Tanjak (headdress)
[Chan et al. interview]
- Headdress made from woven mengkuang (Pandanus amaryllifolius) or nipah (Nypa fruticans) leaves
- Worn for ceremonial purposes and to differentiate themselves from other Orang Asli groups
- The village head Pak Ketuak (in Malay batin) wears one that is taller
- In the past, there were no symbols of power, the headman was simply chosen and known for his skills in fishing, leadership or magic
- [Juma’at, 2017]
- headdress is also called a tengkolok, woven using mengkuang
- usually worn during performances and dances
- In the past, only the batin wears the headgear and sash, sometimes the married couple as well
- But now it is put on important guests who visit their village or guests during ceremonies
- This is to show respect to the guests
- the guests are supposed to receive the respect and only take it off after the end of the event
- Nowadays, the young and old wear the headgear as a sign of their identity
- [Amir and Hamid 2014]
- A tanjak, selempang (sash) and waistband is usually used by Orang Seletar when they have some guests during dancing ceremonies (see Songs and Dance).
- There are differences between headbands used by the head (batin) and the rest of the community. The size of the headband for the batin is larger and higher than a headband used by the common people.
- It shows the credibility and integrity as a leader in the community
[Cai 2020] On wearing the headdresses during court cases
- As a form of spectacle, the headdresses not only function as an expression of indigenous pride and political assertiveness but also serve as a visual symbol evoking the Western ideological imagination of exoticism and primitivism. They celebrate Orang Seletar culture and society as antithetical to the ‘Western’, bureaucratic, capitalist model of civilisation and modernity represented by the entourage of defendants (Conklin and Graham 1995; Conklin 1997). However, such essentialization and self-essentialization of the Orang Seletar people as ‘ecologically noble savages’ (Redford 1990), although involving an inversion of the historically pervasive idea of native populations as ‘primitive’, nevertheless reproduce and reinforce the colonial construction of indigenous people as an inferior race relative to white Europeans. While such performances of indigeneity speak to the notion of ‘survivance’ (Vizenor 1999), indigenous people often need to be exoticized as primitive and underdeveloped to advance their advocacy, a concept that Bateson (1956 quoted in Kallen 2015) considers as a ‘double-bind’, which can misrepresent their priorities and compromise indigenous self-determination and agency (Conklin and Graham 1995; Kirsch 2007; Stoler 2016).
Items used for incantation
- Lime, betel leaves, and lemongrass are used for incantation of ilmu pengasih (love spell), see Rituals
- Items used as pengeras (compensation): plum/tamarind (asam), salt, needle and some money (for details see Rituals)
- The offerings for membuang ancak include: pulut kuning (yellow glutinous rice), pulut putih (white glutinous rice), pulut merah (red glutinous rice), kuih tepung (rice cake) and burning incense (for details see Rituals)
Clothing
[Juma’at, 2017]
- When living on houseboats in the 19th century they were depicted as being messy haired and clothes made from barks of the kempas trees, or loincloth made from nyirih for the men
- The loin cloth covers from their belly button, and the front is long until the knees
- The women wore only kain sarung
- For the kids, they were naked and only wore clothes when they are of age
Today, the Orang Seletar wear clothes seen in the mainstream community, with shirts, blouses, dresses, trousers, shorts etc. The women sometimes wear sarung or baju kurung
- Only wear shoes when they go into town
Pancak (spears)
Fish spears
[Thomson 1847] (may not be the same type of spear)
- Fishing spears and parang were said to have been the only implements they possessed
[Sather, 1999, p. 19]
- Spears, once a primary means of fish capture, are used today mainly as an ancillary method to catch fish for family consumption
[Juma’at 2017]
- Pancak Ibul (Fishing spear), made from hard ibul wood (a type of palm tree)
- Amir and Hamid 2014: To make an ibul spear, the bark is removed by a knife. Then, the wood is put near on open fire to get a straight and strong stick. After that, the ends of the wood need to be sharpened until it looks like an arrow shape.
