The Bateq People & Their Ancient Folklores by Ler Wei Rong

Bateq (also spelled Batek) is one of the 18 indigenous tribes in Peninsular Malaysia and among the few that still adhere closely to their traditional lifestyle. They are believed to originate from Papua New Guinea and Indochina about 7,000 – 8,000 years ago. Now, they only reside in three states in Malaysia in the whole world.

Traditionally, the Bateq people live a nomadic lifestyle. They hunt and gather the resources in the forest, and will move to another place when the resources are depleted. They barely plant any crops because that would make them settle down in one place.

For a very long time, Bateq people moved freely in the vast forests of Peninsular Malaysia, but now they are mainly found living inside and in the surroundings of Taman Negara National Park due to land development, logging, and agricultural activities in many parts of the forests.

Their current lifestyle is described as “semi-primitive” in some articles. They don’t move their village as frequently because the forest is now fragmented by development. They may need to travel further before reaching the untouched lands for resources such as rattan, agarwood, dammar, and herbs. Staying at one place in turn allows them to gain income through tourism activities. 

Visiting a Bateq village has nearly become a must-do when traveling to Taman Negara National Park. Tourists, especially those from overseas, are really interested to see what a Bateq village looks like, how they make fire using rattan and wood, and how they hunt using a blowpipe. Perhaps the most interesting part is when the tourists get to shoot the blowpipe darts at a sessile target. Besides that, some villages also produce hand crafts such as short blowpipes, necklaces, and mats for sale.

In recent years, the Malaysian government has been trying to convince the indigenous villages in the region to send their kids to government schools, receiving formal education like the other major races in the country. 

Now, the tribe only enters the forest for resources during the school holidays, or only the adult men will enter the forest during the low season for tourism activities. They will buy other daily necessities such as rice, flour, salt, and cooking oil from nearby towns, using the money they earn from providing tourism services.

Bateq people are known for their curly hair. This makes them easily noticed and recognised in crowds. Besides that, they also have dark skin and round faces, these are the most common descriptions of their appearances. The Bateq people traditionally believe in forces of nature, though some have picked up other religions as time passed. In their traditional beliefs, they never own the land they live on but are its caretakers. 

Therefore, they don’t think they own any private property other than the blowpipes and combs, and the resources gathered by foraging are shared with the entire village. They believe this sharing culture is vital to keep the village in harmony because when one man receives food when he is in lack, he will be ready to share when the other man is out of food. This is truly a value that has been very rare in modern society.

He said, in his early career, he received a lot of complaints because he practised the new words learnt every night, but he understood that he had to go through that hardship so that he could take on more foreign tourist groups in the future. 

According to Kumbang, his late grandfather passed a lot of stories to his late father, and his father did the same with him. Added to his knowledge from being a tour guide and his childhood growing up with the Malay kids near his village, he has gotten multiple in-depth and modern inputs to his stories, making him possibly the only man who can explain his stories in great details using terms and references that are easy to understand for someone coming from town. 

His interview has yielded a lot of details on the Bateq’s belief in the origin of mankind, and the several “invisible clans or tribes” sharing the space with us…

"A zoology graduate exploring different forms of journalism including writing, podcasting, and photography."

- Wei Rong, Malaysia

Artist Notes

This project is inspired by the late Mr. Lim Boo Liat, the Malaysian zoologist who pioneered a lot of studies in the country and wrote a lot of papers and books, including the Orang Asli Animal Tales. The book collected a handful of indigenous folklore on wildlife in Malaysia, many of which are now threatened by extinction but their stories are seldom heard.

Working in an ecosystem conservation foundation, I understand how indigenous tribes around the globe are receiving more and more attention being the communities holding the keys to habitat restoration and sustainable management. This is because they’re born close to nature, their lives rely a lot on nature, and they know their forests and wildlife better than anyone else from the city. 

Animal tales and folklores are the doors that provide a glimpse into their culture, beliefs, and knowledge on nature, which they depend on. I believe this topic suits my level being an amateur journalist.

The journey, however, didn’t turn out smoothly. My initial focus was on animal-related stories, but many of such stories seem to have faded away together with the old folks. Most of the people we talked to, though have reached their 60s, couldn’t recall much of such stories, or only remember very rough ideas, which usually only amount to a few lines. 

They are able to share that wildlife is not enemies and that they’re part of the forest and nature, but those statements are far from being the “story” that I looked for. Finally, on the last evening, we met John Kumbang who can share with me a complete story regarding the origin of mankind and many details about orang bunian and jin tanah. 

However, John’s sharing might not be totally valid. For example, he mentioned that mankind was originally living together at “gunung berapi Indonesia” (volcano of Indonesia), but Indonesia is considered a “modern” term, which shouldn’t have appeared in a story supposedly have been passed down over generations from his ancestors. 

This brings out one question: what defines an “original” story? Without a written and well-kept copy, each story may vary as it is passed from one person to another, moreover generation to generation.

John’s sharing also contradicts with other common beliefs. For the local villagers, orang bunian is a Malay’s belief. No other Bateq people we spoke to mentioned this. Perhaps we can visit them to find out more, or look for research papers that have been published by professionals. However, due to time constraints and not knowing who and where to refer to, my audio recordings reflect what John has shared as completely as possible, without any alteration.

All in all, there is more work to be done to produce a perfect output for my project. Nevertheless, this opportunity has greatly inspired me to find out more not only about the cultures and beliefs of various indigenous tribes in Malaysia, but also my own culture as a Malaysian Chinese. I strongly encourage whoever is curious and would like to learn more about the relationships between humans and nature to take their first step bravely. Who knows? You can be the next Young ASEAN Storyteller.

Special thanks to YAS Coordinator Alcila, Malaysia’s National Focal Point Joyces, tour guides En. Anas and Abang Lan, and my YAS Malaysia buddies Amir and Lavinya for a memorable field trip. Not to forget many other friends and hidden heroes working behind the scenes to make this YAS programme a successful one.

This project is funded by the Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas (BCAMP), Small Grants Programme (SGP) by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, GIZ and ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB).