The Authenticity of the Culture

I think that the longhouse is the trademark of the Iban. The tourist had referred them as the “longhouse folks”, which shows that the longhouse is an inseparable element whenever we thought of the Iban. The traditional longhouse has more than a thousand years of history and this tradition house is still kept until now by the Iban. Even though there is no privacy among the families, most Iban still chose to stay in long houses. This shows that they still enjoy the way of life as a traditional Iban and the longhouse gives them the comfort of being in their homeland. I think that the idea of many families living in one longhouse is the reason to the friendliness of Iban. They are able to live in harmony with so many people under one house.

They would still protect their customs even thought there are visitors to their house. Tauk, which is made from rice wine, will always be served to the guest as part of their customs and it will be impolite for the guest to reject the offer. The Ibans should know that some Muslims cannot take alcohol, but they still serve them with the rice wine graciously as to represent their warmest welcome. Therefore it proves that they would still keep their traditional customs no matter what and kindly accept the rejection of their custom by some tourist.