- Each family keeps at least one in the roof of their boats (when they were living on boats in the past)
- Used for fishing as well as self defense
- A spell is cast over the spear
- Anyone who puts it on the ground or steps on it might be struck with illness
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- Fish spear is a tool which is usually used in catching fish by diving (more details see Fishing and Hunting and other Economic activities)
- It consists of 2 main parts; a shaft and pointed head. The head is made from a single iron blade which needs to be sharpened and shaped until sharp. And it also can be shaped like arrows.
- The shaft is made from wooden sticks which can’t sink in the water. This wood is called kayu mang.
- The length of the shaft is about 135-140cm
- The bark needs to be removed by a knife. Then, the spike would be fastened to the shaft using a nylon string. In the past, they used rattan instead of nylon string.
Spears for land animals
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- To hunt wild boars, the Orang Seletar use a spear known as pancak isuum (isum=pig). Formerly, the spear is made from wood known as kayu bais. Kayu bais has a very thick and strong trunk.
- Orang Seletar believe that kayu bais is guarded by some spirit. Therefore, they must ask for permission first before cutting off the tree to get the wood. However, due to the difficulty to find kayu bais nowadays, Orang Seletar usually replace it by using nibong wood.
- pancak ibul (see above Juma’at’s point)
- To make spear from nibong wood, its trunk needs to be cut off into 2 by using a hammer and chisel. The bark needs to be removed by using a knife. The ends of wood needs to be sharpen until it looks like an arrow shape.
- There are several types of spears from nibong:
- Tombak comprised of one spike, it is about 217 cm long and 3 cm wide
- wit which is also known as pancak 3 mata has 3 spikes. It is 211 cm long and 3 cm wide
- tembung has 2 spikes. It is 118 cm long and 4 cm wide.
- There are several types of spears from nibong:
Serampang (harpoon)
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- There are 2 types of Orang Seletar harpoons, which are serampang 2 mata and serampang 3 mata.
- The process to make harpoon is similar to a fish spear. To make serampang 2 mata, 2 sticks of iron are needed and they need to be shaped until sharp. After that, they are fastened to a handle using rattan.
- Meanwhile for serampang 3 mata, it needs 3 iron sticks shaped like arrows. A handle is usually made from the kayu mang which doesn’t sink in the water.
Kait (hooked tools)
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- Kait kucci is a small and simple tool that is used to catch molluscs known as kucci (or kunci). Kucci usually inhabit in muddy areas.
- Kait kucci is made from an iron that is shaped like a hook and is attached to its handle.
- Meanwhile kait ibau, is used to collect mollusc known as ibau (salt water mussel). It is made from a branch of a mangrove tree that has a shape like a T shape.
- Pengait ketam is used to collect crab in the mangrove area. It comprises of an iron hook and a handle. The hook looks like an L shape. That hook is attached to the handle and tied by rattan (see Fishing and Hunting and other Economic activities for details on crab catching)
Nets
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- Bento ketam is a tool that comprises of a square net made from rough thread. Its size is about ½ meter. The net needs to be strung at the 4 corners to 4 sticks of rattans or bamboos. Bento ketam is weighed down by sinkers attached at the corners of the netting. It is used to catch crabs.
- bubu buluh is used to catch fish. It is made from bamboo and tied by rattan.
- net for empang rantau (see Fishing and Hunting and other Economic activities for details). It is made from a net that is used along the sea shores. The size of the net is about 4 meters wide and 0.9 meter long
Kail (fish hook)
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- Kail is made from a wooden or bamboo stick. It has a hook tied at the edge of fishing line.
- Meanwhile an ambor is a simple tool for catching fish. It comprises of a can or bottle, a hook and fishing line. A roll of fishing line would be wound up on a can or a bottle. And the hook is tied at the end of fishing line.
- NOTE: the can or bottle floats on water, and so it can be used to track the location of the fish once hooked to it
Tools for catching shrimps (nets)
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- To catch shrimps, there are 2 tools used by Orang Seletar; sodong udang and sauk udang.
- Sodong udang is made by attaching a net to 2 bamboos or wooden pole and can be operated by only one individual. This tool is used along the sea shore at shallow water
- Sauk udang consists of 2 parts which is a net and a handle. The frame of a net is made from rattan meanwhile the net is made from rough thread. The handle is made from wood or bamboo. It’s usually used when on a boat.
