Lute awakening: traditional Malaysian strings have many players but few makers

Among the stories Sarawak instrument craftsman Salomon Gau inherited from his elders is one that begins not with wood or strings but with spirits.

“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.

Revival 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.