<p>KUCHING: As the clock approaches 10.30pm and the bustle of the city begins to fade, Rining Peter Paris’s creative world comes alive.
Key takeaways
Rining Peter Paris, a 53-year-old musician from Sarawak, dedicates his late-night hours to crafting the traditional Lun Bawang tapi instrument. He is one of the few remaining makers in Malaysia, preserving this ancestral craft through intricate wood carving and specific cultural motifs.
- Rining works from 10:30 pm to 3 am to maintain the intense concentration required for carving the instruments.
- The tapi is a two-stringed instrument distinct from the sape, featuring unique tuning and decorative carvings.
- Creating a tapi involves ten main stages, including shaping pulai wood and applying smoke treatment.
Summarised automatically by AI from the original article by New Straits Times. AI can make mistakes, so check the original for details.
KUCHING: As the clock approaches 10.30pm and the bustle of the city begins to fade, Rining Peter Paris's creative world comes alive.
With a cup of black coffee and reggae music playing softly in the background, the 53-year-old musician retreats to his backyard workshop to craft the tapi or tapik, a traditional two-stringed instrument of Sarawak's Lun Bawang community.
Originally from the Ba'kelalan highlands, Rining is among the few remaining tapi makers in Malaysia, dedicating his late-night hours to preserving an ancestral craft through intricate carvings on pulai wood, locally known as pelai.
"I usually work from 10.30 pm until 3 am because my mind is fresher at night. I need intense concentration, especially when drawing and carving patterns on the tapi," he told Bernama during a recent visit to his home.
