Orang Asli life at Tasik Chini provided by Peter van der Helm. You can click on a +/- Icon to see details.
Introduction
The material in this example of Indigenous Knowledge is provided by kind permission of
Peter van der Helm, a Dutch University teacher whose wife is from an Orang Asli group.
Background
The Orang Asli community around Tasik Chini is a mixture of mainly the Jakun and Semelai subgroups. They practise consensus politics with equal rights for men and women. Their traditional hunter-gatherer life-style is now gradually being replaced by a more modern life-style.
Health
Physiotherapy
1. Preparation
A Physiotherapist can help with torn or strained muscles. He is always treated with respect and courtesy, (based on my experience in Fiji), and an appointment is made for a time when he is available.
Payment is made by barter with a commodity which is mutually acceptable.
2. Taking Treatment
Take the previously-agreed payment, which must be wrapped as a sign of courtesy and presented to the Physiotherapist before treatment begins
3. Closing Ceremony
This picture shows the physiotherapist (Tukang urut) Awang bin Chot, performing the Closing Ceremony,(memutus).
Music
1. A Healing Song
This picture shows a performance of a Healing Song (lagu berobat) called "Dayang Wani", and the drummer in the background providing accompaniment.
Tools
1. Blowpipes
The material in this Section is from the Sarawak Cultural Village Web Site.
It refers to the Penan people, a shy nomadic people who live in the dense virgin jungles of Central Borneo.
1.1 Making a Blowpipe
A wood beam of adequate length is fixed in a drilling platform, and then bored through patient manual labour. The pipe is trimmed by axe and knife, and finally polished. The bore is smoothed and ground by pulling lengths of rattan through it.
Blowpipe ammunition is a softwood plug tipped with a hardwood dart. Blowpipe poison, carefully dosed to suit the prey, is made from the sap of the upas tree (Antiaris toxicaria).
1.2 Using a Blowpipe
The Penan warrior on the art of shooting with the blowpipe says :-
"Do not blow from your mouth. Blow from your chest and your stomach."
2. Harpoon
2.1 Making a Harpoon
A 3-tooth Harpoon (serampang) is used for killing fish in the lake. This picture shows Seman bin Samad welding a harpoon.
2.2 Teaching how to make a Harpoon
This picture shows Seman bin Samad showing his son Abu how to make a harpoon.
Transport
1. Canoes
1.1 Making a Canoe
This picture shows a Canoe (pradu) being made.
1.2 Using a Canoe
and being used on Lake Chini.
Environment
For matching sounds, listen to this recording by Art Simon of birds, crickets and other wild life, made in 2000 in Taman Negara (Malaysia's National Park).
This picture shows the physiotherapist (Tukang urut) Awang bin Chot, performing the Closing Ceremony,(memutus).
This picture shows a performance of a Healing Song (lagu berobat) called "Dayang Wani", and the drummer in the background providing accompaniment.
A wood beam of adequate length is fixed in a drilling platform, and then bored through patient manual labour. The pipe is trimmed by axe and knife, and finally polished. The bore is smoothed and ground by pulling lengths of rattan through it.
The Penan warrior on the art of shooting with the blowpipe says :-
A 3-tooth Harpoon (serampang) is used for killing fish in the lake. This picture shows Seman bin Samad welding a harpoon.
This picture shows Seman bin Samad showing his son Abu how to make a harpoon.
This picture shows a Canoe (pradu) being made.
and being used on Lake Chini.
For matching sounds, listen to