Our Pantangs

Someone asked in the comment box whether I could write something about pantang larang of Bruneians. I could. But then why would I do that? There is a book that you can actually buy and read all about it.

This book published by our Dewan Bahasa in 2006 contained all there is to know about the do's and dont's of our society or rather the dont's of our society. All the pantangs are listed in alphabetical order and altogether there are 115 of them (I counted). They range from 'Anak perempuan dilarang bermain permainan lelaki kelak sigau' to 'Tidur atau baring di atas batang besar ditakuti ditolak hantu kagui'.

For each pantang, there is a reason given and what lesson the pantang was supposed to teach. And there are also illustrations for a number of them.

If you read through them, most of readers will recognise a few but to be honest I am sure you will not recognise or even realise that there are pantangs which nobody has told you about. Some are slightly out of date, dating from the time when Bruneians used to live on the water or in outlying villages, maybe slightly valid to those still staying there. However it is quite interesting to know all these pantangs and may come in useful to you if ever you get into an argument with someone and wanted to prove you are right.

Oh yes, the book only cost a miserly $7.60. Get it from any Dewan Bahasa bookshops or wait until there is a book expo.