# Semai Country: An Indigenous Cultural Landscape in Peninsular Malaysia

Karen Heikkilä

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Karen Heikkilä. Semai Country: An Indigenous Cultural Landscape in Peninsular Malaysia. 2025. [https://hal.science/hal-05195815v1](https://hal.science/hal-05195815v1)

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<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>The 'spousal' mountains, Semeryòòd and Jenajaak, in the distance. Photo: Karen Heikkilä.</figcaption></figure>

# Semai Country: An Indigenous Cultural Landscape in Peninsular Malaysia

Forests are the cornerstone of the Semai homeland, containing ancestral graves, umbilical cord burial sites, historical landmarks, ritual spaces, and the living cultural sites of Semai daily life. This piece features a reflection of the indigenous heritage and rainforest livelihoods of an Orang Asli people of Peninsular Malaysia.

6 min read · Oct 16, 2023

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Karen Heikkilä

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<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>Tééw War, a river of cosmogonic and historic significance to Semai. Photo: Karen Heikkilä.</figcaption></figure>

The Semai homeland is breathtakingly beautiful, with its densely forested hills and valleys, swift-flowing streams, and glistening cascades.

Robert Dentan, anthropologist and long-time researcher of the Semai culture, once referred to Semai country as “a green and beautiful world”, and to the Semai as stewards of that lush, verdant world.

In fact, these terms formed the title of a particularly insightful paper he co-authored with a Malaysian ethnobotanist, Ong Hean Chooi, about the forest environment's importance for the continuity of the Semai culture.

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>Resting at Bareh Penep. Freshly-harvested petai are bundled and carried downhill, where the pods are sold to traders. Photo: Karen Heikkilä.</figcaption></figure>
## The Semai

The generic term for the 18 indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia is Orang Asli or “original people”. Semai are the largest Orang Asli group, numbering some 50,000 people, their communities mainly distributed in the states of Perak, Pahang and Selangor. The Titiwangsa Mountain Range, running in a north — south direction, cuts through the Semai homeland. This region is dominated by forest, consisting of broadleaf, hardwood tree species; palms; bamboo; liana; and understorey leafy herbaceous plants. Linguistic evidence suggests that Semai and other Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer)-speaking peoples of the peninsula moved southwards from mainland Southeast Asia in prehistoric times.

> Hill rice agriculture, which is still performed in some Semai villages, seems to also connect them to various indigenous Mon-Khmer speakers in mainland Southeast Asia.

The Semai economy today consists mainly of agroforestry, subsistence hunting and foraging as well as wage work (casual, part-time or full-time) in towns. Semai remain mostly rural dwellers, although some community members have settled in urban centres to pursue a variety of occupations. Whether or not people still continue to live on their ancestral lands, the forest is still a significant element in Semai spirituality and the non-violent character of their interpersonal interactions.
<figure><img src="image_11.png" /><figcaption>View from Danòòs S'kaaw. Photo: Karen Heikkilä.</figcaption></figure>

## Nurturing Nature

Beyond simply territory or land, the forest is a spiritual realm, where Semai memory is attached to specific geographical features or sites.

> Semai feel they have a duty to nurture the forest because therein lie the bones of their ancestors.

Planting and tending to their forest trees and crops, they honour their ancestors as well as guarantee the future of their descendants; they cultivate to ensure that there will always be enough to survive on. Examples of tree crops grown by people are durian (Durio spp.), petai (Parkia speciosa), rambutan (Nephelium lapaceum), rambai (Baccaurea spp.), rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) and eaglewood (Aquilaria malaccensis). Particularly durian and petai seem to be valued for more than just their fruit; certain stands are known as *sakaaq* or heritable trees because they can live for decades, symbolising the ancestors who planted them.
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On the way to a **selaay** (swidden) on Danòòs Peh. Photo: Karen Heikkilä.

## Swiddening, Agroforestry and Biodiversity

What's quite amazing is the practice of swiddening or slash and burn agriculture, and how this has produced some highly biodiverse areas in the forest. The Semai tradition of planting trees on swidden edges or by dispersing seeds near dwellings has caused the rather interesting phenomenon of fruit tree groves or islands in the forest. Endemic to the forest, these fruit trees may not have occurred so widely or in such abundance were it not for the Semai. In fact, it can be challenging to distinguish between cultivated and "naturally-propagated" fruit trees. Blending in with the rest of the canopy, groves enhance the overall forest environment, drawing a variety of fauna.

