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This afternoon, Malempai and Mendum do not have to worry about having an “empty feast”. Just now, Agus brings special souvenirs from the jungle: a brown living turtle whose head kept under its shells. “Wow, we will have delicious dinner,” says Malempai excitedly. The boy is six year old and his face was bright and full of happiness. He ran to tell the news to his grandfather, Temenggung Tarip. His loin-cloth is flapping against the wind. His naked legs look agile and he was jumping around all over the pathway and ran towards the plantation. He holds the turtle on his hands and wave it to the front, the helpless turtle. This afternoon he was caught under piles of falling leaves. It is useless for the turtle to hide itself, because Agus has such sharp eyes and he really knows almost everything about the jungle turtle. Agus is already aware of the turtle’s movement. Temenggung Tarip is busy having a conversation with us under the leafy trees and he was watching and giggling at his grandson. His front teeth are toothless because he eats too much sugar and his age give a typical view of a man who is already aging. This is probably why he can understand his grandson’s happiness. “Empty feast” is a boring ritual ceremony for Malempai and Mendum. Meaning, they can only eat rice mix with salt. No meat, fish, or even vegetable. But this afternoon, Temenggung family, Tarip can have a little party. A turtle is good news for them. Entitled as Temenggung Bepak (Bapak) Tarip is one of the leaders of the jungle insider tribes of Taman Nasional Bukit Duabelas, Kabupaten Sorolangun, Jambi. Malempai is his grandson who happens to feel a little bit lazy to go around the forest. Meanwhile, Mendum and Agus is his youngest son and his sixth son. “The turtle will be boiled,” says Tarip making a plan. Agus agrees. He actually already has his own family and lives in another house. However, Agus still loves to visit and bring some of what he earns for a living to his parents. What he brings to his parents is not only enjoyed by his bepak (father) and induk (mother), but also his brother and his nephew, such as Melempai who got lucky today. The little boy places the turtle close to us. This “shy” creature tries to run fast once its shell touches the ground. However, Tarip catch it directly. He tries to figure out the turtle’s weight. “No fat,” he says giving his evaluation. What Tarip means is, the turtle is too thin and does not have enough meat. Then he shares his knowledge to me which I think can be categorized as intellectual statement. These days, the season does not support trees to grow fruits. Some groups of animals who live by eating fruit are running out of food stock. In the season like this, turtles also have the same problem and spend their time more on saving their energies and hide under the bushes or cover themselves under piles of leaves. This is the reason why they are getting skinnier. I with two crews from Inside Sumatera, each Putra and Wiras was amazed by this particular scene of jungle life which is happening in front of us. Just like a tale! I now understand why Butet Manurung can live and survive in this jungle for years. He was smitten by a “love connection” which is hard to explain with words. Butet falls in love with the primitive harmony inside the insider tribe which still exists in the stomach of Bukit Duabelas and Bukit Tigapuluh, Jambi jungle. The view of the Jungle People who is wild, cruel, smelly, and undeveloped suddenly disappeared from my mind. All of these judgemental views changed into a sense of respect, sympathy, and love. Among them I feel so comfortable and curious to learn more. I believe Butet Manurung herself does not feel she can teach a lot to the Jungle Kids compare to what she can learn from them. In Sumatera, the tribe of Jungle People was more often known as Kubu tribe. The term Kubu tribe brings negative view towards them. “Kubu” refer to words smelly, wild, and undeveloped. The Jungle People strongly dislike stereotype caused by the term. They call themselves the Jungle People. On the other hand, the government calls them Suku Anak Dalam (SAD) The Insider Tribe. While waiting for the afternoon to fall, Tarip invites us to get in to the forest. There was one shady small field. He cleans some bushes that irritate us. Tarip invites us to sit. Some of us sit on the ground. While others pick up some woods from the falling trees to sit on. This is the typical guest room in the jungle. We have long conversation accompanied by mosquitoes that can make people have the jungle fever for life. *** The Jungle Tribe in Jambi lives nomad for two reason. First, they want to have a place that provides more food stock. Second, if one member of the tribe passed away they need to move to another place. For the Jungle Tribe, if one member of a family dies, it means the location they live in is not blessed anymore by the Almighty. Therefore, they need to leave the place. The body of a person who passed away must not touch the ground. The body is placed on the top of their traditional