Orang Ulu races

      Orang Ulu ("remote people") is an ethnic designation politically coined to group together roughly 27 very small but ethnically diverse tribal groups in Sarawak, with a population ranging from less than 300 persons to over 25,000 persons. Orang Ulu is not a legal term and no such racial group exist or listed in the Malaysia Constitution. The term was popularised by a minority association known as "Orang Ulu National Association" (OUNA) that was formed in 1969.

Longhouse Orang Ulu
      All the Orang Ulu tribes except the Penans build houses of similar architecture but the finishing and skill differs widely. The houses are always located close to rivers. The as of the Ibans, are built to accommodate the villagers and were built for as many as one hundred families in the old days. The longhouse is normally supported on stilts made from Berlian or Ironwood which rise some 20 - 30feet high. The roofing was also made of berlian shingles. The apartment each serves one family comprising of the parents, daughters, young sons and female slaves. Normally a small fireplace for cooking and sleeping area makes up the apartment. Its main door opens up into a long gallery which doubles up as the common living and reception room. The long single gallery is marked each 30 feet or so by a fireplace. The main fireplace usually located at the reception area is hung a row of head, charms and talisman. These hearths are kept smouldering all the time. Young bachelors and visitors sleep in the gallery. 

Tattoo

     In Orang Ulu women tattoing contributes to a series of complicated process. Designs can run from the back of hands to thighs, below the knees and on the kneecaps. Tattooing in women can begin early as witnessed at the age of ten the girl will probably have had her fingers and the upper part of her feet tattooed. About a year hiatus, her forearms should have been completed; the thighs the following year and by the fourth year, the tattoos should be completed. Women can only tattoo until she is pregnant, as it is considered inappropriate to tattoo themselves after becoming a mother. The Kayan women believe that tattoos are the torches to the next life and that without these to light them they would remain forever in total darkness.

       The tools used by a tatoo artist consist of two or three prickers, ULANG or ULANG BRANG, and an iron striker, TUKUN or PEPAK, which are kept in a wooden case, BUNGAN. The pigment is a mixture of soot, water, and sugar-cane juice, and it is kept in a double shallow cup of wood, UIT ULANG. The best soot is supposedly obtain ed from the bottom of a metal cooking-pot. The tattoo blocks are commonly carved by men. The artist first dips a piece of fibre from the sugar-palm (ARENGA SACCHARIFERA) into the pigment and, pressing this on to the area to be tattoed, aligns the patterns to be tattoed; along these straight lines the artist tatus the IKOR. Then taking the tattoo designs that are carved on blocks of wood, KELINGE, she smears it with the ink and then impresses on the part to be tattoed between the two lines.