If you are a Filipino, it is very likely that you have already come across the Bajau in the streets begging for food or selling used clothes. But did you know that originally they are living in the sea? Did you know that the Sama Bajau Laut’s are indigenous tribes in Southeast Asia who are seafarers and sea dwellers and have known to have practiced boat building for generations? Did you know that their expanse covers the areas of Palawan, Sulu Archipelago in the Philippines, East coast, and Southward Sulawesi and scattered around Indonesia from eastward to Flores to Southern Maluku? And Did you know that theThe Sama Bajau Laut lives in houseboats that have a fascinating architectural feature which is called the Lepa?
These are the FOUR FASCINATING ARCHITECTURE FEATURES OF THE Sama Bajao’s Houseboat called Lepa.
- Number 1 – the Lepa serves as a domestic architecture for the Sama Bajau Laut where in it also serves as a mixed used space such as a living area, a working area and a sleeping area. This can be achieved due to the design of the watercraft having two deep sockets at the keel of the forward and aft ends of the living area.
When the house boat is on sail, the forward socket is used by receiving the mast’s base. When it needs to be used as a living area, the sockets served as a foundation for the posts of the house boat’s roof by fitting the sockets with short and long pole beam forming a pitched roof covered with a ‘kajang’ mat. This roof spreads on the entire mid section of the house boat’s living area towards the top of the freeboard. When the house boat needs to be used as a working area, the roof is removed and rolled up together with the short and long pole beams.
- Number 2 – is that its part is associated with gender orientation. The forward stern of the boat (munda) and orientation of the lateral head side (kokan) is usually associated with the male activities while the stern or the back area (buli) is associated with the female activities. For instance, the mid section of the boat is used to store personal belongings of the family and the stern or buli is used for cooking and storage area which are generally female activities in the Sama Bajau Laut’s culture. On the other hand, the bow or the front end of the boat, is used for manning the sails and fishing which is generally associate as a male job.
- Number 3 – its front projection serves as a classifier. The front projection of the fore section of the boat serves as a numerical classifier and alliance of boats’ by families that are often tied together to form one boat (soan).
- Number Four, it is Significantly associated to the Sama Bajau Laut’s ancestors. Aside from the boat’s significance in daily life, it is also significantly associated to the Sama Bajau Laut’s ancestors. Since the Sama Bajau Laut believes that the sea is the domain of the ancestors, when sailing they believe that they have also come inside the domain of their ancestors and thus they are keen on remembering them while at sea.
These are the Six Amazing Construction methods of the Lepa houseboat.
- Lepa boat construction also use wooden planks made of a huge log. The log is the most important material of the houseboat which is examined carefully by the builders.
- Lepa boat builders used wooden planks from a huge log. They consider the log as the most important material of the lepa.
- The Sama Bajau Laut usually work during the full moon to allow more working hours in the night and for better material conditions of the wood. It is for this reason that they construct a temporary facility using flimsy roof and palms near the site.
2. The builders of the Sama Bajau usually worked under a full moon. This allowed for longer working hours at night, as well as better material conditions for the wood. During the boat’s construction, the Sama Bajau houseboat builders built temporary homes made of flimsy roof and palms near the site.
- The log is used to make the boat planks which are split into two. These two planks are then used as the two sides of the boat. Aside from the planks, the log can also extend as the material for the keel and also for use as much as 25cm x 5cm thick planks depending on the log that is chosen.
3. The log has enough wood to build the houseboat’s keel and most of the hull.
- All carving works are done using a patuk or an ax, attached with different kinds of blades.
For carving some portions of the houseboat, the shipwrights use ax tools called the patuk. These axes have different blade attachments for different carving tasks.
- Wooden dowels called pasok are used to secure the boat parts. Holes are made on the ends of the boat and dowels are placed on them.
The lepa shipwrights do not use nails and other metals to join portions of the lumber to each other. Wooden dowels called pasok are used to secure the boat parts. Holes are made on the ends of the boat and dowels are placed on them.
- Soft bark of the shorline tree is placed in between the planks while they are joined together. This process is called caulking.
The lepa shipwrights use soft bark from trees such as mangroves to protect the ship from leakage. The process is called caulking.
- Instead of building and using rope, houseboat builders use rattan for lashings and bindings.
Reference
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