Last of the ring ladies
SITUATED 40km from Kuching, nestled among the mountains of Banjaran Bungo Range and seated on a hilltop 310m above sea level, the more than 300-year-old Kampung Semban is better known as “a paradise in the cloud.”
Kusan Ganyai
However, what sets it apart from many other scenic and pictureque villages ‘sitting in the cloud’ is its ring ladies.
These traditional Semban ladies wearing the ruyang and rusung are the embodiment of the remaining distinctive culture of the Semban, a sub-tribe of the Bidayuhs.
Ruyang and rasung are copper coiled rings worn on the forearms and calves respectively.
There are only a handful of them left. In 2010, there were eight. Last year, there were six and this year until January 20, there were only four.
The lamentation of security and development committee (JKKK) deputy chairman Sagen Adem, 54, that “10 years down the road, the culture of rings wearing will disappear completely” is, thus, acute and understandable.
The Semban ladies started putting on the rings at various ages – some as young as 10 while others older, depending on their parents and their parents’ financial standing.
These coiled rings which look golden but not made of gold, are a mixture of copper and brass. Despite so, they were not cheap, especially in the old days when demand was high and the rings were only available when travelling vendors brought them into the village after trekking for hours through a jungle, green padi fields, rivers, waterfalls and countless bamboo steps.
