Toys of the past

The Musium Galleri Tuanku Fauziah, (MGTF)  USM, collection of  cultural artifacts  is one of the most  interesting  part of the whole Museum as it gets more and more pricelss with age not only in terms of monetary values but more importantly in terms of its cultural heritage values. The fact these 'antiques' works of human creative imagination carries with them a whole history of the culture that they were originated from. Today they are displayed mostly hidden in dark corners (for aesthetic effects) left as though as haunts for wayward spirits to rest within them.The displa that most intrigued me are the Mah Meri wooden sculptures said to have been conceived from dreams of the artisans and other members of the tribe.

 

Mah Meri Origin.

They lived on stilt huts around the coastal regions of Selangor, Johore and Singapore.
Known by various names namely Besisi, Mah Bertise, orang Persisir & Mah Meri. They were generally referred to as the Sea Gypsies or sea nomads, four generations ago, a term used to encompass a number of related ethnic groups with similar traditional lifestyles, such as the Moken of the Burmese-Thai Mergui Archipelago, Choa Lay ( Urak Laot ) of Phuket Thailand and the Orang Laut of southeastern Sumatra and the Riau Islands of Indonesia.
The Mah Meri never left the government villages and returned to the ocean where they have build their own community village on the islands and mainland unlike the others. However they still survive by searching the ocean for fish and other seafood.
For most of the year, maritime Mah Meri used to reside on 6 to 8 meter-long dugouts constructed with a deck and sailing mast made from palm sheets. The sides of the boat are built up with stems of a palm placed one on top of the other, caulked with tree resin, and lashed together. Amidship, Mah Meri build a hearth with earth on the deck to avoid fire. A sheltered living area, built on deck toward the boat’s stern, is constructed of split bamboo arch supports covered with a removable palm-leaf roof, which can be rolled up and stowed away or used as a shelter on shore. When they anchor near shore they either build small temporary beach huts or, more typically, continue to reside on boats. Where the sea is shallow they construct single-room houses on stilts on the strand or out in the shallow water.

For most of their history, the Mah Meri have been a nomadic, seafaring people, living off the sea by trading and subsistence fishing. The boat dwelling Mah Meri are shy, non-aggressive and enigmatic people. They kept close to the shore by erecting houses on stilts, and traveled using paho’, handmade boats which many lived in. Although historically the origin of the Mah Meri is vague lacking written documents and relying only on oral history, distinct similarities in ideology, linguistic and cultural practices suggest strongly that they from the same roots. Driven by the search of better marine life, avoiding natural calamities like storms and fear of pirate attacks they move along the west coast of the Malay peninsula from Myanmar, Thailand right down to the island of Singapore. The over whelming use of Malayo-Mon Khmer dialect would substantiate the anthropological origins of the Malay peninsula sea nomads groups as part of the Austronesian people to be from Malaya.

Religion

Animistic beliefs in spirits and spirits of their ancestors.
Although most of their cultural practices and sacred sites are long gone reminisce of the old rituals survived. Healing, protection and legendary spirits are still deeply rooted in everyday life. For the Mah Meri more than 150 spirits images were documented and related stories still remembered although most of the rituals are long forgotten with exception to a few.
Among most boat-dwellers , community spirit mediums are consulted at least once a year for a public séance and trance dancing. The Mah Meri call upon the spirits on a special day known as Hari Moyang and heal the seas in a ceremony called Puja Pantai. In times of sickness and natural catastrophe , the bomoh or shaman are also called upon to remove illness causing harm to the community. They do this by performing the ancak or setting a “spirit boat” adrift in the open sea beyond the village or anchorage. Unfortunately there is no record of a recent execution of this ritual.

Last night I sat and watched the movies  "Insidious" a horror flick with my son Karim  and we discuseed about the supernatural and its beliefs among people of the world. Today I read about the happenings in London among the African immigrants of children being tortured and sacrificed to the spirits and demons...it is a little disturbing needless to say. Most of us have become so modernized in our ways that we are so removed from the things of the spirit world, the Unseen world or as one of the character in the movie put it "the further place". Modern day scientific minded people tends to call the other dimension or parallel dimension, a dimension that exist alongside that of our world.  In our dire need to advance and develope driven by economic as well as other drives to prosper in this day and age we have dismissed this facet of our existence until it demands our attention. 

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