No Gawai cheer for Betong longhouse folk


Desmond Davidson

Two sisters and their cousin have died in the head-on collision on the Pan-Borneo Highway, near the town of Engkilili. – Fire and Rescue Department pic, May 28, 2023.

THERE will be no Gawai celebration this year for residents of the 11-door Iban longhouse Mandau Lempaong, in the rural town of Betong, some 140km from Kuching.

Their preparations to usher in the biggest festival in the Dayak calendar – the festival to give thanks to a bountiful rice harvest – have instead turned into those to bury two residents who on Thursday evening died in a head-on collision on the Pan-Borneo Highway.


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