The Badeng Kenyah of Belaga in Sarawak: Marginality, Changing Traditions and Development

Author: Tan Chee-Beng
ISBN: 978-629-7575-24-7
Publisher: SIRD
Price: RM45
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The Badeng Kenyah of Belaga in Sarawak: Marginality, Changing Traditions and Development explains the history, culture and development of the Badeng Kenyah in Belaga District, Sarawak. Their cultural identity predates the arrival of the Brookes, the formation of Malaysia, and continues to inspire change in their community and beyond to this day.

Travel by longboat up the rapids, ride in jeeps through the logging routes, and hop on to seténding-powered boats to see this migratory community through an ethnographical lens with cultural anthropologist Tan Chee-Beng. Beginning from their mythical origin story, to how their way of life changed with the arrival of logging and the construction of the Bakun Hydroelectric Project, and how that brought them major relocation, the tales of the Badeng Kenyah of Belaga District are of economic transformation, development and modernity. Witness their lived experiences right here.

"The publication of this work is significant in preserving a history of an indigenous group of people which would otherwise be relegated to the tomes of academic literature and reports. This book’s usefulness for interested academics cannot be underestimated, but also will enlighten and educate most Malaysians, particularly from the Peninsular, who are generally unaware of this indigenous group in Sarawak."
Dr. Tan Jin Huat
Author of Planting an Indigenous Church:
The Case of the Borneo Evangelical Mission, 2011

Tan Chee-Beng (Ph.D., Cornell University, 1979) is a cultural anthropologist from Malaysia. His ethnographic research has brought him on adventures across the various states of Malaysia and also in mainland China. Dr Tan has had teaching experiences in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou. His research interests include cultural change and identity, ethnicity and ethnic relations, religion, food and culture, indigenous people and ethnic Chinese communities. He is currently Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Tunku Abdul Rahman University and the Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.