ETHNOBIOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE; TEMUAN, KANAQ

AND SELETAR IN JOHOR, MALAYSIA

STUDENTS/RESEARCHERS INVOLVE;

1. FATIN FARISHA BINTI MOHD JAMIL

2. SITI NOR ASHIKIN BINTI MAT ZIN
3. NURUL AMALINA BINTI ROSLI
4. NOR ADILA BINTI AHMAD
5. NUR ADIBAH BINTI HASSAN
6. AMIRAH BINTI MOHD SARIF
7. NOOR HAMIZAH BINTI ISMAIL
8. NOOR EZZATY BINTI ABDUL KARIM
9. AISHA EMELIA BINTI HAMDI
1.0 INTRODUCTION

TEMUAN PEOPLE

The Temuan people are the third largest tribe of the eighteen Orang Asli (indigenous
people) groups living in Peninsular Malaysia. The government categorizes them under the
Proto-Malay (Melayu Asli) subgroup. There are approximately 29,000 temuan people
distributed in western of Peninsula Malaysia and villages (between 50 to 500 people) are
found on the lowland valleys of districts in the states of Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang,
Selangor, and Johor. They are physically similar to Malay people and they speak in Temuan
language, an Austronesian language which are closely related to Malay. Most of the
community are animist and they believe in spirits and that their God and ancestors are always
present with them, guarding their safety. They also believe that every places, rivers and
oceans in this word has its guardian. However, in present day, several of the communities
converted to either Islam or Christianity.

SELETAR PEOPLE

The Seletar People are one of the eighteen Orang Asli (indigenous people) living in
Peninsula Malaysia and they are from the subgroup of Proto-Malay (or Melayu Asli). They
are also considers as part of the Sea Gypsies (or Orang Laut), natives of the Straits of Johor
(which separating Singapore from Peninsula Malaysia). Originally from the Spice Islands in
Indonesia, five hundred years ago they roamed the Straits of Malacca in bands, raiding,
burning, and pillaging. They were the old pirates of South East Asia. The Seletar People have
settled down in the states of Johor and Selangor. They no longer live in boats but in huts built
on water. In some places, they live in houses built on land. There are about 1,800 of Seletar
people in Malaysia’s population and about 3,100 in the World’s population which can be
found in Malaysia and Singapore. They speak in the Orang Seletar language, which belongs
to the Malay group of Austronesian languages. Most of Seletar People are animist but some
converted to Islam or Christianity. Many Orang Seletar worship spiritual beings believed to
dwell in the coastal areas and in the depths of the sea. In contrast, death and illness are bound
to the land. They go ashore to heal the sick or to bury their dead.
ETHNOBIOLOGY

Ethnobiology is the study of the biological knowledge of particular ethnic groups –

cultural knowledge about plants and animals and their interrelationships – Anderson et al.,
2011. It is the study of how an ethnic group interact with and uses plants and animals in their
daily lives for example for foods, medicine, and transportation. In this case, we are going to
do research regarding the traditional knowledge (TK) of Seletar and Temuan people in the
usage of the plants and animals in their community.

2.0 OBJECTIVE

To document the Traditional Knowledge (TK) of the indigenous people; Seletar and Temuan
people regarding the plants and animals used by their community.

3.0 SIGNIFICANT STUDY

The study of ethnobiology is of great importance for the aid it gives to a proper
understanding of the interrelations of all the several traits and of the whole material and
intellectual culture of a people in its entirety. Without the light afforded by ethnobotany an
investigator may easily go far astray in interpreting his observations. Ethnobotanical study
not only prevents misapprehension and misrepresentation of observed facts, but is positively
necessary in many instances to the correct diagnosis and explanation of ethnological facts, of
the symbolism of objects used, and the significance of allusions in the text embodied in
ceremonial ritual.

The study is importance for the purpose of documentation of traditional knowledge

and to conserve the wild plants biodiversity. This study provide greater contribution to
provide a list of the useful knowledge from the study area also including the evaluation data
about the importance of the knowledge. This studies aims to contribute for conservation
purpose of the local knowledge for future generation, to make it accessible for related
projects. This documentation purpose intends to provide a reliable basis for future
ethnobotanical research in the region and to identify promising target for associated studies.

