Just back from a trip to some freshwater wetlands. The people here are Semaq Tasek aboriginals who speak a Mon-Khmer language which suggests they were here a long time ago.
Numbering about 2000 souls in scattered communities in the central part of the country, this group have elected to remain on their ancestral land now gazetted as a Ramsar Convention wetlands site and therefore not their land anymore. They want to preserve their way of life asking only for a clinic, electricity and a school all of which they have received from the state thanks to several aid agencies and NGOs such as the Danish DANCED and Wetlands International keeping an eye on the site.
However around the site, the rapacious oil palm barons (who are British too, Ive found out) and conniving government officials have steadily allowed the forest to be cut back and while there is enough forest for tourists there isnt for the large mammals to range so these are very threatened.
Anyway rant over. The place still has a lot to offer since there are no tourists in evidence.
(BTW I have included some extra comments and detail that may seem gratuitous or strange. It is for the members on BCUK 08 who might come here so they know what to expect)
One of the forest products that they gather is keruing oil which they get from a tree. It is not a tar or a resin but an oil and stays in that form. It is used for varnishing musical instruments, caulking boats and for torches. The trees are owned by families and this one has been owned through at least three generations. The way they do it is unique in my experience a tree furnace that does not kill the tree and can be used repeatedly for a 100 years or more.
The fire seems to leap out to attack him
The oil will drip for about a week when it can be collected. The tree can be flamed again in another week
On the way a leech attached itself to my friends leg. Stem had just told us about the iodine tree because of the colour of its sap and its use to stop bleeding.
So we put it to the test as leech bites really bleed as an anti-coagulant is injected. Like this after nearly two hours.
Well it worked in seconds. He has a great knowledge of herbs and plants and with UNDP advice and help set up his jungle herb garden
In the modern world we now use a process based on modified plant starches in cardiac and vascular surgery. By the way Do you think a styptic pencil is a good item to carry in a bush crafters kit,?
He also showed us how he improvises a ladle from a pallas palm leaf
There are several communities around the lake and huts vary from traditional bark and attap to sawn timber and bark hybrids and, sadly, even concrete in the main settlement.
The traditional ones using meranti bark can last for many years. This is a meranti bark wall panel in profile
They have the benefit of being cool unlike concrete and have bamboo slats for flooring.
These ladders look pretty solid and durable. No nail construction.
Going around the lake is great fun whether in a skiff or a dugout canoe.
The dugouts were quite easy to handle.
They glided through the narrow channels easily and slid over obstacles as they had a 5 inch draught and their weight pressed the obstacles down. A long sleeved shirt and a wide brim hat is advisable in narrow channels but as long as the rasau leaf brushes from base to tip over your skin you are fine. The opposite of the nanti sikit (wait a while).
I loved the dugouts and will hire one for a few days to paddle myself around the lake and either camp or stay at a fishing/hunting lodge like this. Hiring is reasonable as you are depriving them of its use.
It looks very similar to this one from the last century.
If you go in without a guide, it is advisable to take a GPS. The current flows North. When the current is not obvious the angle of the sedges indicate the direction of flow. Burnt patches of rasau are close to the main channel but not always and the correct route can follow the narrowest channel or no channel!. Rasau means deeper water, sedge shallow.
Water bird life is a bit hard to see due to the sedge and rasau ( a pandanus). There are several reptiles which move in it monitor lizards, terrapins, pythons and the false gharial (crocodile) which is probably best spotted at night.
These poor souls ended up in the pot.
They did not taste as nice as the labi-labi the freshwater turtle.
The following day I finally got my chance to have a go at making a dugout. Pitok, had just started making one. To the left you can see the spuds used to debark the tree and the levers and braces used to roll it out of the bark. A wedge is visible to the right.
It was my first go with an adze and Pitok said to the boatman that he could make me into competent user of the adze in a week (I am taking that as a compliment). It seems its about taking layers off in long even strips not wild gouging and chipping. Sort of like super large feather sticks. No doubt there are finer skills but that seems to be the basis.
