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Penan people
The Penan are a nomadic indigenous people living in Sarawak and Brunei, although there is only one small community in Brunei; among those in Brunei half have been converted to Islam, even if only superficially. Penan are one of the last such peoples remaining as hunters and gatherers.[1] The Penan are noted for their practice of 'molong' which means never taking more than necessary. The originally animistic hunter gatherers Penan were Christianised by missionaries of the Borneo Evangelical Mission and were baptised and settled. They eat plants, which are also used as medicines, and animals and use the hides, skin, fur, and other parts for clothing and shelter.
The Penan number around 16,000; of which only approximately 200 still live a nomadic lifestyle. Penan numbers have increased since they began to settle. The Penan can be described as two loosely related geographical groups known as either Eastern Penan or Western Penan; the Eastern Penan reside around the Miri, Baram, Limbang and Tutoh regions and the Western Penan in and around Belaga district.
They can be considered as a native group or 'tribe' in their own right, with a language distinct from other neighbouring native groups such as the Kenyah, Kayan, Murut or Kelabit. However, in government censuses they are more broadly classified as Orang Ulu which translates as "Upriver People" and which contains distinct neighbouring groups such as those above. Even more broadly they are included in the term Dayak, which includes all of Sarawak's indigenous people.
The Penan language belongs to the Kenyah subgroup within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.
Penan communities were predominantly nomadic up until the 1950s. The period from 1950 to the present has seen consistent programmes by the state government and foreign Christian missionaries to settle Penan into longhouse-based villages similar to those of Sarawak's other indigenous groups.
Some, typically the younger generations, now cultivate rice and garden vegetables but many rely on their diets of sago (starch from the sago palm), jungle fruits and their prey which usually include wild boar, barking deer, mouse deer but also snakes (especially the reticulated python or kemanen), monkeys, birds, frogs, monitor lizards, snails and even insects such as locusts. Since they practice 'molong', they pose little strain on the forest: they rely on it and it supplies them with all they need. They are outstanding hunters and catch their prey using a 'kelepud' or blowpipe, made from the Belian Tree (superb timber) and carved out with unbelievable accuracy using a bone drill – the wood is not split, as it is elsewhere, so the bore has to be precise almost to the millimetre, even over a distance of 3 metres. The darts are made from the sago palm and tipped with poisonous latex of a tree (called the Tajem tree, Antiaris toxicaria) found in the forest which can kill a human in a matter of minutes.[citation needed] Everything that is caught is shared as the Penan have a highly tolerant, generous and egalitarian society, so much so that it is said that the nomadic Penan have no word for 'thank you' because help is assumed and therefore doesn't require a 'thank you'. However, 'jian kenin' [meaning 'feel good'] is typically used in settled communities, as a kind of equivalent to 'thank you'.
Very few Penan live in Brunei any more, and their way of life is changing due to pressures that encourage them to live in permanent settlements and adopt year-around farming.
According to the Sarawak Premier, Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg there were 266 Penans with formal education of which 3 have master's degrees, 142 have bachelor's degrees and 81 have high school diplomas, counted from 1998 to 2002. 2 Penans are finishing their doctoral degrees on 4 July 2023.
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Penan people
The Penan are a nomadic indigenous people living in Sarawak and Brunei, although there is only one small community in Brunei; among those in Brunei half have been converted to Islam, even if only superficially. Penan are one of the last such peoples remaining as hunters and gatherers.[1] The Penan are noted for their practice of 'molong' which means never taking more than necessary. The originally animistic hunter gatherers Penan were Christianised by missionaries of the Borneo Evangelical Mission and were baptised and settled. They eat plants, which are also used as medicines, and animals and use the hides, skin, fur, and other parts for clothing and shelter.
The Penan number around 16,000; of which only approximately 200 still live a nomadic lifestyle. Penan numbers have increased since they began to settle. The Penan can be described as two loosely related geographical groups known as either Eastern Penan or Western Penan; the Eastern Penan reside around the Miri, Baram, Limbang and Tutoh regions and the Western Penan in and around Belaga district.
They can be considered as a native group or 'tribe' in their own right, with a language distinct from other neighbouring native groups such as the Kenyah, Kayan, Murut or Kelabit. However, in government censuses they are more broadly classified as Orang Ulu which translates as "Upriver People" and which contains distinct neighbouring groups such as those above. Even more broadly they are included in the term Dayak, which includes all of Sarawak's indigenous people.
The Penan language belongs to the Kenyah subgroup within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.
Penan communities were predominantly nomadic up until the 1950s. The period from 1950 to the present has seen consistent programmes by the state government and foreign Christian missionaries to settle Penan into longhouse-based villages similar to those of Sarawak's other indigenous groups.
Some, typically the younger generations, now cultivate rice and garden vegetables but many rely on their diets of sago (starch from the sago palm), jungle fruits and their prey which usually include wild boar, barking deer, mouse deer but also snakes (especially the reticulated python or kemanen), monkeys, birds, frogs, monitor lizards, snails and even insects such as locusts. Since they practice 'molong', they pose little strain on the forest: they rely on it and it supplies them with all they need. They are outstanding hunters and catch their prey using a 'kelepud' or blowpipe, made from the Belian Tree (superb timber) and carved out with unbelievable accuracy using a bone drill – the wood is not split, as it is elsewhere, so the bore has to be precise almost to the millimetre, even over a distance of 3 metres. The darts are made from the sago palm and tipped with poisonous latex of a tree (called the Tajem tree, Antiaris toxicaria) found in the forest which can kill a human in a matter of minutes.[citation needed] Everything that is caught is shared as the Penan have a highly tolerant, generous and egalitarian society, so much so that it is said that the nomadic Penan have no word for 'thank you' because help is assumed and therefore doesn't require a 'thank you'. However, 'jian kenin' [meaning 'feel good'] is typically used in settled communities, as a kind of equivalent to 'thank you'.
Very few Penan live in Brunei any more, and their way of life is changing due to pressures that encourage them to live in permanent settlements and adopt year-around farming.
According to the Sarawak Premier, Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg there were 266 Penans with formal education of which 3 have master's degrees, 142 have bachelor's degrees and 81 have high school diplomas, counted from 1998 to 2002. 2 Penans are finishing their doctoral degrees on 4 July 2023.