Food Habits -- Malaysia -- Kelantan. ; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Food.; Terong River (Malay)
The main meal of the day is in the late afternoon or early evening, and usually families eat that meal together. During the rest of the day people eat left-overs and newly obtained food whenever they get hungry. Here a baby is eating honey out of a...
Kota Baharu (Kelantan) -- Maps; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Maps.; Lebir River (Malay)
In the middle 1970s, Batek De lived in temporary camps along many of the low-elevation rivers and streams in the area shaded by diagonal lines. Now the area north of the border of the National Park (Taman Negara) has been logged and turned into...
Beehives -- Malaysia -- Kelantan; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Harvesting.; Aring River (Malay)
The most common species of honeybees in Peninsular Malaysia (Apis dorsata) builds nests that hang below horizontal branches of the tallest forest trees. Some Batek are skilled at climbing the trees, sometimes with the aid of rope ladders made of...
Tuber crops -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Lebir River (Malay)
Much of childrens play is imitation of the serious activities of adults. Children of both sexes learn how to dig tubers by accompanying their mothers on tuber-digging expeditions. Here a little boy (left) digs with a full-sized digging stick, while...
Hunting -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Food.; Lebir River (Malay)
Most meat in the Batek diet comes from arboreal game (monkeys, gibbons, squirrels, etc.) killed by means of blowpipes and poisoned darts. Blowpipes consist of inner and outer tubes of thin-walled bamboo, each tube composed of two lengths of bamboo...
Cookery -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Food.; Lebir River (Malay)
Adolescent boys, sometimes together with girls, often live in separate shelters from their parents and do some of their own cooking. Here some boys are cooking dumplings made from wheat flour obtained by trade.
Palms -- Malaysia -- Kelantan; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Food.; Terong River (Malay)
A readily-available snack food in the rainforest is palm hearts, the soft pith at the center of the stem where new leaves develop. Palm hearts are similar in texture and taste to young celery shoots. Here some boys are snacking on hearts of the...
Plantations -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Oil palm -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Relai River (Malay)
Mature oil palms have now replaced the forest in the Relai River Valley. Here two young men in western dress look over an oil palm plantation where their parents once lived by hunting and gathering in deep rainforest.
Trucks -- Models -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Aring River (Malay)
Batek parents and children often make toys from forest materials, but recently they have been able to buy some toys from traders or shops. Here boys of various ages play with some toy trucks.
Plantations -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Runoff -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Aring River (Malay)
Removal of the rainforest for plantations greatly increased the rate of runoff after thunderstorms, causing the water level of rivers to fluctuate wildly. Here a bridge across the Aring River at the Aring Lima oil palm plantation has become...
Clearcutting -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Burning of land -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Relai River (Malay)
Logging companies were required to cut and burn all remaining vegetation after they had removed the valuable timber, taking the former forest land down to bare earth.
Tree climbing -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Lebir River (Malay)
Climbing trees in or near camp is a favorite recreation for children of both sexes and all ages. Most people become proficient tree-climbers by the time they reach adolescence. Here three young boys climb some small trees.
Fishing -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Implements.; Terong River (Malay)
People of both sexes and all ages fish with hook and line, the most frequent method used for catching fish. The metal hooks and monofilament lines are obtained by trade; the rods are made from the midribs of palm fronds; and the bait is worms or...
Swimming for children -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Terong River (Malay)
Children learn to swim from older children, without adult instruction. Here some young children are jumping off a log into a pool. Parents seldom worry when children are playing in the water.
Blowguns.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Terong River (Malay)
Hunters often spend leisure time making new blowpipe darts. Here two girls (on left) and one boy are making darts. Another boy holds a blowpipe with clay packed around the end. Youngsters like to make balls of clay and shoot them through blowpipes...
Fires -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Lebir River (Malay)
Children learn very young to make fire with smoldering logs, matches, lighters, flint and steel, and rattan and dry wood. Here some young children are starting a fire by sawing a strip of rattan back and forth on a dry stump.
Cookery -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Terong River (Malay)
Children also learn to cook at an early age. Here a group of children have built a fire and are roasting some frogs. Because food is normally shared, each child will probably get a tiny bite.
Decoration and ornament -- Malaysia -- Kelantan. ; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Decoration.; Lebir River (Malay)
This husband and wife wear similar headdresses of flowers and plant stems through their nasal septa. The woman alone has flowers in her pierced ears and white and red lines across her forehead.
Blowguns.; Tourists -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Tembling River (Malay)
Batek living near Taman Negara park headquarters now make miniature blowpipes and dart quivers and darts to sell to tourists. Both men and women engage in this business.
Blowguns.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Hunting.; Lebir River (Malay)
Dart poison kills by stopping the victims heart. It can kill all kinds of monkeys and apes up to the size of pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina), which weigh as much as 30 pounds for a mature male. This is a small dusky leaf monkey (Presbytis...
