Aborigines Museum/ Muzium Orang Asli

Aborigines Museum is located in Gombak, Selangor .

The place in quiet and very nice. You will need to passed the villages before reaching this place. Which I think it should add as part of Selangor tourism promotion.

Though it is a small museum with a very basic info on the Aborigines of Malaysia I believed this is very important part of Malaysia culture on how these people survive the test of the time in the jungle.

The museum is also a proof that people of Malaysia owed the peace and security of this nation to the aborigines.

You should read on about 2 battalions of aborigines fighting the insurgent during 1950’s and 1980’s

Ok , let’s go to the museum

Getting there

Either you drive toward Islamic International University ( UIAM) and drive straight toward Jalan Bentong.

Or you could follow this much easier routes.

~From city centre, drive north toward Batu Caves via Jalan Ipoh. ~ after the flyover of Batu Caves you could see the big standing gold statue of Lord Muruga on your left)

~look for the sighboard Muzium Orang Asli in brown color.

~follow the signage and keep left , as not to drive into the expressway lane toward Genting Highland.

~ keep an eye on the brown signboard “ Muzium Orang Asli” until you come into a traffic light junction.

~ turn right toward Bentong direction. Follow the sign read “ BENTONG”.

~You can see the shop houses and small restaurant along the road. The road name is Jalan Bentong.

~ you bypass a signboard of “ Kampung Sungai Salak” on your left and there is a river ( a stream, you can call it ) on your left side. Besides a few big nice bungalow.

~ slow down your vehicle once you see a big pink hospital building set up by the Aboriginal Affair Dept. And you won’t miss the place as it is near a bus stop.

~ the museum is on you right side of the hill. Once you turned right , you will pass through a few houses.There is a blue Minangkabau pointed roof of a kinder garden.

~ on the right , there you are …

WELCOME TO MUSEUM!

Open everyday ,except Friday.

Visting hour : 0900 – 1700 hour

The official website is :www.jheoa.gov.my

By the way, you can ride the RapidKL bus number U12 from Kl Monorail Titiwangsa station.

Once reach the museum entrance you will see the craft centre and will be greeted by the friendly staff there .

Here you will be shown the handicraft of the aborigines . It was nice and neat . But sadly there were no sufficient promotion to the arts of aborigines in Malaysia.

Once inside the main building or gallery, I was stunned by the red beret figurine from the display

Its brought me my childhood memory of this strong battalion of army.

Well, they carried automatic rifle ,hand grenade, a big back pack. Wooow! Awesome! “ are you fighting in the jungle , sir? Hey , thanks for the chocolate”

I remembered , they always board the train halfway in the jungle. And alight halfway through the jungle railway track too. The soldier were very friendly always gave me chocolate. My salute to them !

Back to the reality of today…

Actually this terms refer to 2 battalions of Police Jungle Troop or was also known as Police Field Force. The Malay term is PASUKAN POLIS HUTAN.

This is the most important contribution by the aborigines which formed the majority of the force to the security of Malaysia during its infancy of nation building.

There were 2 version of what I heard about the formation of this unit.

The Senoi Praaq is a Malaysian special forces unit originally created in 1956 by the British colonial authorities to fight communism during the Malayan Emergency

Senoi Praaq inception as a private army and its subsequent development into an affiliate of the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) in this fast paced and often graphic account of irregular warfare as it applies to counterinsurgency.

The unit began as a creature of British Military Intelligence and fought in the deep jungle as Special Air Service (SAS) proteges, eventually replacing the latter upon Malaysian independence from Great Britain.

The "official" version that I gathered at the museum was this

The force was form in 1957 to help fighting the insurgent , the Communist Party of Malaya who was terrorizing in the jungle of Malaysia.

They were trained and given the modern weapon and communication technology of that time to help the main army force to fight the communist.

There were a lot of undocumented story about their bravery which I heard as child . And I believed the nation owed this unsung heroes a lot.

Today the unit remains under arms and heads up a large paramilitary apparatus maintained in conjunction with conventional military forces.

The Senoi Praaq is a unique fighting force upon which Malaysia may rely to preserve her sovereignty

The Gallery.

You could find a very interesting part of Malaysia culture here . The gallery was sufficient in providing the basic knowledge of the aborigines.

There is this clothes made of tree barks and leaves. Before the process begin the tree bark was soak in the water to soften it .The aborigines use a basic special tool to beat the tree bark which was eventually expanded and become a cloth.

A the design of this costumes nothing short of a resemblance of our modern pajamas. Hmm… I wonder who was the inventor of the pajamas…?

Besides this , you will be shown the music equipment ,hunting equipment and the sculpture of worship from various tribe of the aborigine of Malaysia.

Not much can be seen on the weapon section. As the aborigine are the peace loving people .

They will only fight to defend their tribe ( which was very rare) . Thus they only invented a basic spear and axe for self defend. But they were not short of hunting equipment and animal trap!

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