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Stretched earlobes: A fading Dayak tradition
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Lun Bith, 84, is one of the last remaining Dayak woman of Long Tuyoq village, East Kalimantan, who has stretched earlobes and charcoal tattoos. Dayak women of younger generations do not favor the unique look, which traditionally is considered a sign of beauty. (JP/A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil)
I
n her youth, 84-year-old Lun Bith must have been considered pretty with more than a dozen large earrings on her elongated earlobes – a standard of beauty of the Long Giaat Dayak ethnic subgroup in her village of Long Tuyoq, situated on the banks of the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan.
An indigenous Dayak woman, Lun Bith got her fingers tattooed as a child. Her wrists and legs are also covered in ink – a sign that she had married.
“They [the long earlobes and tattoos] indicate that we are women,” Lun Bith said.
Lun Bith is part of the last generation of Dayak women who carry out the tradition of telingaan aruuk (elongating earlobes) and getting tattoos using charcoal ink.
In Long Tuyoq village in Long Pahangai district, Mahakam Ulu regency, East Kalimantan, where the Long Giaat Dayak community lives, Lun Bith is one of six women who stick to tradition. The younger and middle-aged women of the community do not stretch their earlobes or tattoo their bodies.
Another one of the six women is centenarian Lun Jun, who lives in Long Tuyoq with her 54-year-old daughter Luciana Iroh Long, who unlike her mother is free of piercings and tattoos.
“I didn’t get tattooed or stretched ears because of school,” Luciana, who has only graduated from elementary school, said.
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