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The piercing of the Glans of the Penis for the insertion of jewellery is a very
ancient practice, the Apadravya piercing is mentioned in the Kama Sutra (700AD)
and the Palang piercing has been practised in SE Asia for several hundred years.
Several genital piercings originate in Asia where piercing has been practised
since antiquity, the following quote, from "The Kama Sutra" describes
the process for the piercing of an Apadravya, or a vertical barbell through the
glans of the Penis.
"The people of the southern countries think that true sexual pleasure
cannot be obtained without perforating the Lingam, and they therefore cause
it to be pierced like the lobes of the ears of an infant pierced for earrings."
The Palang (often incorrectly called Ampallang) is a piercing that occurred
among the Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, Dayak, and Iban tribes of Sarawak on the Island
of Borneo. It involves piercing the Glans of the Penis horizontally, and the
insertion of a barbell. The term "Palang" translates as "Crossbar"
in Iban and can be related to the timber roof supports of the longhouses of
the tribes of the area, and symbolises the protective power of the male over
the family.
"the operation is performed only on adults. The skin is forced back, the
penis is placed between two small planks of bamboo and for ten days and it is
covered with rags dipped in cold water. Then the glans is perforated with a
sharp bamboo needle; a feather dipped in oil, is placed in the wound until it
heals. Wet compresses are used all the while. When the Dayaks travel and work
they carry a feather in this canal. As soon as they grow desirous, they pull
the feather out and replace it with the ampallang. The ampallang is a little
rod of copper, silver or gold, four centimetres long and two millimetres thick.
At one end of this rod is a round ball or pear-formed object made of metal;
at the other end a second ball is placed as soon as the ampallang is affixed.
The whole apparatus is, when ready, five centimetres long and five millimetres
thick.... Von Graffin has seen one Dayak who had two ampallangs, one behind
the other! The perforation was always horizontal and above the urethra.... The
women of the Dayaks say the embrace without this ornament is like rice, but
with it, it tastes like rice with salt. Mantegazza, Sexual Relations of Mankind
"The function of this device is, superficially, is to add to the sexual
pleasure of the women by stimulating and extending the inner walls of the vagina.
It is, in this, in my experience decidedly successful." Tom Harrisson,
The Sarawak Museum Journal Vol VII, December 1956.
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