last October but Kakus assemblyman John Sikie Tayai brought it to the attention of the Museum Department at the department’s heritage conservation programme last month.

Karim said the klirieng, which he described as “really beautiful”, were found embedded in the stone bed of the river during a “drought” earlier this year.

He said the deterioration of the klirieng under water was slow as it was of the belian wood.

The largest ethnic group living along the river is the Punan – Beketan.

One of the poles reportedly measures seven metres in length and another, six metres. – May 25, 2022.