Lamin House

Lamin House of Dayak

Physical Structures of Lamin
Just like the other traditional houses of Dayak, Lamin House is built on very long poles because it is inhabited by tens families. All the materials used to build Lamin house are black long lasting ulun timber. 

Lamin is usually built facing the direction of river with basic form as rectangle. The length of Lamin sometimes reaches 200 meters and wide is about 20 until 25 meters. There are big statues made of wood on the yard surrounding the house used for ancestor worship. 
Lamin is a kind of Rumah Panggung because of the space underneath the house. The height of the space reaches 4 meters. There are ladders made from trees’ trunk in order to get on the house. The ladders can be relocated and moved up and down. . These structures are designed to anticipate the threat of the wild animals.
Social Functions
Because it has a long and big size of house, it can take 200 inhabitants in it. A village of Dayak usually has only 3 Lamin houses, and every village led by a headman called Bakas Lewu or Ungko Lewu. 
In the beginning, Lamin was inhabited by many families in the rooms. But, unfortunately the tradition is faded. The front part of Lamin is a long porch or veranda for holding ceremonies, such as wedding, birth, death, harvest party, etc. behind the porch are bars of big rooms. Each room should be inhabited by 5 heads of families.
The house inhabited by nobles and headman is usually decorated with beautiful ornaments or engraving, from all of the pillars, walls, and the top of the roof. The ornaments on the top sometimes stick out 3 or 4 meters. The wall of nobles’ house is usually made from board, but the public’s is made from wood leather.
The quantities of the ornaments on Lamin House indicate the level of the owner of the house. Dragon head or hornbill ornaments on the roof of the nobles’ house symbolize bravery and the high level of human beings.