Orang Asli Village

For the natives of the land, the Berembun Forest Reserve is their home. They used to occupy up the ridges of the hills. With only 3 huts that houses the entire village, they hunted and foraged in the forest for their daily needs. Whatever that they had in excesses are traded with the village middlemen for essentials like salt and rice.

After Malaysia’s Independence in 1957, the Temuan people were resettled into villages built by the government. They were given housing and some were given land where they were taught to plant rubber and other commodities. Today, the local Orang Asli village has some 50 families with 350 residents. Some find work in the nearby factories and farms while a few still returned to the forest to harvest durians and petai for income.

Their children go to the schools nearby but very few made it to Secondary.

Like many Orang Asli communities in Malaysia, their livelihood is a delicate balance between the forest where their forefathers have roamed for thousands of years and the government’s fervent efforts to ‘modernize’ them.