The Bullroarer Atlas

DBP2026-001 - ethnomusicology and official terminology

Kenyah-Badang

Malaysia - Upper Rejang River - Belaga District, Sarawak - Southeast Asia - Borneo

Play / practical

Representative—not this record’s object: a Dyak bullroarer from southwest Kalimantan in the Smithsonian collection, shown for the general...
Representative—not this record’s object: a Dyak bullroarer from southwest Kalimantan in the Smithsonian collection, shown for the general Bornean form; no rights-clear kidiu photograph exists. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Dept. of Anthropology (nmnhanthropology_8375380) Image source

kidiu Malay; English

kidiu: Kenyah-Badang name for the paired bullroarer; no further lexical gloss supplied.

At harvest in the hill-rice fields of the Upper Rejang, the Kenyah-Badang set the air itself to guard the crop: two players, two kidiu — oval wooden blades on strings and handles — swung fast and pitched against each other in the interlocking weave that runs through Bornean music, gongs and bamboo and, here, bullroarers. The droning pair drove the insect pests off the ripening padi. Malaysia's national terminology board still registers the kidiu as a free aerophone, and Matusky's fieldwork up the Rejang recorded its music; no spirit or rite attaches to it — the kidiu worked for a living.

Kidiu terdiri daripada sekeping kayu berbentuk bujur yang dipasang pada tali dan pemegang ... Kidiu dimainkan oleh suku kaum Kenyah-Badang di kawasan padi bukit semasa padi dituai untuk menghalau serangga perosak.

Kidiu consists of an oval piece of wood fixed to a string and handle ... It is played by the Kenyah-Badang in hill-rice fields during harvest to drive away insect pests.

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, PRPM terminology entry, s.v. 'kidiu'.
Object
Oval wooden blade fixed to a string and handle, swung rapidly through the air for a specific pitch; two instruments played by two players in an interlocking pattern.
Function
Paired players weave interlocking pitches and rhythms; played in hill-rice fields at harvest to drive insect pests away. No ritual or spirit dimension is recorded.
Map confidence
medium_high - Upper Rejang / Belaga District regional anchor; the sources name the Kenyah-Badang tradition, not one kidiu village or performance site.
Source location
PRPM entry d=371752; Matusky & Tan 2017, fig. 4.2 p. 266 / ex. 4.9 p. 267

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