Pau Kajang
pauk = pau (in Malay perahu)
The Orang Seletar used to live on boats. Now they live on land or on the shore in concrete houses or stilted houses. Nowadays, they use boats made from fiber glass, which are much wider, good for moving from place to place and for fishing
[Juma’at, 2017]
- Pau Kajang is a boat made out of several different types of wood, such as timbre and cengal, and a thatched roof from screw pine leaves (mengkuang). There are varying sizes for use if they were to travel further out to sea. This was the “house”, mode of transport and subsistence for the Orang Seletar.
- The boats were made from big, light, wooden logs e.g. wood from kayu pulai and such
- The log is chipped away to make the shape of the perahu and the middle made hollow as deep as possible
- All these were made by hand and simple tools like kapak (axe) and patil (a small pickaxe used for cutting wood)
- The process takes a long time, maybe a month
- about 5 – 6 people, a nuclear family unit, parents, children and pets live in the pau kajang
- two pieces of kajang for one sampan
- the kajang (roof) can be pulled to the back or front during the day or night
- Once a young person is ready to fish and fend for themselves or be married, they can learn to make and live in their pau
- People used to give birth in pau kajangs, sometimes difficult because there were spirits in the water
- Different Orang Laut tribes have distinct pau kajang structures, it is one of the ways to tell apart different Orang Laut tribes
- until 1960s/1970s orang Seletar still lived in sampan berkajang
- Other than their own boats, they also liked to use sampans made from the Malays because those are more cleaner(? I need to check if there is a translation error here)
- For those families who have more than one sampan, the daughter who is already of age usually sleeps in a separate sampan called the sampan tunda (tunda means to be pulled by rope), which is smaller than a *sampan induk (*induk means mother)
- The sampan tunda usually is near the sampan of the head of the family (the sampan induk)
- When the families move together as a group with paddles, the head of the group, the batin, will be at the front of the group followed by other sampans
[Thomson 1848]
- Huddled up in a small boat hardly measuring 20 feet in length, they find all the domestic comfort that they are in want of; at one end is seen the fireplace, in the middle are the few utensils they may be in possession of, and at the other end beneath a kadjang or mat not exceeding six feet in length, is found the sleeping apartment of a family often counting 5 and 6, together with a cat and dog, under this they find shelter from the dews and rains of the night, and the heat of the day
[Sather 1999]
- The increasing economic dependence of the Oragn Seletar upon the Chinese who came eventually to own even the houseboats in which they lived
[Jamilah Ariffin 2014, p. 142-143]
- Although called the sea gypsies or Orang Laut, the Orang Seletar community lived in close proximity to land. They never dared to venture too far out into the open sea for fear of the onslaught from violent waves, storms and hurricanes that their small houseboats called perahu berkajang could not endure. Their fragile dugouts were made from huge but lightweight tree trunks like kayu pulai (pulai wood) which they hollowed out using very rudimentary tools such as axes and patil (a small axe for cutting wood).
- Usually these houseboats measured about eighteen to twenty feet long, with attached roofs weaved from rembia and nipah leaves that were sewn together using instruments made of sharpened bits of bamboo and threads from dried tree barks.
- These fragile pau kajang sheltered the Orang Seletar Laut from rain and intense heat but not necessarily from raging winds. This was their home which may comprise of large families of up to seven inhabitants (including their domesticated dogs and other collections such as pet birds).
- As described by other elderly Seletar respondents at one end of this houseboat was the kitchen area, and in the middle, laid a six-foot bunk beneath which were stored their household items such as kitchen utensils, hunting weapons and other worldly possessions.
- The parents and small children slept on this bunk while the rest were scattered all over the boat. And if these sea gypsies decided to move to another area, they would do so in a bigger group led by their Tok Batin who sailed in the first boat. This would be followed by an obedient convoy of the other pau kajang. Then they might migrate again to a new sheltered location, usually at another river mouth.
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- Pauk Yao. This boat is also known as Perahu Kajang. It is the second largest traditional houseboats of Orang Seletar.
