BACHELOR IN SCINENCE (ARCHITCTURE) DEGREE Y1 SEM2 – MAR 14

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

INDIVIDUAL ESSAY – YAP ZHI JUN 0310738

Rainforest and Orang Asli

We need roads, pulp for making paper, land for agriculture, wood for timber, extraction of minerals and energy and many more. All these activities require eradication of forest land that is deforestation. Deforestation is getting serious nowadays, people cutting down trees illegally and without planning. Deforestation causes many bad effects like soil erosion, flooding, increases of greenhouse gases, loss of habitat and so on. Deforestation not only give bad impact to the environment but also people, especially indigenous people. As large amount of forests are cleared away, the climate change and the habitats of innumerable species to be destroyed, the indigenous tribes who depend on them to sustain their way of life are also irreparably damages.

Indigenous people have been living in harmony in rainforest for thousands of years, depending on it for food, shelter and medicines. In Taman Negara, Jerantut, there are around 200 Orang Asli who are allowed to live in there. The Orang Asli are members of the Batek tribe. The Batek people are one of the Negrito tribes and have similarities to people form the Andaman Islands, the Philipines, Indonesia and New Guinea. Originally, the Orang Asli were nomadic, moving around the park gathering natural resources, relying just on the forest to meet all of their needs. Today they live in a small established villages. I think that they try to put their villages close to the tourist areas because visits by tourists have become a source of income. In addition, they make some income by harvesting timber and by selling good to tourists. They use this money to buy supplies, such as rice, so that they no longer live exclusively off of forest products.

Once I reached the Orang Asli village, I saw rectangular huts built parallel to the river in a sandy, man-made clearing. I think the huts are built parallel to the river to encourage air movement beneath the building. From what I noticed, the structure of the hut is made from assorted hardwood branches lashed together, while the walls are bamboo. All the roofs are constructed in ‘atap’, traditional leaf thatching. Batek women who are taught to weave from an early age make all the roofs while the men make the hut.  Rainforest is important for the Orang Asli because this is the only place that they can find materials to build a shelter for themselves.

I wonder how the Orang Asli can survived in the jungle. After the explanation from the tour guide, I finally understand how the Orang Asli live with the nature. Taman Negara, Jerantut is a tropical rainforest which is rich with flora and fauna. The forest acts as ‘supermarket’ for the Orang Asli because of its variety of flora and fauna which are the main sources of food and material of tools and house for them.

In the Orang Asli community, they move according to seasonal food requirements or someone is passed away. Men responsible to hunt while the women fishing and collect forest fruits and vegetables. The Batek usually hunt those animal living above ground such as birds, squirrels and monkeys because they are cleaner. The Orang Asli use many different types of hunting weapons that are basically made of materials available around them.  The weapons include blow-pipes, spears and traps. This was the first time I watched how the Orang Asli hunt animals using blowpipes. The blow-pipe is made up of two layers of bamboo, one for the layer and one for the casing.  The blowing point can be made of wood or the beak of a hornbill.  Both the blowing point and the body of the blow-pipe are usually decorated with

attractive designs.  The 'traditional bullets' used together with the blow-pipe are soaked in poison extracted a kind of plat called 'Streyehros Ganus'.

Marriage happens within the Batek tribe. All men need to perfect the art of making blowpipe- their weapon for hunting. Besides, they also need to know how to make fire with the help of bamboo plank. Orang Asli use the most primitive way to produce fire- friction fire method.They use bamboo fire saw method which is sawing a strip of rattan back and forth on a bamboo plank. The friction produced heat which can ignite fire. What I learnt from them is they know how to be independent in searching for their food resources, protecting themselves and solving everyday life problems with the creativity of using materials around them. I think we have to learn from them, always be independent to find solution to solve problems but not complain and not solving problems.

The rainforest and all of its inhabitants must be protected because we have no right to destroy it. If almost 2 million indigenous people could live in the jungle for at least 15,000 years without having a significant negative impact to the environment, without annihilating the rainforest completely, how have we depleted the rainforest so greatly in a few hundred years? We should learn from these people, not attempt to assimilate them into our culture because we think it is the appropriate one for all humans. Without the tropical rainforests, we lose not only the biodiversity of species that they hold, but we also lose the diversity of the people that inhabit it.

We must save the rainforest for every living plant and animal species within it, not to save ourselves or to pat ourselves on the back for making those savages see the light before they destroyed all their rainforest, but for the rainforest itself. If the rainforests, tropical and temperate are allowed to be annihilated throughout the world, we will lose so much we never even understood and we will have killed all of those in the process who did understand it that we never bothered to listen to.

Left : The simpais on the tip of the blowpipe give it weight for a more accurate shot.

Center: The bamboo chamber that stores the darts.

Right : Some carvings made on the bamboo blowpipe.

Left : Rubbing of rattan on a bamboo plank.

Right : Smoke is produce by blowing.