Traditional Song from Dayak Kenyah

There are hundreds of ethnics in Indonesia. One of them is Dayak. This ethnic commonly can be found in Borneo. They spread to all of area in this island. The big number of this ethnic is in Indonesia, and other stay in Malaysia. Dayak itself has hundreds subgroups, such as Dayak Kenyah.

Every subgroup has different culture. So I choose one song from Dayak Kenyah to be explained in this task. Leleng is one of the song in Dayak Kenyah. It talks about a lonely orphan girl, they called it Utan Along, who had been left by her boy. So she keeps spinning around and feels so sad until the tears fall.

Leleng

By Unknown

*leleng…leleng utan along leleng

Leleng leleng utan along…leleng

Leleng… 2x

#leleng leleng utan along

Leleng leleng leleng utan along

Leleng leleng

Lelemg leleng utan along leleng leleng 2x

Back to *

Jiang mo kelo

Ketai jiang mo sa`o

Sungai sa`o sungai limu…kanan

Back to*

Jiang mo ati

Ati jiang mo jaga

Diri idaere jaga badan

Back to #

Back to *

Jiang mo kempi

Tarug jiang mo kalong

Kauju idaere kusun…lasan

Kembali ke *

Jiang mo dawing

Pecak jiang mo kalong

Kauju idaere umah…luan

Lelelng…leleng utan along

L…E…L…E…N…G…

This song is usually followed with the dance which danced by some group of girls. They make a circle and spinning around it. Why should girl? It’s because Utan in Dayak Language means girls. This dance became an obligatory class for some elementary schools. But now, it’s different. Now some schools teach Tari Enggang which talks about a special bird from Kalimantan, Enggang.

How does it communicate with other ethnic?

I have interviewed some friends from other ethnic in Indonesia. 2 of them are Javanese and one is Batakness. All of them have almost same thought about this song. They thought that this song talks about the beauty of the nature in Kalimantan. Because they heard some words which they thought it referred to the nature. Such as Utan which actually means a girl and sungai which actually means tears.