Apart from that, traditional knowledge are valuable cultural heritage, and can lay an
important role in revitalizing local identity and traditions. So, this study indirectly help to
preserve our cultural national heritage. Traditional knowledge usually include diversity of
living things and it could lead the management of our biodiversity and the in situ
conservation of these biodiversity offers sociocultural, economic, and ecological benefits to
local communities and to societies This research study can contributed to become part of the
references for those industrial development or sustainable conservation of the ecosystem.
This could generated greater economic income for our country. Therefore, ethnobiological
field research for documentation of this traditional knowledge is of great importance in
providing insight into our biodiversity which must be identified and preserved.

4.0 METHODOLOGY

STUDY SITES

1. Gunung Ledang, Johor –Kampung Air Tawas, Kampung Tanah Gembur, Kampung
Sungai Mering

FIGURE 1 shows the map of study area in Gunung Ledang

The

research study will be held in Kampung Orang Asli Temuan Air Tawas, Kampung Tanah
Gembur, and Kampung Sungai Mering for the interview session with the indigenous people,
and also in Taman Negara Johor Gunung Ledang for the sampling of specimens. Taman
Negara Johor Gunung Ledang located in Tangkak District, Johor, Malaysia (2.3733° N,
102.6078° E) about 30 km from the town of Muar. The summit is located between the border
of Muar and Malacca. With the height of 1,276 metres, Gunung Ledang is the highest
mountain in southern Peninsular of Malaysia and the size of the park is 8,611 hectares. This
mountain commenced its operations in July 2003 and had been gazetted as a Johor National
Park on 3 October 2005.
 The topography of the Gunung Ledang National Park, Johor that covers a large area of
land provides a diversity of natural habitat and rich with its flora and fauna species. Starting
from its flat land to the peak of the mountain area, the forest contained various vegetation
such as timber trees, herb plants and diversity of flowering plants. Some of the plants that
have been an attraction to the visitors in the forest which are Orchid (Orchidacea), pitcher
plant (Nepenthes sp.), Paphiopedilum barbatum sp., and Rhododendiron sp. There are also
various endangered and protected species lives in Gunung Ledang especially the endemic
species such as Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni), Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus),
and others.

2. Kota Tinggi, Johor – Kampung Johor Lama and Kampung Mawai (Felda Air Tawar)

FIGURE 1 shows the map of study area in Kampung Johor Lama

Kampong Johor Lama are located near the river

bank of Sungai Johor (1° 35' 10N, 104° 0' 49E) in Kota Tinggi District, Johor Malaysia. The
nearest town to Kampung Johor Lama is Teluk Senget about 20 minutes by car, which sits
near the mouth of Sungai Johor, facing the South Chinese Sea and it is located about 27 km
from Kota Tinggi and 73 km from Johor Baharu. Kampung Johor Lama is a village with a
primary school, a mosque, a museum called the Old Johor Museum and here are also
homestay homes run by villagers. Kampung Johor Lama is also equipped with a variety of
basic amenities. The main activity of the villagers is to catch fish that can be seen by the
existence of 3 fisheries jetty seen on the banks of Sungai Johor along this village.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

Participatory Rural Appraisal is a multidisciplinary approach method which include collective

data from different sources (secondary data). Local peoples as participants and not as
research subjects and the method involve in research design, data collection, results’ analysis
and discussion on how the data benefited the locals in return. PRA method also include
qualitative measurement, not quantitative only and with basic statistics to interpret results.

1) Interview Session and Botanical Collection

The survey method will be guided by the semi-structured questionnaire where it will be used
to gather information. The questionnaire must include local name, part of the plant use,
traditional uses, traditional preparation, method of administration and others (i.e.
Contraindications, etc.). Informal conversation will be applied to the informants for them to
elucidate information conveniently. Field note will be used for the plants identification and
also to write down any useful information such as details appearance of the plants in the field
when following the informant to collect the plant specimens. The interview session will be
recorded using voice recorder as a reference when doing the data analysis. The according
plants will be collected with permission from the informant whether in Gunung Ledang or
within their village with appropriate tagging and the whole or part of the plants will be taken
the photograph. All the important parts of the plant for example flower and/or fruit will be
collected if any as it is usually critical for identification. With smaller plants, such as grasses,
rushes, sedges, irises and lilies, the whole plants will be collected (or a number of entire
plants) including underground parts (i.e. bulbs, corms, rhizomes) still attached to aerial parts
of plant.