house, and should be left alone. Nobody does not even dare to find out whether the body becomes rotten or eaten by a tiger. The number of deaths of the Jungle People is relatively high; however, it is equal with the number of births. The causes of deaths are the jungle fever, getting attacked by wild animals, women’s death while giving births. The high number of birth is because the Jungle Tribe does not recognize the term of family planning. Another reason is polygamy which is very common among The Jungle People family. In the beginning, the life of the Jungle People is very simple. They eat cassavas, hunting, and taking some honey, sleep, making love and having their children. They do not know what it means to be rich or poor. A man will marry a woman in a ceremony that is privately held not and not open for the outsiders. After the wedding ceremony, the groom has to go and serve the bride’s family. In other words, the Jungle People practice matrilineal in marriage life, just like the Minang people. The Jungle People do not know how to have a farm. It is a taboo for them to eat pets and cattles. Whenever they want to eat meat, they have to go hunting for animals first. Dangerous and wild animals will be their preys, and vice versa. In the eyes of the women, the ability of a man to hunt is one of the criterias for their Mr. Rights. The Jungle people use their own language (the Jungle language) which roots is in Malay language. It is not hard to learn the language since the vocabularies are similar with Indonesian. They have tales which are told from mouth to mouth, from religious tales to the humorous ones. Every parent passed moral teaching to their children through the traditions and being role models. They believe in destiny, therefore, they also believe in God. To us, Temenggung Tarip tells a folk tale about “Bepak Andi”. This folktale is about a stupid person who thought the sky is very closed by since he saw a peak of a mountain on the horizone. Andi, the character on the story, is very stupid and he can not even trap a pig, that one day is was screaming at his father to get married, even though at the end he is clueless on how to make love to his wife. Since their childhoods, the Jungle kids are thought various skills, such as, hunting, how to make traps for animals, catching fishes, finding ubi, an climbing high trees. The girls learn how to cook, to create basket from rattan, and plant cassavas on the plant. Just like the other tribes, they also have their holly day. The celebration of this holly day is done once a year and it is closed for the outsiders. This year, the ceremony will be done in coming June. On that day, all members of tumenggung leaders (just like a tribe leader) will gather in a place. For five days, every night they eat feast together, dance, and pray to God. There are obligatory requirements to be involved in this ceremony. Some of them are, they are not allowed to eat pork, turtles, or other preys lain except mouse deer. Also, they can only eat fish. Not only that, for a month they are not allowed to make love. There are some rules of forbidden things to do that Jungle people give to the outsiders. Our photographer should respect these rules that ask people not to take pictures of them. The outsiders are not allowed to take picture in the house and women. I do not know why we can not take pictures of their houses. But for the women, it is because they believe that taking pictures of a woman is an insult. If you take a picture of a woman, her spirit will be also taken in the picture. Women are respectable creatures for the Jungle People. They have the right to share everything they want. They are “the source of life” Even though they do not have lots of social involvement in the society; a woman is a symbol of a group identity. For them, the inheritance will be given. The women of the Jungle People are highly protected when they need to get in touch with the outside world. They have to keep their “Jungle people qualities” from the influence of the outside world. Many outsiders want to talk to the Jungle women. However, a male from the Jungle People tribe has to be a mediator for the outsiders. The women of Jungle People should also wear a loin-cloth to cover its vital area. A woman who already gives a birth a child can lead her chest bare. However, unmarried women are obligated to “naik kemban” (cover their chest) once they have their first periods by cloths. The cloths can be taken of once they have babies. Oh yes, I would like to tell a story of an interesting story about another habit of the Jungle People. Since they do know manner, nothing should be visible when a person is taking a dump. The problem is, in the jungle there is no wall. People can take a dump everywhere they want. There is no special area. No bathroom. To avoid this incidence of getting caught while taking a dump, therefore, before a person who needs to do it has to shout “Dorang bingguk! Dorang binguk!” It means someone is taking a dump, someone is taking a dump. The person has to shout many times until somebody replies: “Auuu!”