Sungan

Introduction

KABONG: Sungan refers to the beautifully decorated carriages or seats in which the children are carried around the neighborhoods with.

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Various designs of the usungan that were created indicate the creative and innovative minds of the coastal Sarawak Malay community. The residents of Kabong believe that this customary practice inherited from their ancestors has already been in existence for more than 100 years. For that reason, a sense of love and the desire to maintain the tradition is strong among the communities.

Perarakan Khatamal al-Quran

"A total of 88 participants tooks part in the recent ‘sungan’ event which involved pupils from SK Abang Leman and SJK (C) Chung Hua, Kabong."

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The colourful tradition of ‘sungan’ processions are a common feature during the year-end school holiday season in many Malay settlements in Kabong, here. The event is meant to celebrate a large group of children when they complete their al-Quran recitals (khatam al-Quran) or before they go for circumcision.

A typical procession will require the children to be dressed in traditional attire. They will sit on the ‘sungan’ which is carried on the shoulders of village folk using stretchers. The carriages come in all kinds of shapes and sizes with some of them shaped like a mosque, helicopter, military tank, house, airplane and other things.

In Kabong, the ‘sungan’ tradition has been kept alive and is an event that many people look forward to every year. The procession is usually accompanied by a ‘hadrah’ performance. 

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Kabong assemblyman Mohd Chee Kadir said many villages will be a hive of activity during ‘sungan’ events, which are often held during the year-end school holidays.

“This is something unique to Kabong. It is an event that is not seen any other district,” he told the New Straits Times Press.

He said the purpose of ‘sungan’ was to motivate and encourage the younger generation to be successful. “The children take part in the procession and they are accompanied by the beats of the hadrah drums. "It is meant to encourage them further in life, and to instil a love for the al-Quran," said Mohd Chee, adding that such events could forge closer ties among members of the community.

Source: Norsyazwani Nasri, New Straits Times

Project Usungan

Mohamad Faizuan Bin Mat is a multi-disciplinary artist, curator, writer and lecturer in the Fine Arts Programme, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) from Universiti institute Technology MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia and in 2013 gained a Master of Science- Integrated Design Studies at the Universiti Putra Malaysia. In 2015-2017, he is being chosen to represent Malaysia for CuratorsLAB Program under Goethe-Institut Indonesien, Institut Teknologi Bandung, PORTIKUS and Städelschule Frankfurt am Main, Germany to support contemporary curatorial practice in Southeast Asia.

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He was one of the 30 participating kids who were carried around the parade in an usungan, also known as a palanquin structure consisting of a chair mounted between two poles—generally used to carry a person of status during Khatamal Al-Quran event in 2018. In the coastal area of Sarawak, including Belawai and Kabong, usungan parades are held to celebrate newly-married couples during their wedding days and primary school children age from seven to 12 who have completed their Quranic studies. 

This customary practice has been around since the olden days and is a much-anticipated event among the local community. A variety of usungan designs are used to parade the ‘graduates’ along the main road of the village, including aeroplanes, cars, motorbikes, flowers, fishes, and even a replica of a mosque. The designs were requested by us—the participants—and our families had to fulfil our requests. 

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He has participated in a co-creation project called "The Parade of the Usungan" during the Young Contemporary Art Exhibition at National Art Gallery, Malaysia in 2019.

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Some of the findings that Mr. Faizuan and his teams could conclude from the study is that the usungan practice has improved the spirit of togetherness in Sarawak’s coastal community, which continues to remain strong even after so many years. The various usungan designs have demonstrated the creativity and innovative sense that have existed for a long time in the local community. As an artist who grew up with this practice, it has become his social responsibility to find ways to sustain and uphold this tradition. It is to ensure that the practice is continued and valued by future generations. This tradition, culture and the passing down of ancestral processes is unique to Sarawak, and cannot be found in any other parts of Malaysia or other places in the world.

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To learn more about Mr. Faizuan's project, click the button down below.