Cultural Diversity - Jakun Tribes

In speaking of Cultural Diversities, we can imagine the different races and cultures in one place. From en.wikipedia.org.wiki//cultural_diversity, we summarized that Cultural Diversity is identified as the quality of many different cultures or a mass culture that has combined homogeneously in one location. For example, Malaysia is a country with large cultural diversity that includes the Malay, Chinese, Indian, minority ethnics in peninsula Malaysia and other ethnics’ inhabitant at Sabah and Sarawak. We can differentiate these cultures from the language they speak, religions, clothes, dining, daily custom, and lifestyles.

The oldest community that lives in the rain forest of Peninsular Malaysia is the “Orang Asli”. “Orang” means people while “Asli” means original. “Orang Asli” in Peninsular Malaysia consists of less than 1% and were divided by three types  that are the "Negrito" or so called as "Semang", the "Senoi" and "Proto-Malay". They were actually divided by geography aspect whereby the Negrito distributes largely at Northern area of Peninsular, the Senoi at the central area while the Proto-Malay at the southern area. Here, we will be discussing on one of the ethnics specifically that is “Jakun” Tribes.  Jakun belongs to Proto-Malay group which largely found at Pahang beaches, Rompin, Pekan and North Johor.

Jakun people are also being called as “Orang Hulu”. They speak Malay language but slightly different and it is called as Austronesian family of language. In the past, Jakun tribes did not stay in a place permanently, they were always migrating from one place to another to find a fine place to harvest forest product. Now in modern era, they are not constantly moving anymore and use agriculture as their source of food and doing hand craft business. It is sad to know these people are lack of knowledge of nowadays technology and modern facilities. Many Jakun’s child have no appropriate education because schools are far from their places but government has established primary school and medical program for Orang Asli communities since 1960. Not every children tend to go to school and therefore not all Jakun can write and read.

Most of Jakun people still believe in animism and they are influenced by natural surroundings such as mountains, hills, valleys, stone, caves and forest. They believe that everything has their own spirit and if they break the taboo they will face a great disaster. In Johor, the Jakun tribes believe there are two god that are Upper God and Lower God. They also believe in ghost, saint and deity. Jakun tribe is led by a leader called “Tok Batin”. He can lead any ceremony including marriage except ritual involving superstitious is conducted by “Tok Pawang”, a sacred man that they believe have the power to connect them with other spirit and has abilities to heal illness.

Some of the festivals they celebrate are “Hari Perayaan”, “Berjerom”, and “Berlancang”. In “Hari Perayaan”, “Tok Pawang” will makea worship ritual to expel ghost and evil from the village. At that time outsiders are not allowed to enter the village and visiting others outside the village are also not encouraged. They will prepare a feast to the spirit they worship. Other villagers will prepare many dishes lead by “Tok Batin”. On the other hand, “Berjerom” is a ritual to select new echelon to become new “Tok Pawang”. They do this ritual by placing sacred peace at special place like the big stone, cave, bottom of the river, Casuarina trees, Fig trees  and Banyan trees. Lastly, “Berlancang” is a ritual of worshiping the spirit of the river by drifting a decorative boat filled with offering gift. A feast and bathing will take place after the event.

It is a very fascinating culture in Jakun tribes. They are lack of information from modern speaking and rich with the value of politeness and respect to elders. As an outsider, we can approach and visit them in the morning and at night. The conversation is likely to be started by them and do not enter the house unless being told so. It is rude to touch anything in the house or went deep in the house without their permission. We hope in this mass culture around the world, we can achieve harmonies and peace. The value of respecting others is very important and as well as, applying a good moral.