2) Preparation of Herbarium Specimen

There are two main elements to a voucher specimen: the label and the specimen itself. The
information recorded on the label is as important as the specimen. Even though a specimen
may have been well collected and carefully prepared, it will be of negligible scientific value,
and in some cases impossible to confidently identify, unless accompanied by basic collecting
data and field notes. In addition, legible handwriting on the label makes data basing much
easier. As for the plant specimen, after collected the plants, the plants will be pressed as it is
still fresh so that easier for the identification of the plant. During the plant pressing, the plant
will carefully spread out the structure (i.e. leaves, flowers) and also both of the upper and the
lower parts of leaf surface will be made visible by turning over some leaves so that diagnostic
features are clearly evident. The specimens will be placed in the food dehydrator or drying
cupboard at 30-40°C until thoroughly dried and once dried, the specimens will be mounted
on the mounting paper (A3 size, acid-free paper).

3) The insect specimens.

The insect will be collected by using several method such as manually collected using net or
trap. The collect insects will be kept in a labelled bottle containing alcohol. The photograph
of the specimens will be taken if it was impossible to collect it. After that, the specimen will
be mount and dry.

4) Identification of plant / insect specimens

The prepared voucher specimens will be compare with the plants specimens from other
researcher for the identification of the taxonomic of the plant either from books or from
journal of previous research paper. As for the insect specimens, the specimens were compared
with previous research study or websites that give detail information regarding the animal/
insect needed.

5.0 EXPECTED RESULT

This research project aim to make a documentation of traditional knowledge of indigenous
people regarding the use of wild medicinal plants to treat and cure any illness and also the use
of wild plants for food that been practices and passed from generation to generation by their
ancestor. Most of the traditional knowledge passed orally, and the indigenous people do not
really document or write down the knowledge which causes erosion of knowledge as not all
the knowledge passed from past generation being transfer to the future generation.

Besides that, we are not just focusing on ethnobotany but also ethnozoology and
ethnoentomology which the use of traditional knowledge of indigenous people of the use of
animals and insect respectively in their daily live whether as food or medicinal value or part
in their ritual and believe. Therefore, documentation of these traditional knowledge of
indigenous people is really important.

List of the Students involve and their respective title of research.

NO NAME TILTE
.
1 FATIN FARISHA BINTI Ethnobotany of Wild Medicinal Plants Used by the Temuans in
MOHD JAMIL Taman Negara Johor Gunung Ledang
2 SITI NOR ASHIKIN BINTI Antimicrobial Activity and Phytochemical of the Genus
MAT ZIN Tetracera from Taman Negara Johor Gunung Ledang
3 NURUL AMALINA BINTI Antimicrobial Activity and Phytochemical Screening of Plants
ROSLI Used to Treat Gastroenteritis Ailment by Orang Temuan in
Taman Negara Johor Gunung Ledang
4 NOR ADILA BINTI Ethnobotany of Wild Food Used by the Temuans in Taman
AHMAD Negara Johor Gunung Ledang
5 NUR ADIBAH BINTI Documentation of Plants as Natural Colour by Orang Temuan
HASSAN in Gunung Ledang
6 AMIRAH BINTI MOHD Documentation of Birds and Indigenous People in Gunung
SARIF Ledang
7 NOOR HAMIZAH BINTI Documentation of Plants Used for Postnatal Care by Temuan
ISMAIL Community in Taman Negara Johor Gunung Ledang
8 NOOR EZZATY BINTI Nepenthes Tourism in Gunung Ledang
ABDUL KARIM
9 AISHA EMELIA BINTI Potential of Nature Tourism in Muar-Tangkak
HAMDI

For this research study, we would really appreciated if PTNJ could help us provide the
following requirement;
 1. Guide from PTNJ and also Temuan People for the interview session in Temuan
village.
2. Guide in collecting plants sample to be made into Herbarium specimen.
3. Guide with the use of 4x4 mobile for the Nepenthes collection.
4. Guide in bird watching from the PTNJ and Temuan People.

List of cars that will enter PTNJ Gunung Ledang;

1. RN 4063 – Fatin Farisha Binti Mohd Jamil (student)

2. JQV 7349 – Dr. Siti Fatimah binti Sabran (supervisor)
3. JJC 4111 – Noor Ezzaty binti Abdul Karim (student)
4. VN 6610 – Dr. Furzani binti Pa’ee (supervisor)
5. CDK 1020 – Dr. Nor Atiqah Binti Norazlimi