- This boat has a roof which is used as a shelter from the dew and rains of the night and heat of the day. This roof is made from mengkuang leaf or pandan leaf and tied by the rattan. It is also called pekajang.
- The size of this boat is 7.3 meters long. It can occupy by 5-6 people. Made from Meranti wood (Shorea spp.) and Seraya wood (Shorea curtisii)
- [Juma’at 2017]: Pauk yau are easy to control
***I suspect “yao” is a variation of “kiau” or “ciau”, the verb to paddle/pole their boats (see more in the Language chapter)
[Ariffin bin Nopiah 1979, p. 23-25]
- The traditional Orang Seletar houseboat (which has now been superceeded by Malay and Chinese built boats) was about 4.5-6 metres long, the hull being hollowed out from a single large tree trunk. The central part of the boat was fitted with floor-boards and roofed with mengkuang (Pandanus sp.) matting, the shelter so formed being open at both ends
- According to Polunin, the Orang Seletar started abandoning their traditional dug-out houseboats between 1948 and 1951 so that, by the time he came to study them in 1951, he could write that “The Orang Seletar now all live around Kuala Redan, Pulai River, in houses”. Polunin gives three reasons why these people abandoned their house-boats: “the fear of breaking the curfew enforced during the Emergency by sleeping in open boats at night, the difficulty of getting sufficiently big tree trunks to make thier dug-out canoes and their increasing dependence on the Chinese, who own the boats they now use
- According to information I gathered at Kampung Simpang Arang (the year 1979), even before the Orang Seletar had entirely abandoned their traditional dugout boats, several people got themselves into the position of renting even traditional-style craft, from the Chinese traders who had set up business among them. These rented boats the Orang Seletar had actually built themselves. This situation arose, I was told, because the Chinese traders would commission the Orang Seletar to build boats for them, paying them cash in advance for doing so. And when a boat was completed, its Chinese owner would proceed to hire it out to its Orang Seletar builders, the latter paying for the use of it against their fish catch which they would sell to the same Chinese traders.
- At the same time, some Chinese traders began to procure plank-built boats made by Malay boatbuilders. These craft, bigger and more stable than the traditional Orang Seletar dugout boats, the Chinese traders would also hire out to the Orang Seletar. And some Seletar were even able to purchase such boats from the Chinese. Later, I was told, the Orang Seletar came to know that they were bering overcharged for such boats, and so several purchased their craft directly from the Malay builders. Today, so far as I know, these plank-built boats have entirely replaced the old dugout ones.
- It was during the Emergency period that they began to abandon their traditional houseboats and, as Polunin writes, to settle at Kuala Redan. There they erected Malay-style wooden plank houses, raised on high wooden piles over the mudflats at the edge of the Pulai River. Thus it was possible for them to bring their boats right up to the side of the houses.
Once upon an island (2023)
- Book containing notes and pictures of polunin published by his grandchildren
- P. 316 the original boats of the orang seletar were dugouts with sides built up with planks. Traditional dugouts were used for transport in the placid lower reaches of the rivers of Malaya. The orang seletar increased the freeboard on their dugouts by planking, raising the gunwales for the rougher waters of the sea
- P.320 by the early 1950s, however, the orang seletar abandoned this form of construction. This was probably due to the lack of surviving forest to provide the building material necessary for these types of boats. Subsequently, they lived in Chinese style sampans. These planked boats are quickly nailed together and, although cheap, do not last long. When the people stayed long enough in one place, they would build small houses on piles with an attap kajang roof and walls, similar to the way they built the shelters on their boats. Early photographs of the Singapore river show it was occupied by large numbers of such boats, usually on trading missions. Some of these orang laut were ferrymen on the island of pulau brani, and their canoes, which are now plank-built, still have a little gabled roof, about four feet long – a vestige of the days when each boat was a home to a family. If you go down to the landing stage late at night to take a boat to pulau brani, you may find a boatman curled up asleep under his little canopy. Similar boats were formerly inhabited by orang laut, who lived at the mouth of the Singapore river. Many orang seletar have given up their itinerant boat-dwelling lifestyles and now live in houses built for them by the Malaysian government, which are a somewhat mixed blessing. Many of their descendants are now absorbed into the Malay population, but they still remember their past. They told me, as it might have been last year, how some ships came to Singapore some time ago and how one of their tribesmen ferried passengers including Tun Raffles, ashore in his canoe. The date must have been 1819, and the occasion was the landing of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. several days later, the British colony of Singapore was founded, which quickly became a centre of trade and a magnet which drew fleets of sailing ships from all over the East.
