Hakka Lions of Historic Lundu 🚗 Kuching Sarawak Self Drive Holiday 伦乐客家獅黄楚海师傅

✍️28 Jan 2024. As we leave Kuching for Bau town, we passed Sam San Kuet Bong Temple and heard the rousing drums, gongs and cymbals of a lion dance performance. All three of us in the car thought the same - find a U turn quickly, jump out and catch the lion dance 😂

We had so much fun travelling together because we all same frequency one 🔊 😄

This is the 开光仪式 "waking up the lion" ceremony where the newly made lion is brought to life. It is also known as 點睛儀式 "eye dotting" ceremony where the lion is awaken by having its eyes dotted with blood from a cockerel's crown (comb / crest).

These are Hakka lions, the king among lions, the highest in rank and protocol.

After gatecrashing the auspicious ceremony, we went on our way to historic Maw San or the original old Bau town.

The full story of our visit to Bau is here 👈 click

We were on a 6 day self drive adventure in Kuching Division of Sarawak which took us to Kuching city, Bau, Siniawan, Lundu, Sematan, Telok Melano, etc.

We love the flexibility and freedom of self drive holidays as it allows us to switch and change plans at our fancy or as the situation requires e.g. pull over to watch lion dance 😂

We arrived at historic Lundu 伦乐 town which is about 90km from Kuching city centre. About 5,000 people live in Lundu. It is a multicultural community of Malay, Bidayuh dayak and Chinese (mostly Hakka).

Shrine of Luo Fang Bo 羅芳伯, founder of Lanfang Kongsi

Tiny Lundu town may look sleepy today but in the 1880s, it was one of the refuge and homebase of the fabled Lanfang Republic. The remnants of Lanfang kongsi escaped here from West Kalimantan after defeat by Dutch forces in 1885.

We met Kevin (right) and Master Bong Tsu Hoi 黄楚海师傅 (left), both descended from the Hakka Chinese miners of Lanfang kongsi who came to Lundu in 1885.

Amazingly, Master Bong was the master conducting the "waking the lion" ceremony at Sam San Kuet Bong Temple which we just gatecrashed 😂

We dashed into the ceremony and started snapping away like crazy, and nobody stopped us or showed any discomfort 🤭

Master Bong graciously invited us to his home to share with us about the art and culture of making Hakka Lions. It is such a privilege and honour 🙏

Master Bong makes Hakka lions with his father since his early teens.

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There are centuries old traditions, conventions and customs that govern what symbols and colours are used to make the Hakka lions. (In traditional lions, it is not up to the craftsman's whims and fancies.)

For example, the face of Hakka lions are almost always green, and they are known as green lions 青獅. There is always the word 王 or king on the forehead of the Hakka lion, as it is the king of lions. The ba gua 八卦 wards away evil spirits or bad energy. The lion's eyebrows are the word 山, or hill and in form of three peaks 三山毛. The jaw is always rectangular / angular 吃四方 which means Hakka people are adaptable and able to thrive in all corners of the world.

The conventions, customs, etc are passed from generation to generation in the form of a poem. The poem is etched in Master Bong's mind through years of making lions.

Master Bong patiently hand wrote it all down and generously gave it to us 🙏

I am honoured humbled to have a photo with Master Bong and his largest creation.

Master Bong even treated us to a scrumptious and sumptuous lunch at a local zhi char restaurant. Such is the warm hospitality of Lundu people.

I will write up in detail the delicious dishes we had, in a separate blog article soon.

After Lundu, our next stop was Taman Negara Gunung Gading national park, home of Sarawak's legendary giant Rafflesia flowers, the largest in the world.

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Written by Tony Boey on 28 Jan 2024

References:

Hakka lion dance in Taoyuan, Taiwan

Hakka lion dance in Taiwan

Lundu Hakka lion dance