Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 113
Peeling the “wings” off dipterocarp seeds in Sabah's Danum Valley. The seed-
lings of these giant rainforest trees will be planted in experimental forest plots.
of later seafaring invaders. The Orang Asli have been persecuted and even
enslaved in the past, but despite this grim history they have played an impor-
tant role in the history of modern Malaysia and its fi ght for independence.
These aboriginal peoples have remarkably diverse cultures, because they
have had a long history of isolation. The extreme cultural diversity found in
New Guinea today, with its 800 dif erent languages, is the result of New Guin-
ea's precipitous and fragmented geography. The Orang Asli live in a less frag-
mented world, but they are still currently divided into nineteen distinct lan-
guage groups and their ancestors undoubtedly spoke even more languages.
I have visited only one of these groups in peninsular Malaysia. The
members of the Batek tribe live on the periphery of Taman Negara. They
are allowed to hunt with blowpipes and bows and arrows in the park itself,
which is part of their ancestral hunting ground. They live in palm-thatch
settlements along the three rivers that drain the park's more that 4,000 square
kilometers. Some of them work as guides, but most simply move quietly in
