There are some really beautiful and almost undiscovered Orang Asal homes in Perak. Good friend Jan invited me for an exploration trip to a region around near Ipoh to look for a waterfall. I skipped work and went with Jan. It was all worth it. Not only did [...]]]>

Hand woven attap made of palm fronds

There are some really beautiful and almost undiscovered Orang Asal homes in Perak. Good friend Jan invited me for an exploration trip to a region around near Ipoh to look for a waterfall. I skipped work and went with Jan. It was all worth it. Not only did Jan found his waterfall, but I too was equally amazed with the beauty of the people and the jungle there.

The knowledge and skills of the Orang Asal in identifying, selecting, preparing and building the traditional homes is amazing. A dying art, these original people of the land are slowly departing from their traditional ways to embrace modern lifestyle. This village is one of the few that I have seen that still retains parts of their traditional homes.

Some of the Orang Asal homes along the way into the jungle

The jungle homes are built above ground using natural materials and can house quite a number of people. Bamboo in this village seems to be the main material used. They are used to make the walls of the huts, the flooring and some of the attap supporting beams.

After about another hour walk, following a trail lead by our local guide, we come to yet another Orang Asal village. Here, there are some abandoned huts but also nearby a bigger and what seems to be a grander jungle hut is on its way. It is a shame that I could not spend time to see it being built. Would love to document that very much.

A local told us the occupants of this hut has moved out to stay closer to the city

A new hut is being built here

Note the neat lashings used on the hut building

Rattan is commonly used for lashing

Look closely and we noticed that one of the main supporting vertical beams has a plastic tied at it’s end. Our trail guide pointed out to us that the ‘wrapping’ usually means that particular pole is the ‘Tiang Satu’ or ‘Pole No. 1′. Tiang Satu is important because it is the first pole to be erected and it symbolizes many things to the different community. And of course, it comes with a lot of do’s and dons as well. As the main structure in in progress, work is also on the way to see the completion of the natural hand wooven attap made from palm fronds.

This is probably the 'Tiang Satu'

Palm fronds being weaved to make natural attap

This particular hut being built is rather long, easily spacious enough for two families. When it is fully built, it would probably look as nice or perhaps even better than this other Orang Asal jungle home that is located just a few hundred meters away.

A beautifully built jungle hut by the Orang Asal of Perak

Natural jungle vines and rattan has long been used by people as cordage to tie and lash things together. And I got a first hand experience it’s application during a trip into the interior jungles of Sarawak. The ability to utilize these jungle produce demonstrate [...]]]>

A coil of wild rattan put aside ready for use

Natural jungle vines and rattan has long been used by people as cordage to tie and lash things together. And I got a first hand experience it’s application during a trip into the interior jungles of Sarawak. The ability to utilize these jungle produce demonstrate exceptional adaptability and confidence.

Before the introduction of raffia strings and other types of synthetic ropes, jungle vines, rattan, some tree barks and roots probably made up most of the cordage for use by the rainforest people. It may be obvious how they discovered it but the knowledge of how to identify the right one for the job never ceases to amaze me.

It is a shame I was not able to record how the local guides choose, harvest and prep the items for use. I was too busy setting up my little ‘hammock’ paradise as the day was already getting dark and I prefer not to fiddle around in darkness.

All the shelters and structures were built ready the following morning. It is amazing how strong the natural cordage hold the structures together. From shelter masts to hammock bed frames, everything was held together by plant fibers.

I manage to take some pictures of some of the cordages used at the camp site.

This piece of jungle vine was used to hold two pole bed frames (side by side) together

U 'guyline'. Not sure what knot being used though

The guides used almost 100% natural cordage

This is a piece of rattan used to tie a tarp down

The size of the pieces of wood held together by rattan

Another application of natural jungle cordage

In the pursue to learn bushcraft skills, especially native jungle skills such as this…I doubt if it will ever be possible to learn and document everything. There are far too many variety of natural resources available in the jungle. Too much to learn, identify and try out. Once gone, these skills would probably be lost forever.


Continue reading other parts of this adventure below:

• First time in Miri Town, Sarawak
• Wild durian & Kolok mee at Miri.
• 5 hours on a 4WD into interior off Miri.
• Unique local houses in Sarawak interior.
• Smoked wild boar…nice!
• Loooong hike to look for an elusive waterfall.
• Sarawak river boats and a raging river.
• Jungle vines and rattan used in the jungles of Sarawak.
• Umbut or heart of palm tasting, first experience.
• Harvesting of the umbut by the Penan.
• Malat & Penat; the Penan’s blades.
• Kitchen in a traditional house.
• Video on jungle kitchen & feather stick making.

Click here to read about another rainforest adventure in Semban, Sarawak.

There are many types of natural jungle cordage available if one knows where to look. Besides the usual vines and rattan, another good source of cordage is from the Terap (Artocarpus) tree. The method of stripping the Terap tree bark for cordage is something I have heard of [...]]]>

Terap tree fibers makes excellent jungle cordage

There are many types of natural jungle cordage available if one knows where to look. Besides the usual vines and rattan, another good source of cordage is from the Terap (Artocarpus) tree. The method of stripping the Terap tree bark for cordage is something I have heard of many times but never had the opportunity to witness in real life…that is until recently.

I wanted to see and hopefully learn how the fibers of the Terap are ‘harvested’. It is known that the fibers from this tree is very strong and is used for a wide range of puproses, including hauling gear and cordage for traps. It was during a trip to a remote Orang Asal village that I finally get the chance to see this extraordinary jungle skill.

One can identify the Terap (malay word) tree by it’s unique leaves. They are jagged, something that is refered to as stipules. While majority of the leaves demonstrates this stipules, I have also come across a single tree with two distintly different shapes of leaves. One which is has stipules characteristics and the order none! Some say its due to the maturity of the leaves…I am not sure at all.

The distinctly unique stipule leaves of the Terap tree

It was top spinning season when we met our Orang Asli guide. The cordage used to spin their tops were made from the fibers of the Terap tree. Our guide agreed to show us how they traditionally harvest the bark fibers to make cordage.

Our guide chose a piece of branch from a big Terap tree. The entire branch was chopped down. The piece of Terap wood is about 2inches at it’s biggest end.

Firstly, the ‘bigger’ end of the branch is bashed using the flat side of the parang. This seems to help loosen the bark from the inside hard wood.

Bashing the Terap branch helps to loosen the bark

Once the bark is peeled away from the inner hard wood, the next step was to further separate the bark into two. The peeled bark has an inner and hard outer side (the side that is most outside of the tree surface). Using the parang, our guide carefully slice the bark to separate the two ‘layers’.

Splitting the bark to remove the inner soft fibres

Once the two layers are separated, With one hand holding the hard outer bark and the other hand to pull the softer inner layer, our guide went on to pull the layers apart from each other. The ’soft’ but very strong inner layer of the Terap is pulled off right to the end, exposing a white supple piece of Terap fibers.

Our guide made it all looked so easy.

The full length of Terap fibers for cordage

It was a thrilling experiecnce watching our guide strip the the fibers from the Terap branch. The Orang Asal have managed to keep this jungle skill alive by practising their traditional way of life. Their yearly top spinning ’season’, whether intentionally or otherwise has forced the villagers to continue this skill of making cordage from the fibers of the Terap tree.