Serving the community with hands and heart

Tay (left) and his associate with the nine-feet tall horse effigy he created for the King of Ghosts.

By Wilfred Pilo

KUCHING, Aug 25: For 61-year-old Kapitan Tay Siaw Chuan, serving his community takes many shapes and forms, quite literally.

Appointed 20 years ago as Kapitan, Tay does not just use his problem-solving abilities to overcome issues affecting the people under his charge but also his artistic skills.

Among the Sri Aman community leader’s recent artistic contributions was creating a nine-feet tall effigy of a horse with just bamboo sticks and paper for a recent ghost festival.

Tay with the nine-feet tall horse effigy he created for the King of Ghosts.

Tay told DayakDaily that he has been creating objects and effigies using paper glued on bamboo stick frames since he was young instead, of buying them from shops for his short-term collections.

“It was fun in my younger days as I could gather bamboo from nearby wooded areas and with old newspaper, make models like lanterns and animal.

“They were not perfect or could last but having your creations and collections was fun. If they got damaged, I did not regret it as I could easily make new ones. Those who grew up with me know my artisan skills but I never developed it,” he elaborated.

Tay revealed that his great-grandfather and ancestors in mainland China were craftsmen. They were basket weavers who made crafts from bamboo sticks.

Work in progress on the nine-feet tall horse effigy using bamboo as a frame to make the body structure.

He added that his artistic know-how came in handy again 16 years ago in 2008 for the Ghost Festival in Simangang town.

“Since I was in Che Chuan Khor Uplifting Society, we wanted to have these horse effigies as offerings during the festival. It was where all the ideas began, as we could not find these objects in town or Kuching.”

He added to solve the issue, he started to make the horse effigies himself and put his artisan skills into practice again.

“This year, like the previous six years, we decided to make a bigger than nine-foot by eleven-foot long horse for the ‘King of the Ghosts’. All made of bamboo and paper. No nails and screws.

“I do it just because nobody does such a thing in our area, and I believe not even in Kuching, so I tried to make it.”

He honed his craftsmanship and ideas further ⁠while travelling to West Malaysia when he saw an effigy of the King of the Ghosts made of bamboo sticks.

“I decided that during the festival, I would make a horse and ‘man’ models out of the bamboo stick and not just the ‘man’ alone (the King of Ghosts).

The nine-feet tall horse effigy and the five smaller ones lined up for display before the Ghost Festival in Simanggang.

This year, Tay’s nine-foot-tall bamboo and paper horse effigy and five smaller horse effigies measuring four feet high and six feet long for the ‘captains of the king’ are also parts of the offerings.

Like in previous years, he was assisted by his wife and daughter who worked with him for two weeks to complete the project.

“Special prayers have to be carried out to temple deities to ensure the smooth operations in making of these objects before they are used in the festival,” he said.

Associates and devotees conduct special prayers before the horse effigies which will later be as used offerings during the ghost festival in Simanggang.

A member of the public taking the opportunity to photograph the nine-feet tall horse effigy used in the ghost festival in Simanggang.

Tay felt satisfied being able to contribute to the community through his artistic skills and would do it again for as long as needed.

“We made it (effigies) specially to pray during the ghost festival for two days so that the souls are at peace. Later, every effigy created and other things are burned as offerings to mark the occasion,” he said. — DayakDaily