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| 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.
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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.
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| 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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