Phulim – about the traditional Hakhun House

Two recordings in which Mr Phulim Hakhun and Mr Khithung Hakhun talk about the traditional Hakhun House. This consists of 2 video files: SDM2 3-20091219-02_SM_Phulim_House SDM23-20091221-01_SM_PhulimUnderHouse The details of these recording are as follows: SDM2 3-20091219-02_SM_Phulim_House_Duration 14' 43" SDM23-20091221-01_SM_PhulimUnderHouse 7' 37 ' These recordings run from 7’11” to 28’51” The contents of these recordings are as follows: About the house. (timing within the session, timing within the cassette in parentheses). 0’09” (7’20”) The house is referred to as him¹nyu¹ ‘literally house mother’. 1’14” (8’25”) The word for post / pillar is thung². He gives the names of all the outdoor posts. Surrounding each thung is a poe²po¹, or smaller post. (9’10”) The steps are called heq¹thu¹. 2’29” (9’40”) The buffalo sacrifice and pig slaughter should occur at the foot of the heqthu. 2’49” (10’00”) goes up into the house. 2’59” (10’10”) the vae³ka³ ka³raq¹ – front balcony area. 3’19” (10’30”) ka³soeq¹ ‘door’. 3’33” (10’44”) enters the ka³ tap² ‘front room’. 4’21” (11’32”) shows the khae¹dung¹ - literally ‘big head’, a shelf above the stove in the voeka tap, and the lower shelf called khae¹raq². 5’04” (12’15”) shows the la³pe³ ‘beam’. 5’28” (12’39”) The important most internal pillar is the rum³thung¹, the place where sacrifice would occur. Here there is a bamboo cup yu²me³ thu¹, this is used for the first rice beer of the season, also cham³cho¹ which is for rice. This is the place where chicken used to be sacrificed. 6’42” (13’53”) a prayer, which is called roe³tam¹ - a prayer to the sky God. 7’24” (14’35”) the second important internal pillar, the thung¹hong²thung¹. This is the place where in former times they would predict the future, make prophecy. 8’14” (15’25”) Khithung explains this in English. 8’49” (16’00”) the back room or him¹mong³van¹tap² (house inside fire fireplace). Here the ladies would sit inside the house, and prepare rice. Here men would be fed. 10’19” (17’30”) To the side of the himmong vantap dead people would be kept and here also newly married daughters in law would stay for the first four days of their marriage. 11’19” (18’30”) At time of celebrations, the cutting up and cooking of the sacrificed pigs, buffaloes &c is done in the ka tap room, the second room not in the himmong vantap. 12’14” (19’25”) The place where animal’s heads would be kept, the po³khyung²thung¹. 12’49” (20’00”) a traditional prayer uttered at the time of placing animals heads here. 13’18” (20’29”), back on the voeka karaq, front balcony, Phulim demonstrates the place where in the olden days, when they would bring a head that had been collected from a headhunting expedition, that head would be put. This is above the heqthu. The place is called re³khu¹thit²thing¹ (‘enemy head hanging place). At the time headhunting, the people wore long hair, and the long hairs of the enemy clans would also be attached here. 13’29” (20’40”) A prayer that would be said when an object, such as a head, is attached here. The meaning was ‘This is the place your head we keep, not because of our pride do we kill you, but because you have done some mistake to us, this is why we killed you’. 21'54" ( 28’51”) Phulim Hakhun explains the names of the pillars underneath the house. The middle pillar is called thung¹nyu¹ ‘mother pillar’. This is for the himmong thungnyu, the part where the ladies sit at the back of the house. At the side there is a pillar called lam¹thoeq² nga¹ poeq¹pi¹ thung¹ - this is the pillar on the upper side from that one. and the lamkhing² nga poeqpi thung is on the lower side. Then further forward in the middle of the house there is the rumthung; near to it is the rumbe² tham³. Then under the katap and finally under the vaeka tap. The last portion of this recording was made at the steps, heqthuq, at the foot of which buffaloes, pigs and so on are kille