Mystery over skulls at Fort Emma
KANOWIT: Stories passed from mouth to mouth have it that a human skull at Fort Emma here moved by itself at night time.
It is said that a government staff who spent the night at the fort saw a skull on the floor of the fort the next morning. Nobody knew how it got there. That happened when the fort was still used as government office in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Altogether there are nine skulls in the fort and no one could tell who put them there.
A special ‘miring’ was held on Aug 8 at Fort Emma to transfer the skulls to a temporary hut built inside the compound of this town’s historical landmark.
The relocation of the skulls was to allow upgrading and conservation works at the fort.
The fort was built by the White Rajah in 1851 at the town centre.
It was later relocated to its present location at a slope of a hill fronting the confluence of Batang Rajang and Kanowit River in 1859.
Named after the older sister of Charles Brooke, Emma, the fort was used by the British to monitor the activities of the Dayaks there then.
Back to the skulls, the miring ceremony was to appease the spirit of the skulls.
These skulls are believed to be of the Beketans who were beheaded by the Ibans when headhunting was practised in the past.
According to ex- councillor of Kanowit District Council Kujat Dudang, the miring ceremony had to be done, ‘if not they (spirits) will cause disturbance’.
“This miring ritual is different from what we used to see. The leader of the miring must be someone who had ‘bedengah’ (killed an enemy).
“If it is done by ordinary people, we believe the person will be ‘alah bulu’ (his spirit will be overpowered by the spirit of the skulls),” he explained.
Kujat together with Penghulu Ugap Seribu and Pingat Gagah Berani ( PGB) recipient Lance Corporal (retired) Sigai Endawan @ Nawan conducted the miring.
Sigai was their leader. He had killed two enemies in an operation at Ulu Dap here during the communist insurgency in May 1972.
They slaughtered two pigs - one pig was specifically chosen because it had given birth three times and the other pig was a young one.
“To remove the skulls from the fort, we slaughtered the older pig. The young pig was slaughtered to place the skulls at the temporary hut,” Ugap said.
Ugap, Kujat and Sigai were also given a ‘tajau’ (earthen jar), a piece of cloth and a parang each for conducting the ceremony.
The three and all those involved in making preparation for the miring later performed the ‘nyenguk’ (peep into the jar) and bit the parang to mark the end of the ceremony.
Meanwhile, the fort is currently undergoing upgrading and conservation works at a cost of RM5 million undertaken by Crest Realty Sdn Bhd under the supervision of Public Works Department.
When completed in Feb 2020, the fort, which was once used as Kanowit History Gallery, will be upgraded as Kanowit Heritage Museum.