Tekna' Aban Balan

About the Book

Tekna' Aban Balan is a great love story told in the poetic form in the Kayan language. It is the story of Balan Lejau, an aristocrat whose beautiful second wife was kidnapped by two people from another world because of her great beauty. Now a widower a second time, Balan Lejau became very depressed at not being able to bury his dead and refused to eat until he became emaciated with sunken eyes. After being told she was still alive however in another world, he recovered his strength and set about to recover her. He made a magical ladder from blow pipe darts to reach the sky. As a high ranking aristocrat who Kayans believed are descended from the spirit world as described in their story of the Tree of Life, he was able to enter to search for her. He overcame several challenges he never encountered on earth and seduced all the wives of the warriors that had left them to tend to their farms. The story ended with a fierce battle between Balan Lejau and the two men that had kidnapped his wife. He defeated them both and brought back their heads back as trophy to his longhouse.

About the Author

Mr LJ Uyo is a soil scientist from Sarawak, Malaysia with an MSc who started recording, transcribing and translating the rich oral tradition of his ethnic Kayan community to save them from being lost after discovering few people could remember the stories he heard as a child after he graduated.