> Swiddening and agroforestry may be regarded as the Semai way of promoting the permanent forest structure of their territories.

Even today, planting still happens organically, in a non-invasive, no-till manner, with the aid of dibbles, or long pointed sticks, rather than with spades or hoes. Neither machinery nor agrochemicals are used.
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<figure><img src="image_15.png" /><figcaption>Building a new home in Bareh Cangkuwaaq. Photo: Karen Heikkilä.</figcaption></figure>

## Indigenous Knowledge

Dentan described the Semai knowledge system as memorate, meaning that it consists of practical know-how and ancestral wisdom, acquired through long-term trial and error and careful observation of how the natural world operates. An example is house-building knowledge. One would have to study the conditions of the soil and the landscape to see if it's the right site to build a house. Usually, building close to a potable water source is important and also close to one's trees or swiddens. Not much levelling of the land is done, so houses can sit in a groove on the face of a cliff, or even at the very edge of a cliff. Knowledge of the correct types of bamboo, wood and rattan is needed as well as weaving skills to make the walls and thatch, and of where extra supports should be placed so that the house can withstand differing proportions of weight and pressure.

It is important to understand that the forest vernacular landscape does motivate the production of a host of vernacular practices and objects. Just looking at the Semai language alone, there are particular terms for materials, technologies, places and practices that only make sense in the context of the forest environment. So, there are links, a compatibility, between biodiversity and the Semai culture.

Semai traditional architecture has hardly changed over time. One way of thinking about this is the practicality of still being able to find all the needed construction materials in the forest. It would seem that the very work of harvesting food and other resources from the forest also translates into the maintenance of different traditional skills and technologies.

> With house-building, it must be pointed out that a strong incentive for traditional architectural knowledge, skills and technologies to be retained
and practised is that people still desire, even prefer,
living in these types of homes.

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /><figcaption>Selaay (swidden) at Geel Galuuq. Photo: Karen Heikkilä.</figcaption></figure>

## A Cultural Landscape for Future Generations of Semai

The same goes for Semai understandings and knowledge of the past: without the forest and places that “bookmark” past events, Semai history would be lost. Semai food taboos (i.e., the pattern of certain food behaviours being encouraged and others prohibited), likewise, relate to a conservation ethic of only taking from the forest what one needs, eating what’s available and also sharing one’s food with others, especially if it’s game (e.g., wild boar). This way, everyone is included and has something to eat, and nothing goes to waste. For Semai, to live well is to live modestly and responsibly with humans and non-humans alike.

> Indeed, peaceability lies at the heart of the Semai worldview and spirituality; the forest is a source of
moral authority for people to draw on, in order to live
this way.

Forest reserves, where many Semai ancestral territories lie, are unique cultural landscapes. They are a special part of the Semai homeland, containing relict as well as living heritage landscapes: old graves and swiddens, umbilical cord burial sites, historical landmarks, ritual spaces, and the living cultural sites of Semai daily life. These areas need to be appreciated for both their natural and human heritage, and protected for their unique indigenous cultural heritage, especially for future generations of Semai.

Further reading

Alcorn, J. (1984). "Development Policy, Forests, and Peasant Farms: Reflections on Huastec-Managed Forests' Contributions to Commercial Production and Resource Conservation." *Economic Botany* 38 (4): 389-406.

Dentan, R. & Ong, H.C. (1995). "Stewards of the Green and Beautiful World: A Preliminary Report on Semai Arboriculture and Its Policy Implications." In *Dimensions of Tradition and Development in Malaysia*, edited by Rokiah Talib and Chee-Beng Tan, 53-124. Kuala Lumpur: Pelanduk Press.

Heikkilä, K. (2014). "‘The Forest is Our Inheritance’: An Introduction to Semai Orang Asli Place-Naming and Belonging in the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve." *Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography* 35 (3): 362-381.

Peninsular Malaysia

Organ Asli

Rainforest Livelihoods

Indigenous Heritage

Perspectives Seias
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People • Nature • Landscapes reports stories and research updates from the Social-Ecological Interactions Group based at the Universities of Göttingen & Kassel. We showcase news from our international research on rural landscapes, ecosystem services, and sustainable land use.

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