Kumang is the heroine of Panggau Libau and the wife of Keling, celebrated in Iban tradition as the most beautiful of women and the exemplar of every womanly excellence. She is above all the patroness of weaving, and the finest makers of pua kumbu, the sacred warp-ikat cloth central to Iban ritual, are praised by comparison with her. As Keling embodies the ideal of the Iban man, Kumang embodies that of the Iban woman: beautiful, skilled, resourceful and brave. She figures throughout the timang chants both as Keling's consort and as a heroine in her own right.