. The reply is a sign that somebody knows about it. Therefore, as long as the person takes a crap, nobody is allowed to pass the area. Anybody who is breaking this rule can be killed or have to pay fine by providing some cloths in a certain amount. A person is eligible to be killed when he or she is cheating, and there are other reasons that make killing as an option of a punishment. The rules are very strict and cause the act of crime in the jungle is very low and almost none. *** The worst enemy of the Jungle People is the increasing pressure of the outside world influence. Even though Bukit Dua Belas and Bukit Tigapuluh is already legally known as the national park, but the interaction between the pressure of the outside world and the traditional way of life can not be avoided anymore. Since they start getting familiar with money and high tech –equipment, gradually the Jungle People’s lifestyle becomes not as simple as it used to be. Slowly but surely, the way the Jungle People lives depends on the measurement of the foreign civilization. Some groups of the Jungle people start to have contacts with the outside world and do some trading. Several products they never know previously now became the new needs. Other needs are also increasing day by day. Now the Jungle People become a nation of the heaviest smokers in the world. The kids in the age of 5 are starting to have smoking as their habits. They now know about sugar, and love it. They can drink teas that taste sweet and drink them more than a normal consumption for average people. They buy sugar in kilos from the traditional market in the village and consume it in only a few days. As the result, the teeth of the children from the Jungle People are damaged. The young girls are toothless since they do not know anything about toothpaste. To fulfill the needs of cigarettes and sugar, the people from the Jungle tribe has to get some money. They sell manau, cassavas, resin, pigs, and honeys. The forest is exploited beyond their natural needs. Even if the government give them special right to take non-wood products from the forest, it is still not enough to fulfill their needs. “We are running out of manau. Yesterday, we sell 600 pieces. Now, the only things we have lets are the seeds. Soon enough we will sell dead dogs,” complains Tumenggung Mari Tuha, the leader of Terap group. He feels worried since he has to fulfill the needs of at about 30 members of the group that he leads. Next thing we know, the needs of the Jungle People’s children especially the young male are not only limited for consumer goods. They start to have high technology goods such as, VCD player, motor bike, hand phone, etc. “Budak-budak yoi melinjang motor,” ( the kids are crazy about buying the motorbikes), whines a “bepak” who is one of the leader in the jungle. Butet Manurung in his writing for November Edition of National Geographic admits that once he found a young man who bought a motorbike just to be patted. I do not have a chance to see this extreme occasion, however, I do see it right in front of my eyes how a house in a poor condition and have no walls in the middle of a forest, has five motorbikes who are badly needed to be fixed. Some of them are bended, have broken breaks, and the wheels are not round anymore. It is not impossible, since when there will be four people who will ride a motorbike at the same time. Some of them are used to carry manau until they reach the middle part of the forest. Imagine, a motor bike is used to cross a heavy and ramping route. And, can you imagine their fondness of hand phones In Bukit Duabelas, hand phones are introduced by the outsiders who happened to receive a signal in the peak of Bukit Setan (Devil Mountain). According to Butet Manurung, the mountain is named that way by the Jungle People because they see some outsiders talk by themselves, laugh, joke around, and smile by themselves with a small feature objects called hand phones. They are interested to own them. However, they do not know who they want to talk to using the objects. So how do they buy these goods? Besides selling their rubber plantation which already taken care of for years beside the forest, they also get these goods by credits that were guaranteed by a toke in a village that was created for transmigration. They can not do the credit transaction by themselves because they do not have personal identification and identifiable place to live. This credit gives more burdens for the Jungle people to live the way they used to live. Spears, chopper, and ambung are not powerful enough. Sometimes, they can not complete their responsibilities, until finally their motorbikes are taken back. How do the dealers take back the motorbikes? I have no idea. However, according to a staff of Komunitas Konservasi Indonesia (KKI) Indonesian Community Conservation, named Warsi Linda, who guides us to Bukit Duabelas, the motorbike is often given to people who live in transmigration village that they trust. If this process continues, the traditional way of living of the Jungle People will be ended in a few years. Most of them are