United States or Bouvet Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The word URIP, means life or living; the exact meaning of this prefix in this usage is obscure, possibly it expresses the recognition that the men spoken of are, though dead, still in some sense alive.
BALI UTONG brings prosperity to the house. BALI URIP is the god of life; he too has a carved altarpost, generally crowned with a brass gong. BALINGO is the god of thunder. BALI SUNGEI is the name given to a being which perhaps cannot properly be called a god.
The Kenyahs also invoke in their prayers several spirits who seem, like ODIN LAHANG, to be regarded as deceased members of their tribe; such are TOKONG and UTONG, and PA BALAN and PLIBAN. From all these descent is claimed by various Kenyah and Klemantan sub-tribes; and that they are regarded as standing higher in the spiritual hierarchy than recently deceased chiefs, is shown by the prefix BALI, commonly given to their names, whereas this title or designation is not given to recently deceased chiefs; to their names the word URIP is prefixed by both Kayans and Kenyahs.
Thus BLUA and URIP seem to mark a distinction which in Europe in different ages has been marked by the words soul and spirit, ANIMA and ANIMUS, psyche and pneuma, and which was familiar also to the Hebrews. In this, of course, Kayan thought on this subject does but follow on the lines of many other peoples of more advanced civilisation.
In common speech URIP means alive, but it is applied also as a prefix to the names of those recently deceased, and seems to mark the speaker's sense of the continuance of the personality as that which has life in spite of the death of the body.
The more important of these are the god of war, TOH BULU; three gods of life, LAKI JU URIP, LAKI MAKATAN URIP, and LAKI KALISAI URIP, of whom the first is the most important; the god of thunder and storms, LAKI BALARI and his wife OBENG DOH; the god of fire, LAKI PESONG; gods of the harvest, ANYI LAWANG and LAKI IVONG; a god of the lakes and rivers, URAI UKA; BALANAN, the god of madness; TOH KIHO, the god of fear; LAKI KATIRA MUREI and LAKI JUP URIP, who conduct the souls of the dead to Hades.
It would seem that so long as this vital spark remains in the body the ghost-soul may return to it; but that, when death is complete, this vital spark also departs, and then the ghost-soul will return no more. The use of the word URIP further bears out this interpretation.
Another point on which opinion is very vague is the part played by LAKI JUP URIP, a deity or spirit whose function it is to guide the souls to their proper destinations. In many Kayan villages stories are told of persons who are believed to have died and to have come to life again.
Word Of The Day