The orang asli are ribal people said to have come from Cambodia. There are 3 main groups, Nigrito, Senoi, and Proto Malays. All three groups have 6 sub-groups thus in total, there are 18 groups of orang asli and 18 different languages spoken. There are ways to identify each group. The Nigrito are said to have extremely curly hair with big noses. The Senoi group have less culy hair and have small noses tilted upwards and lastly, the Proto Malays have straight hair and wide noses. All the three maingroups are dark skinned.
Most of the orang asli live in remote areas of at up to 20 km in the forests. The orang asli that lives nearer to the roads and towns are usually more technologically advanced. The most they would have is light and even a television.
The orang asli are very peaceful people that doesn't involve in war or riots for example. They allow inter marriages. Most ofthem are free-thinkers but there are some who are Catholics, Muslims, Buddhist for example. To know which religion they are in, there will usually be a sign. For example, a big cross was seen on the road and it is clear that there are caholic people living there. The orang asli are also loyal to their spouses.
Even though they give birth o many children, the orang asli are very healthy people. This is because they live in the forests where the air is very cleanse. They do not need the help of doctors as the medicines doctors use are mainly found in the forests. The most common diseases are only Malaria and fever typhoid. These diseases are easily curable by using the natural products that are found in the forests. Examples of such medicines that are also used by doctors are the tongkat Ali, kacip fatimah, ubi jagat and noni juice. Also, the Petago tree has been discovered to cure Aids which is very important as many people until the Petago tree was discovered, there had not been any cure to Aids.
The orang asli also have ways to feed themselves that is to go hunting. They usually hunt for monkeys, mousedeers and wildboars. They use spears and blowpipes as their tools. Their spears are made out of bamboo and iron whiletheir blowpipes' poison come from the sap of the Ipoh tree. They also search for wild fruits such as rambutans.
The houses of the orang asli are aminly made of bamboo that is easily available around the area. The people also rear dogs and chickens.
Overall, the orang asli people very eco-friendly. This is evident as everyhing they use mainly come from the forests and they use recycled materials. This helps so much with global warming and other environtmental issues we are experiencing now.
Nur Adilah Plemping
2:36 AM
