Bidayuh Music Is the Beat Behind These Dancers

The last time I visited Malaysia, I remember the music was one of the highlights of the trip. It was in a market, the tunes blared out and just caught me. On TV early one morning, watching thousands of men circling the Ka’aba at the great mosque in Mecca–a ritual that’s part of the Hajj–the music was mesmerizing. I’ve often tried to find music like this and tonight, some of those magical tunes touched my ears again.

We were watching a show, it was dancing by chambermaids, busboys, front desk clerks and sales agents who work at the hotel. They practice Iban dances to perform at special events like tonight’s gathering of more than 200 journalists from around the world for the Rainforest Music Festival. We were at a dinner and they entertained us, coming out wearing glittering tiaras, festive headpieces shaped like wedding cakes, or gold cones, or a red doo-rag. The women smiled as they joyously danced in their sparkling costumes, and the men toted long poles, holding them up as the women danced and swayed beneath them. Bidayuh music was the mesmerizing sound that tied it all together.

After the show, a man in a suit named Bidari came up and said he was the one who puts together the music. He mixes these sounds, some influenced by the Portuguese who traded in Melaka in Western Malaysia, and other songs that are called sea dayak, or land dayak, into a blend that works perfectly for these dancers. I asked him where I could find them…but the answer wasn’t a website or an iTunes download. “You have to go to Mahua music, at the Sarawak Plaza, a shopping mall a few miles away,” he said.

He asked me how long I had to stay here, and then he said if I could make time he’d take me over to the shop. I asked him if could just burn a CD of the show’s tunes, since he’s mastered the art of mixing and chopping and I just like how it sounds. But indeed a trip to a Sarawak music store might be a lot more fun than just getting a copy on CD.