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_______________________
The
traditional music
of Malaysia
written by Ingo Stoevesandt
2. The Orang Asli
The term Orang Asli means something like the “original people” and is a collective term for all indigenous ethnicities of Malaysia, seperated into the official three “groups” Senoi, Negrito and Proto-Malay. In fact, 18 ethnicities are pressed into one collective term, and their cultural appearance is quite divers. The true origin of the Orang remains unclear, but several language links show regards to the indigenous ethnicities of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
Among the Orang Asli music, the Temiar music has become mostly recognized as “healing music” worldwide, but the reasons are questionable, because this “dream music” is often used and sold from the “New Age”and esoteric scene. It also shows a paradigma of the Orang Asli, as they still are classified as leading an “romantic existence” in the djungle, only dependent on the things which nature spends everyday, but this is far from reality, of course.
It is the more an example of how the term “exotism” shows its pathological face: The Orang Asli do not only have to handle the fate of loosing their land and autonomy, they also get exposed as “romantic wild people from the jungle”, and cultural habits or facts perish as the major part of them gets assimilated into the “modern” and Western part of Malaysian reality.
Also, some other “exotic” facts seem to be neglected if compared to the rest of Asia. If we take a closer look at most of the habits of ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia, we often find religious or sacred relations with each instrument. In Vietnam, some of the ethnicities bury their dead with their own instruments, as noone else is allowed to play this instrument but the deceased. Among the Orang Asli, the “Negrito” always built an instrument to use it once and then throw it away. Their nomadic life made it impossible to carry around havy gongs or instruments which are complex in structure and easy to break. Today, the nomadic life is over and this also regards to the appearance of Negrito musical instruments today.
The shamanistic and animistic elements of belief also suffer from the romantic exotism mentioned above. Besides from all “djungle stories” the shamanistic rituals found among the Orang Asli are one of the latest chances to study shamanistic traditions and philosophies which seem to link back to shamanism in the arctic-siberian circle.
Here we find music that works as a “bridge to heaven”, with drums beating players into trance.
written by Ingo Stoevesandt
2. The Orang Asli
The term Orang Asli means something like the “original people” and is a collective term for all indigenous ethnicities of Malaysia, seperated into the official three “groups” Senoi, Negrito and Proto-Malay. In fact, 18 ethnicities are pressed into one collective term, and their cultural appearance is quite divers. The true origin of the Orang remains unclear, but several language links show regards to the indigenous ethnicities of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
Among the Orang Asli music, the Temiar music has become mostly recognized as “healing music” worldwide, but the reasons are questionable, because this “dream music” is often used and sold from the “New Age”and esoteric scene. It also shows a paradigma of the Orang Asli, as they still are classified as leading an “romantic existence” in the djungle, only dependent on the things which nature spends everyday, but this is far from reality, of course.
It is the more an example of how the term “exotism” shows its pathological face: The Orang Asli do not only have to handle the fate of loosing their land and autonomy, they also get exposed as “romantic wild people from the jungle”, and cultural habits or facts perish as the major part of them gets assimilated into the “modern” and Western part of Malaysian reality.
Also, some other “exotic” facts seem to be neglected if compared to the rest of Asia. If we take a closer look at most of the habits of ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia, we often find religious or sacred relations with each instrument. In Vietnam, some of the ethnicities bury their dead with their own instruments, as noone else is allowed to play this instrument but the deceased. Among the Orang Asli, the “Negrito” always built an instrument to use it once and then throw it away. Their nomadic life made it impossible to carry around havy gongs or instruments which are complex in structure and easy to break. Today, the nomadic life is over and this also regards to the appearance of Negrito musical instruments today.
The shamanistic and animistic elements of belief also suffer from the romantic exotism mentioned above. Besides from all “djungle stories” the shamanistic rituals found among the Orang Asli are one of the latest chances to study shamanistic traditions and philosophies which seem to link back to shamanism in the arctic-siberian circle.
Here we find music that works as a “bridge to heaven”, with drums beating players into trance.
The Orang Asli have suffered a lot over the last decades. They have been the toy of politics and religions, lost their land over the years and became fully dependent on the Malaysian governmental institutions. A very detailed summary of the political and social state of the Orang Asli today, written by Colin Nichlas, can be found here.
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