Rawai Tinggi

Rawai Tinggi Revisited

Some of you might wonder what is a rawai? Basically rawai is a corset and traditionally for the Iban tribe rawai is either made of silver or brass. Rawai can be classified into different sizes too mainly rawai pandak (low corset) and rawai tinggi (high corset).

The rawai that I used for Borneo Hornbill Festival was Rawai Tinggi made of brass and rattan. It measures from chest to waist and weighs around 4 kilos without being adorned with other accessories. At the moment my rawai is being repaired and for today's post it would feature the processes that you can see in repairing a rawai.

I have my brother to repair the rawai and it is a very tedious work indeed, from thinning the rattan strips, to measuring each levels of the brass rings, taking out the brass rings to replace the new rattan strips etc. Rather than explaining the process in writing, let us view the photos, hope they might help:

the tools and materials

rawai pandak as the "donor"

 * a donor is used to replace the insufficient brass rings of my rawai tinggi.

brass rings from the donor

rattan strips

stainless steel strips

you measure

insert the brass rings to the new rattan strips

make sure you clip the ends

put back the new brass strips

Can't wait for my reinforced rawai tinggi..hope to wear it for my wedding...until we meet again in different post.