Pauk Pocai
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- Pauk Pocai is the largest traditional houseboats.
- This boat measurement is 8 meters long and 2 meters wide.
- It can occupy by 8-10 people.
- Made from Meranti wood (Shorea spp.) and Seraya wood (Shorea curtisii)
[Juma’at 2017]
- Pauk Pok Cai are a type of sampan which is wide in the front and in the back
- hard to control, so they don’t like to use this type of boat
Pauk Jolo
[Amir and Hamid 2014]
- This boat is made from a tree trunk which is drilled through the middle. The size of this boat is 5.3 meters x 1 meter
Pets
Jumaat 2017
- Hunting dogs
Siti Omar 2020
- The dogs were efficient locators of mangrove crabs, crocodiles, wild boats and deer.
Polunin (1950s)
- Musang as pets
- Dogs: the breed is mentioned to be a crab hounds
Jamilah Arrifin p. 143
- The Pau kajang was their home which may comprised large families of up to seven inhabitants (including their domesticated dogs and other collections such as pet birds).
Tempayan
Note: The Orang Seletar call the water jar peng (pronounced like the beng in kopi beng ‘ice coffee’ in Hokkien)
Polunin 1950s
- Chinese Tempayan (jars) are also in the boat
Siti Omar 2020
- (when they lived on houseboats) Also have cooking pots, earthern jars to store water
Jewellery
Ivan polunin video (1950s)
- Earrings made from mangrove flowers (bruguiera mangroves flowers)
Amir and Hamid 2014
- Orang Seletar uses seashell as the raw source in the making of a seashell necklaces, seashell bracelet and seashell earring.
- It’s commonly used by dancers
- Nylon string is used to attach the shells by putting it through a hole that has been drilled on the seashells.
- For necklaces, a big seashell is usually used as a locket. But sometimes, they also use a tusk of wild boar as a locket.
- Each of the necklaces have around 20-25 seashells.
Method of production of earring is quite simple. A big seashell would be attached to a small iron that has a shape like a small hook by using strings which have length of 1 cm.
Handicraft
[Juma’at 2017]
- The crafts are based on materials around them
- The skills are passed down generation to generation
- A lot of them are used for daily uses and own decorations
- Mengkuang and pandan are easy to get and is woven to make mats, roofs and boat sails
- The sails produced from sheets of mengkuang which are freshly cut, organized and sewed with thin rattan blades and framed with rattan or a small wooden stick
- Mengkuang is also an important material when they were living on boats because it was used as the shelter berkajang to protect against the rain and the sun
- The woven mengkuang has a close relationship with the orang Seletar since their days in the boats
- Berkajang itself has the meaning of sheets of leaves being arranged neatly or woven as a shelter against the rain and heat
- When the people lived in boats, the mat is not only used for cushioning seats or sleeping spaces, but also used to wrap dead bodies
- Nowadays, the Orang Seletar are less interested in the weaving
- From the thin shaven mengkuang or pandan, they make baskets of various sizes for storing necessities
- The mengkuang woven products become tengkolok (male headgear), selempang (sash) and other accessories, used especially during performances and dances (see above points)
- In Kampung Simpang Arang, some make crafts from newspaper pages or magazines
- According to the Orang Seletar, they like to use pandan leaves to make small baskets, headgears and sashes because they look neat and interesting
- There are still some women in Bakar Batu who are experts in pandan weaving mats
- Given that their livelihood revolves around seafood and sea products, it is easy to obtain materials such as the calm shells or fish scales as craft resources
- In bakar batu, Yang binti Tom (mak batin) does crafts with these shells
- see above section on jewellery
The Seletar Cultural Center in Kampung Sungai Temon does keep some of the tools and objects mentioned.
Orang Seletar Digital Resource 