Pitok is not working on it full time so I have arranged to go down to give him a hand and do my apprenticeship with him. After watching him maybe I can try and make one all by myself but that means making an adze and other tools first. A real bushcraft course. He is happy for company as graveyards are not good places to the Semelai and they are not keen on ghosts asking them if they want a cuppa tea.
We were in the graveyard as they had earlier felled trees threatening the graves in the wet (and windy)season and nothing goes to waste. They are either animist or Christian. These are temporary graves and the deceased remain with their possessions and can still brew up a cup of tea before settling down in the afterlife.
In due course, permanent graves are made. Men get a simple tic tac toe square while women get more elaborate ones.
A rainy day seemed like the best time to call in on the craft people. . They need the income from visitors as the diminishing forests and lake can no longer fully supply their needs and they can no longer move to another area as there is no where to go. There is lot of evidence that enforced settlement is detrimental culturally and medically but I must not start ranting again
They happily showed us their weavings and blow pipes which they hoped that we would buy but never pressed or even asked us as that would be impolite. It is polite to buy something since they have spent time showing you how things are made. A craft lesson as it were.
The paddle maker Rahim surprised me by showing me a long length of temiang bamboo which he was making into a blowpipe. I surprised him by telling him how it could be used to make fire. Not even the old people knew about this which seems to be the case in mainland Asia, the bamboo strike-a-light seemingly being an island skill.
We then talked and played with our fire pistons but that is another subject for a post.
Lunch was not tortoises thankfully but rice in pitcher plants (Survival tip: water in Nepenthes gracilis is pure rainwater. If the lid pops open its good) Those species of Pitcher that do not have lids often seem to have bugs or debris in it and have a film on the water to change the surface tension. This is not so pleasant sometimes. We ate these with cassava shoots and kampong chicken).
This is a good place for a student of traditional bushcraft like me to learn more about plants and their uses e.g. the anti-inflammatory and anti-biotic plants for poultices bandages etc as well as the making of dugout canoes and fire pistons. The forest is not as good as what I am used to but their skills are pretty intact since they decided to try and preserve their culture by shunning Islam and taking only what they need from the modern world.
I shall return in the new year.
Numbering about 2000 souls in scattered communities in the central part of the country, this group have elected to remain on their ancestral land now gazetted as a Ramsar Convention wetlands site and therefore not their land anymore. They want to preserve their way of life asking only for a clinic, electricity and a school all of which they have received from the state thanks to several aid agencies and NGOs such as the Danish DANCED and Wetlands International keeping an eye on the site.
However around the site, the rapacious oil palm barons (who are British too, Ive found out) and conniving government officials have steadily allowed the forest to be cut back and while there is enough forest for tourists there isnt for the large mammals to range so these are very threatened.
Anyway rant over. The place still has a lot to offer since there are no tourists in evidence.
(BTW I have included some extra comments and detail that may seem gratuitous or strange. It is for the members on BCUK 08 who might come here so they know what to expect)
One of the forest products that they gather is keruing oil which they get from a tree. It is not a tar or a resin but an oil and stays in that form. It is used for varnishing musical instruments, caulking boats and for torches. The trees are owned by families and this one has been owned through at least three generations. The way they do it is unique in my experience a tree furnace that does not kill the tree and can be used repeatedly for a 100 years or more.
The fire seems to leap out to attack him
The oil will drip for about a week when it can be collected. The tree can be flamed again in another week
On the way a leech attached itself to my friends leg. Stem had just told us about the iodine tree because of the colour of its sap and its use to stop bleeding.
So we put it to the test as leech bites really bleed as an anti-coagulant is injected. Like this after nearly two hours.
Well it worked in seconds. He has a great knowledge of herbs and plants and with UNDP advice and help set up his jungle herb garden
In the modern world we now use a process based on modified plant starches in cardiac and vascular surgery. By the way Do you think a styptic pencil is a good item to carry in a bush crafters kit,?
He also showed us how he improvises a ladle from a pallas palm leaf
There are several communities around the lake and huts vary from traditional bark and attap to sawn timber and bark hybrids and, sadly, even concrete in the main settlement.
