This impressive Penehing panel was once a brace or side panel to a reliquary structure. The two imaginative figures, a male and a female, are protective guardians (uyat), embodying coiled well-torqued energy and mystique.

The explorer, A.W. Nieuwenhuis, was the first outsider to visit this locale. This site was photographed on Nieuwenhuis' 1898 expedition by the photographer Jean Demmeni. Demmeni was an Indo-European who later became famous for his photographs taken on behalf of the Dutch government to document and popularize traditional ways of life. His images were used by the colonial office in Holland and Indonesia as a means to teach school children and government officials about the Dutch East Indies. His picture of this panel printed in reverse appears in Quer Durch Borneo (1904-1907), Ergebnisse Seiner Reisen in den jahren 1894, 1896-7 und 1898-1900, plate 74.

The Penehing is a small Kayanic sub-group whose current population is around 2,300 persons. As a footnote in history, the Penehing are also known for their resistance to the Japanese during the Second World War and for their willingness to rescue stranded allied soldiers. The historical importance of this mesmerizing work cannot be overstated. It's the first panel of its type ever to be photographed in situ and one of two complete panels of this genre known to have survived.