Punan

The Punan, or Punan Bah, are a Dayak people of Sarawak and the adjoining Kalimantan interior, distinct from the similarly named semi-nomadic Penan. They are thought to have been among the earliest inhabitants of central Borneo, holding the Rajang and Balui river country before later arrivals.

Settled rather than wandering, they lived in longhouses called lovuk, grew hill padi by slash-and-burn, and hunted and gathered forest produce. Their society was ranked into aristocrats, commoners and slaves, and their dead nobles were placed in hut-like tombs atop tall carved poles called kelirieng.

They belong to the Kajang linguistic cluster and traditionally followed the animist Besavik faith. By the early 1800s the influx of Kayan settlers and then Iban into the Rajang basin pressed the Punan back into the remoter Kakus and Kemena valleys.