In 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.

With 405 ethnic subgroups making up the Dayak people, the indigenous people of Kalimantan’s forested interiors, Dayak cultures are very diverse. The practice of stretching earlobes and getting charcoal tattoos occurs only in certain communities.

Yipuihang, a 62-year-old Bahau Dayak woman living in Long Bagun district, Mahakam Ulu, got her fingers, wrists and legs tattooed during her teenage years, when her earlobes were also stretched with earrings.

However, unlike most indigenous Dayak people, who are Christians, at 16 Yipuihang married to a Muslim Bugis man of South Sulawesi.

“I used to have stretched ears, but when I got married I had them removed,” Yipuihang said.

Because she married and converted to Islam, none of her children have tattoos, as it is forbidden in her interpretation of Islam to get them.

Belawing Belareq, a Long Tuyoq village elder and member of the Mahakam Ulu Regency Tribal Council, said that, looking at the current trend, it was almost certain that the traditions of the Dayak women would soon come to an end.

“Nowadays none of the young people want to have them [stretched earlobes and tattoos] anymore. It will be very hard to resurrect their practices,” Belawing told The Jakarta Post during a recent visit.

He said the tradition first started being abandoned in the 1950s, when women who traveled to major cities began feeling ashamed of their look.

Decades ago, traditional Dayak earrings worn on stretched earlobes were made of silver or iron and were symbols of social status and beauty, especially for women.

“In the past, those who did not have long earlobes were deemed unattractive,” Belawing said.

He said the process of lengthening and widening earlobes was carried out on infants whose ears were pierced using string. When a child turns 6, their earlobes are stretched using a piece of wood, and at the age of 10, earrings are used, with 15 to 30 earrings placed on both ears.

The tattoos are also have meaning, marking the coming of age for a woman. During childhood, young girls are tattooed with simple dots on their fingers. During puberty, their hands are tattooed. When they get married, their wrists and legs are tattooed with ring motifs.

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