Temuan Gallery

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MEET THE TEMUAN!
Hi, I'm Eddy (pronounced 'Eri')! ~ pic by Antares

The word temuan derives from temu, to meet. It means a crossroads or convergence or a plateau where all faces of a mountain meet. There is every likelihood that the Temuan are actually a synthetic group, a genetic fusion of several aboriginal tribes with Sumatran and Javanese migrants. The Temuan language can be considered the original Negri Malay dialect believed to have been imported from Jambi, southeastern Sumatra - but, bearing in mind that the entire Malay Archipelago was actually a continuous landmass before the rising of the seas, the greater likelihood is that Malay was already a well-established lingua franca in the region. Its Sanskrit derivations probably pre-date the Majapahit Empire of the 13th to 15th centuries. The modern Bahasa used in Indonesia and Malaysia has a grammatical sophistication acquired from more recent Arabic and Anglo-European influences. Despite many unanswered questions surrounding paleo-anthropological research in this region where climatic conditions, political sensitivities, and economic priorities conspire against systematic excavation and the preservation of artifacts, it is difficult not to conclude that the Temuan are indeed the taproot of the Malay race. Their own traditions speak distinctly of their ancestral linkages. A popular Temuan story with many variations tells of two brothers who attended a gathering of the Earth tribes in “the age of grace when humans understood the speech of animals.” On their way home a storm broke and capsized their vessel. Abang (the elder) grabbed his blowpipe before plunging into the raging waves and swimming to shore. Adik (the younger) managed to save only a sacred scroll. But that was enough to give him the upper hand over Abang, who remained a hunter-gatherer while Adik acquired book learning, institutionalized religion, and the ability to write new laws. Adik also recorded in writing many of the original Temuan "bedside stories" featuring archetypal animal characters like Sang Kancil (Mousedeer), Sang Buaya (Crocodile), and Sang Harimau (Tiger) - which read like a tropical version of Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows and have become an important element of mainstream Malay folk culture. v
A T E M U A N G A L L E R Y ~ Photographed by Antares except where indicated