Tradition / Region: Indoniesian Mythology
Alternative name: –
Category: Dog
The Myth
In the traditional beliefs of the Malanau people of Borneo, Mawiang is a terrifying double-headed dog that guards the narrow road leading to the afterlife. The creature stands watch at the entrance to the land of the dead and prevents souls from passing unless they offer a valuable bead as payment.
The Malanaus believed in another world that closely resembled the human world, with rivers, mountains, seas, and sago plantations. Above all spirits stood a supreme deity named Ipu. After death, souls were guided by a beautiful female spirit called Balu Adad, who escorted the dead to their future home only after funeral feasts and cockfighting ceremonies had ended.
Before a soul could reach paradise, it had to pass Mawiang. To ensure safe passage, families tied a precious bead to the right arm of the deceased before burial. Corpses were also buried with gold ornaments, weapons, gongs, and fine clothing so the dead could use them in the next world.
Older traditions claimed that slaves were sometimes tied near the tombs of important dead nobles and left to die so their spirits could continue serving their master in the afterlife.
The Malanaus also believed that those who died violently entered a different afterlife from people who died naturally. After living a long existence in the spirit world, the dead were believed to die again and later return as worms or caterpillars living in the forest.
Their spiritual world contained many dangerous beings besides Mawiang. Forests, rivers, seas, and the sky were inhabited by spirits connected to disease, storms, and misfortune. Rituals meant to calm these spirits included hanging plants around houses, floating miniature boats made of sago pith down rivers, and ceremonies involving gongs, feasting, and shamans performing rituals through the night.
Among all these beings, Mawiang remained one of the most feared, standing as the final guardian between the world of the living and the realm of the dead.
Sources
de Crespigny, Lieut. (1876). On the Milanows of Borneo. In The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 5. from https://doi.org/10.2307/2841361