Decoration and ornament -- Women -- Malaysia -- Kelantan. ; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Decoration.; Lebir River (Malay)
Women and men often decorate themselves just for fun with flowers, leaves, and pigments. This woman has put shredded fragrant leaves (probably from wild gingers [Zingiber spp.]) in her ear holes, a garland of flowers on her head, and has painted a...
Architecture, Domestic -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Dwellings. ; Lebir River (Malay)
Most lean-to shelters consist of a single sloping panel of thatch, which is supported by a horizontal pole on the open front side and falls to the ground in the back. During especially wet weather, triangular side-panels may be added, and low...
Households -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Dwellings.; Lebir River (Malay)
This is a typical camp scenea man resting in his shelter, his son working on his blowpipe, and his grandson blowing on the fire. On the lower left lie three bamboo containers full of tuber slices; a blowpipe leans against the roof; and a metal pot...
Blowguns.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Terong River (Malay)
Both boys and girls practice blowpipe hunting from an early age. These girls have borrowed blowpipes from relatives (without asking) and are shooting at birds near camp. They were unsuccessful, but they had fun.
Textile fabrics -- Malaysia -- Kelantan. ; Terong River (Malay)
By the 1970s, traded cotton cloth and clothing had almost entirely replaced barkcloth garments, but some people still remembered how to make barkcloth by pounding the inner bark of certain tree species into a soft felt. Cloth made from the bark of...
Rafts -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Transportation.; Relai River (Malay)
When moving large amounts of supplies or trade goods, Batek use bamboo rafts whenever possible. This one has a platform to keep the cargo dry and a fire on board (foreground). They propel the rafts by means of wooden poles.
Decoration and ornament -- Women -- Malaysia -- Kelantan. ; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Decoration.; Lebir River (Malay)
When flowers are abundant in the forest, Batek often make them into elaborate body decorations. Here a man and six women and girls wear headdresses of flowers on bark and rattan frames and plant stems through their nasal septa. The women also wear...
Rice -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Agriculture.; Lebir River (Malay)
Here is dry rice growing in a hillside swidden. Weeds are already starting to encroach on the lower edge of the field. In this instance, wild pigs, monkeys, and birds ate most of the rice before it could be harvested, always a risk when farming in...
Beehives -- Malaysia -- Kelantan; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Harvesting.; Aring River (Malay)
During the day before attacking a bees nest, the work party assembles its equipment near the bee tree. Here one man tends the fire, while another ties together lengths of rattan to form the line that will be used to lower the bees nest. To the left...
Clearcutting -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Sawmills -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Aring River (Malay)
Some crude sawmills were set up near the source of the trees to saw logs into rough planks. This is the log dump at one such sawmill with a pile of scrap wood in the foreground.
Clearcutting -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Oil palm -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Relai River (Malay)
After all vegetation was removed from the land, plantation contractors bulldozed horizontal terraces around the hills to provide level bases for rows of oil palm trees. Some terraces can be seen in the background.
Households -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Dwellings.; Pertang River (Malay)
Batek now build semi-permanent Malay-style houses like this at basecamps. They typically alternate between living in basecamps and in temporary camps in the forest.
Weaving -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Social life and customs.; Terong River (Malay)
Weaving pandanus leaf sleeping mats and baskets is a specialty of women, but occasionally men also join in. Here a man helps his mother work on a sleeping mat.
Bathing customs -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- childhood and youth.; Terong River (Malay)
Men also attend to the daily needs of their children. Here a man bathes his young daughter (whose head is mostly shaven) and an older son. The son was afflicted with spinal tuberculosis. In later years his father had to carry him from camp to camp...
Cookery -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Hunting.; Koh River (Malay)
Besides arboreal animals, Batek pursue several animals that live in holes in trees or in the ground, including bamboo rats (Rhizomys sumatrensis), scaly anteaters (Manis javanica), and porcupines (Hystrix brachyura, Atherurus macrourus). Here a man...
Child care -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- family relationships.; Aring River (Malay)
Men often care for their young children while in camp. Here a man carries his baby while discussing business with a Batek man and a Malay trader (center).
Fruit trees -- Malaysia -- Kelantan.; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Harvesting.; Lebir River (Malay)
Groves of durian fruit trees (Durio spp.)a highly esteemed fruit throughout Southeast Asiaremained at the sites of former Malay villages along the Lebir River in the 1970s. (The government resettled the villagers on the lower Lebir in the late...
Rattan Palms -- Malaysia -- Kelantan. ; Batek (Malaysian people) -- Harvesting.; Koh River (Malay)
Thick species of rattan (Calamus manan, Calamus ornatus) are in demand for making walking canes and furniture frames. These species cling so firmly to the treetops, the vines cannot simply be pulled down. Here a young man climbs the tree supporting...