The traditional ones using meranti bark can last for many years. This is a meranti bark wall panel in profile
They have the benefit of being cool unlike concrete and have bamboo slats for flooring.
These ladders look pretty solid and durable. No nail construction.
Going around the lake is great fun whether in a skiff or a dugout canoe.
The dugouts were quite easy to handle.
They glided through the narrow channels easily and slid over obstacles as they had a 5 inch draught and their weight pressed the obstacles down. A long sleeved shirt and a wide brim hat is advisable in narrow channels but as long as the rasau leaf brushes from base to tip over your skin you are fine. The opposite of the nanti sikit (wait a while).
I loved the dugouts and will hire one for a few days to paddle myself around the lake and either camp or stay at a fishing/hunting lodge like this. Hiring is reasonable as you are depriving them of its use.
It looks very similar to this one from the last century.
If you go in without a guide, it is advisable to take a GPS. The current flows North. When the current is not obvious the angle of the sedges indicate the direction of flow. Burnt patches of rasau are close to the main channel but not always and the correct route can follow the narrowest channel or no channel!. Rasau means deeper water, sedge shallow.
Water bird life is a bit hard to see due to the sedge and rasau ( a pandanus). There are several reptiles which move in it monitor lizards, terrapins, pythons and the false gharial (crocodile) which is probably best spotted at night.
These poor souls ended up in the pot.
They did not taste as nice as the labi-labi the freshwater turtle.
The following day I finally got my chance to have a go at making a dugout. Pitok, had just started making one. To the left you can see the spuds used to debark the tree and the levers and braces used to roll it out of the bark. A wedge is visible to the right.
It was my first go with an adze and Pitok said to the boatman that he could make me into competent user of the adze in a week (I am taking that as a compliment). It seems its about taking layers off in long even strips not wild gouging and chipping. Sort of like super large feather sticks. No doubt there are finer skills but that seems to be the basis.
Pitok is not working on it full time so I have arranged to go down to give him a hand and do my apprenticeship with him. After watching him maybe I can try and make one all by myself but that means making an adze and other tools first. A real bushcraft course. He is happy for company as graveyards are not good places to the Semelai and they are not keen on ghosts asking them if they want a cuppa tea.
We were in the graveyard as they had earlier felled trees threatening the graves in the wet (and windy)season and nothing goes to waste. They are either animist or Christian. These are temporary graves and the deceased remain with their possessions and can still brew up a cup of tea before settling down in the afterlife.
In due course, permanent graves are made. Men get a simple tic tac toe square while women get more elaborate ones.
A rainy day seemed like the best time to call in on the craft people. . They need the income from visitors as the diminishing forests and lake can no longer fully supply their needs and they can no longer move to another area as there is no where to go. There is lot of evidence that enforced settlement is detrimental culturally and medically but I must not start ranting again
They happily showed us their weavings and blow pipes which they hoped that we would buy but never pressed or even asked us as that would be impolite. It is polite to buy something since they have spent time showing you how things are made. A craft lesson as it were.
The paddle maker Rahim surprised me by showing me a long length of temiang bamboo which he was making into a blowpipe. I surprised him by telling him how it could be used to make fire. Not even the old people knew about this which seems to be the case in mainland Asia, the bamboo strike-a-light seemingly being an island skill.
We then talked and played with our fire pistons but that is another subject for a post.
Lunch was not tortoises thankfully but rice in pitcher plants (Survival tip: water in Nepenthes gracilis is pure rainwater. If the lid pops open its good) Those species of Pitcher that do not have lids often seem to have bugs or debris in it and have a film on the water to change the surface tension. This is not so pleasant sometimes. We ate these with cassava shoots and kampong chicken).
This is a good place for a student of traditional bushcraft like me to learn more about plants and their uses e.g. the anti-inflammatory and anti-biotic plants for poultices bandages etc as well as the making of dugout canoes and fire pistons. The forest is not as good as what I am used to but their skills are pretty intact since they decided to try and preserve their culture by shunning Islam and taking only what they need from the modern world.
I shall return in the new year.
