Annah Rais Longhouse

Annah Rais is a Bidayuh village in the hills towards the Kalimantan border, and the longhouse there is claimed to have stood on the site for several centuries, rebuilt in stages as bamboo and timber decay - which is how longhouses persist, as continuous institutions rather than continuous fabric. The structure is a long raised platform with family doors along one side and a common verandah running the length, floored in split bamboo that gives underfoot. The baruk, a round raised head house, holds skulls from the period when headhunting was practised, kept and tended rather than displayed. Families take homestay guests, and there is a hot spring nearby. It is the most visited longhouse in the Kuching area, so it is used to visitors and charges accordingly, which does not make it less real.

What you actually see

• A bamboo common verandah - the long platform running the length of the house.
• The baruk head house - the round building holding tended ancestral skulls.
• Family doors along the row - the households opening onto the shared space.
• Homestay accommodation - staying with families in the longhouse itself.

When to go

All year; Gawai in June brings the village together. A day, or overnight.

Honest expectations

There is an entry fee and it is a well-visited village - expect to be received rather than to discover. The skulls are ancestral remains; follow the family's rules on photography. Bamboo floors flex.

Nearby

The Annah Rais hot spring is close; Kuching is about an hour and a half away.