still live through the traditional culture (halom), on the other hand, the economic pressure that is facilitated by its access of information is irresistible. The communication and access of information change everything. I can imagine, one day, where the communities are separable, loosing their identities, living in a margin, and weaken by the wave of civilization. I can imagine how they will be jailed in houses that are provided by the government when actually their real home is in the forest. How sad! *** Nowadays, the number of the remaining Jungle People who still survive in the forest is just 2.500 people. They are spread all over the Bukit Duabelas area, Bukit Tigapuluh area, and on the west part of the major road area in Sumatera. Bukit Duabelas area is in the middle of Jambi Province. This area is the center of cultural institution for the Jungle People. In this area, they still hold the traditional culture way of life. Based on 1998, the total population of the Jungle people in the national garden can reach 1.316 people (census made by KKI Warsi 2004) Meanwhile, Bukit Tigapuluh is located in the south part of Batang Hari river, one of the most important river in Jambi. The national park is located in the boundary lines of Jambi Province and Riau. The number of the Jungle People which successfully collected in the data is 364 people. The most crowded place where the Jungle People live is in the area was the middle part of the major road of Sumatera area and on the plateau of Bukit Barisan which is located on the west part of Jambi Province. In total, the number of the Jungle People according to the survey in 1998 is 1.259 people. If you are interested to know more about the culture of the Jungle People, the right destination to go is Bukit Duabelas. From Jambi city, the location can be reached in 5-6 hours of a trip. The condition of the road is fairly good. If you do not want to be bothered by things such as, a permit to travel and transportation matters, now there is a local tour operator that provides a package of a tour to visit the Jungle People. Our trip is actually facilitated by Saung Bulian Tour & Travel, and it was helped by KKI Warsi, a local NGO institution which has to do intervention for the Jungle People. ============================================ Temenggung Goes to the City His face is pleasant, friendly, and welcoming. Now he holds a title called temenggung, which is a title that shows that the person holds a respectable position in the Jungle People society. This title is inherited by his father who passed away. Bepak Tarip is a kind man, and he is respected by all of his group members. His age is hard to predict. The Jungle People never took the time to jot down their birthdays. But we make a guess, that he is in his early 50. During his youth, Tarip could not really be categorized as a good boy. He often stole durians with his friends, and ran away to the forest. There they can eat whatever they stole and stayed there for days. “However, the cave that we used to go was gone and could not be found. I forgot where the location is. Probably, it had been flatten by a bulldozer by the people from the plantations,” says Tarip. Tarip childhood days were the amusing days for him. In his old days, he experienced extraordinary experience. Recently, he had been through some unusual occasions. One of them is his experience meeting the past president in the city of Jambi and his experience flying to the capital city of Indonesia. Tarip tells his story: “I don’t know, I was invited along with some friends to Jambi. People say we are going to meet the president. His name is Gus Dur. At the meeting, my friends was told stand at the stage. Not that I know, they asked me to go to front, and they told me to shake hands with Gus Dur. He was asking me about the forest. I said we can take care of the forest. Please, do not damage the forest. He was so glad to hear that. But, after I met Gus Dur, I was getting into trouble. When we arrived in the forest, my friends were very mad at me. They went around and threaten me with spears and arrows. They wanted to kill me because they were not invited to shake hands with Gus Dur. Fortunately, I was still in one piece…..ha…ha …ha…. I have no idea. I was also invited to fly to Jakarta. We got there with what was that thing called, what was the name of it, well, a plane. In Jakarta, my friends and I was told to sleep in a big house. It was called a hotel. We spent 5 days there. However, my friends and I could not take a dump. Seriously, they wanted me to take a dump on top of a clean plate (what he meant was a toilet bowl). We could not take a dump there and just held it. So I report this to other people. We were taken out from the hotel, and they brought us to some forest in Jakarta. But we still were not able to take a dump. We want our home, our home forest. So we did not take a dump for 5 days. I do not like the hotel. I got sick there. There was nothing to do. But, if we went out of the hotel, I would get a headache, the smoke and the bad smells. It was very different from the forest.”