Jambi's 'children of the forest' come under threat

By Ida Indawati Khouw

BUNGO TEBO, Jambi (JP): Deep in the Sumatran jungle live a people a world away from the hectic cybernetic era.

They call themselves Orang Rimba, the forest people, or Suku Anak Dalam, literally "Tribe of the Inner Children".

They live simply amid the plants and animals which they utilize as their food and for other life necessities. But outsiders are coming into their forest and threatening their ways.

To earn money, the tribe gathers the resinous outer layer of particular rattan fruits used for dye (jernang), turtles (lelabi) and tree resin (damar), in additional to rattan and other seasonal products, and sell them to local traders.

They use spears to hunt animals such as monitor lizards, wild boar, tapirs, deer and other smaller mammals. They fish and catch turtles in rivers.

They move on to other patches of forests when their present one can no longer support them.

They also relocate when there is a death in the tribe and mourning must be observed for an unspecified period (melangun).

Males wear a loincloth or shorts in the forest, and females dress in a sarong and bra. An unmarried girl, who is expected to be a virgin, will wear a shirt.

They adopt more conventional clothes when they venture into the village to sell their products and buy goods such as tobacco, coffee, salt, sugar, batteries and rice. Men will wear trousers, shirts and shoes, and women don dresses or sarongs and shirts.

"We respect villagers who wear cloth, so we get dressed like them when we meet them," said Tampung of Tebo Ulu subdistrict.

He gives the stock answer of all villagers when asked about the way of life: "The forest is our home and we follow our ancestors' way of life."

Tampung, who is in his 50s, and his three wives belong to a group of 40 which also includes two other male family heads, Ujang, in his 60s, who has five wives, and his son who is married to Tampung's daughter.

The families live in semi-permanent wooden huts. They were built by a local timber company which has operated in the area in recent years.

Both Tampung and Ujang complain of having to travel long distances from the site to search for food and forest products.

The camp is built on a site cleared of all vegetation, and these people used to life under a protective forest canopy suffer under the heat.

"It's too hot to stay in the huts," Tampung said.

"We don't mind staying in the huts, as long as they are proper and we are provided with transportation to make it easier in getting food and transporting our forest products," Ujang added.

That is why Tampung chose to live in the traditional shelter, or susudongan, in forest about 200 meters from Ujang's hut.

Tampung constructed the shelter with materials from the forest.

Tree stalks are tied together with vine for scaffolding, and twigs and tree bark are laid out for flooring. Large palm leaves were once used for roofing, but more common today is plastic tarping.

The roof shields them from rain, but there are no walls to keep them from the forest sights and sounds.

It takes them about a week or two to collect forest materials to sell to their trader. They call him "boss" or "toke" and he picks them up and transports them to the village.

Arjuna, one of Ujang's wives, said the traders take advantage of their lack of education. "I know we are being cheated, but we cannot read."

Tampung said they could not leave the forest because it was their life.

But timber companies and transmigrants are moving in on the tribe's land.

They realize the changes, but say they do not mind the newcomers. What is important, however, is that they still have their own patch of forest to live in.

"We do not mind more friends, but if the forest is gone, how will we live?" Ujang said.

The new arrivals, mostly Javanese, are not so friendly. They insult the native people as "dogs" or refer to them as "Kubu", a derogatory term hated by the Suku Anak Dalam.

Talaman, Ujang's son, recounted many occasions when he had braved verbal insults from young and old transmigrants.

He said he once turned on them and insulted them back. As he proudly told his story, his mother scolded him for treating others with such disrespect.

Tampung said he worried about his children's future. He hoped his people would be given land to live on, and that mutual respect would develop with the new residents.

"What we really want is just that our forest will not be cleared," he said.

Early one morning, as the family waited for light to signal the beginning of their day, Tampung drew deeply on a cigarette and stared pensively ahead from the shelter.

He said he was resigned to the fact that his people would be "forced" to give up their way of life to new ways.

"You have seen our way of life: do you think we can live like the ways of the villagers?" he asked.