Revive old culture of ‘Pingiris’, Nansian tells Bidayuh community
BAU: The Bidayuh community is told to revive their old culture of ‘ Pingiris’ or it will disappear completely.
Assistant Minister of Community Services Datuk Peter Nansian said ‘ Pingiris’ known today as gotong-royong was very common in the olden days but over the years the culture was slowly disappearing as people became more and more individualistic.
“In the olden days Pingiris was very popular among the Bidayuh community especially during the padi-planting season. The concept is that the whole village will help a fellow villager to plant his padi.
“By so doing they can finish the work in just a day instead of a whole month if the villager were to do it all by himself.”
Nansian, who is Tasik Biru assemblyman, said Pingiris not only helped the community to hasten their farming activities but it would also create opportunities for the villagers to have fellowship and socialise with one another.
He said this at the ‘ Pingiris’ activity organised by Bau District Community Leaders Club at the Redeems Bamboo Park in a place called Obut Bikatang near here yesterday.
“Cooperation
among
the villagers was extremely good and that is what we want to revive,” he said.
In this regards, he congratulated the club for taking the initiative to conduct the activity yesterday and hoped that such programme would not just end there but to expand it to other areas in the district to bring back the culture among the younger generation.
Nansian later gave a RM20,000grant from his minor rural project ( MRP) funds to assist the club in organising various activities planned and proposed for the year.
About 100 members took part in the Pingiris activity yesterday which was headed by their chairman Pemanca Daniel Teho.