October 05, 2006

A night with the Orang Asli



My last night in Taman Negara was an unforgettable one: Asri and I went to a small Orang Asli village on the river at dusk. He has known them for several years and when we arrived he asked and received permission from the chief for us to stay the night in the extra hut. The village consisted of several small huts made from, among other things, bamboo, palm leaves and rattan. Each hut has a small fire inside which in most huts people were gathered around. The Orang Asli have their own language but some of the men speak some Malay and therefore could communicate with Asri. This tribe gave Asri the nickname in their language that means "mistake" because of his first attempts at using the blow pipe many years ago. The children seemed rather scared of me and I was getting very strange looks from many of the women. A small group of teenage girls were giggling, watching us from the shadows but would run away shrieking every time Asri tried to talk to them or pointed a flashlight their way. We crouched down near the entrance of one of the huts while Asri distributed cigarettes to the women inside.





I felt like I had just walked into a National Geographic magazine and was uncertain how to feel about it. I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to witness and take part in for a night the daily life of people so different from me but at the same time I didn't know, because of the lack of communication, how they felt about my presence there. We had also arrived at what I think is a very personal time, after dinner and just before bed. Asri kept urging me to take pictures but after a few I put my camera away because I felt far too awkward and didn't want to make anyone else uncomfortable either.





After a short visit with the tribe we went and sat on the sandy river bank. Fireflies were out again and the sky was perfectly clear, the stars were as bright as I've seen them in a long time. The nightly musical performance was once again being put on by the creatures of the jungle. It was all very surreal, the entire night. Amazingly it didn't rain at all that night. It was possibly the first night since I had been in Malaysia that it didn't rain and lucky-- the hut had large holes in the top.

In the morning we woke up early and went back to talk to the people. With the light of day I didn't feel so much like I was imposing and I was also relieved that they seemed comfortable having me as a guest. A young boy gave us a demonstration of how the Orang Asli start a fire and also make blow darts with use of the fire. The man that made the blow dart then let me try my luck with the blow pipe. I was amazed at how far the dart travels and so easily. They sometimes dip the dart in poison and use it to hunt for food, monkeys included.

After saying my thanks to the chief and giving him an offering of money in appreciation for the invitation I was off in a river boat for a journey back to civilization.


Aly with a blow pipe. Beware.