Renewed interest in traditional Malaysian lutes comes with strings attached

Among the stories Sarawak instrument craftsman Salomon Gau inherited from his elders is one that begins not with wood or strings but with spirits.He recalled being told how spirits first showed villagers how the earliest forms of the sape – a traditional carved wooden lute from Malaysian Borneo – should be made and played, at a time when the instrument was central to ceremonies, storytelling and social life.“The first one was the two-string version. The four-string one is already quite new, and the six-string contemporary version is very, very new,” he said.While a growing number of young musicians across the island have become drawn to playing the instrument in recent years, Gau and others warn the knowledge needed to make them is increasingly at risk.Closely associated with Sarawak’s Kenyah and Kayan communities, the sape is part of a wider family of boat-shaped lutes carved from a single block of local wood, including Sabah’s sundatang and Brunei’s kesapi.The sape, a Kenyah boat-shaped lute, is made out of a single piece of wood. Photo: Tuyang InitiativeRevival efforts have brought new performers and wider visibility, but practitioners say far fewer people are learning how to make the instruments, preserve older repertoires or carry forward the knowledge embedded in them.