In the middle of the exhibition room, a man sat cross-legged atop a makeshift bamboo platform, surrounded by chisels, sandpaper and raw blocks of wood. Wood chips lay scattered all around his feet. With weather-beaten hands, he carefully chisels the mahogany-hued piece of nyireh batu wood. Every now and then, he looks up with a friendly grin at the odd visitor wanting to take his picture. His name is Layon anak Bumbong, and he is a member of the Mah Meri - an indigenous tribe of Peninsula Malaysia.

As his expert hands worked to chisel out the best from the piece of wood in his hands, 54 year-old Layon doles out bits of information about the piece known as a buai latep. Buai latep is just one of the many puzzle pieces that has been in his tribe for generations. More than just a puzzle piece, buai latep is symbolic of the life's problems especially in terms of the relationship between a man and a woman. Solving such a puzzle piece is akin to solving a problem in relationships - it's an act that requires patience, focus and a lot of creative thought, as the solution isn't usually straightforward. Apart from puzzle pieces such as the buai latep, the Mah Meri is also well known for producing masks and ceremonial carvings.

One of 18 ethnically-defined tribes of orang asli in Malaysia, the Mah Meri - a sub group of the Senois - number just over 1,000 individuals living in pockets of areas along the Selangor coast, including Carey Island. Mainly fishermen by trade, many of them are also traditional artisans in their spare time. Some 25 individuals in Bumbun and Kurau villages on Carey Island produce the acclaimed Mah Meri woodcarvings when they are not at sea. The carvers settle in two villages on this island, namely Kampung Sungai Bumbun and Kampung Sungai Kurau. They produce a modest number of carvings based on orders placed by collectors - some of whom are foreigners - on top of the few they create for their own use. 

The woodcarvings of the Mah Meri tribe are not created for worship. Strongly animistic, the Mah Meri regards these carvings as a means of communing with the spirits they believe exist in nature. Woodcarvings of the Mah Meri tribe represent spirits that exist and influence many aspects of their life, to either positive or negative ends. Moyang Sauh design, for instance, is believed to hold sway over the safety of fisherman during their venture out in the open sea. It possesses physical characteristics much like that of a fish or a sea serpent, making for a carving which is eerie, yet hauntingly beautiful to behold. To seek safe passage on their fishing trips, the Mah Meri bomoh (tribal shaman) carves out a Moyang Sauh sculpture and holds a ceremony by the sea, offering yellow glutinous rice and other foodstuff to this guardian spirit, beseeching it to keep their fishermen safe until their return. The sculpture and offerings are then left on the beach at the end of the ceremony.

The Mah Meri woodcarvings also play an important part in their search for cure to illnesses such as fever, stomachaches and urinary ailments. To cure the patient, a member of the patient's family first carves out a small wood figure depicting the specific spirit believed to embody that illness. This carving is then handed over to the tribe's witch doctor who performs rites to transfer the illness from the patient to the carving, and then discards it into the sea or jungle, symbolically removing the illness from the patient.

It's not hard to see why these woodcarvings have managed to snatch these coveted awards and capture the attention, and imagination, of local and international collectors. The beauty of the carvings lies not only in the graceful curves of nyireh batu grains or the lustre and sheen of the wood, but also in its simple, yet highly sophisticated design and its cultural significance that the Mah Meri tribe.

Each of the carving is subject to the individual carver's interpretation of the piece, his skills in coaxing the wood into being, and the irregularities and quirks of the workmanship. In this sense, each piece produced is as unique as the patterns of grains in the wood it's carved upon. A foot-high carving takes roughly two weeks to complete.

Aside from woodcarving, weaving also holds a special place in the Mah Meri culture, and is an important skill to master particularly for the womenfolk. Before a woman of the Mah Meri tribe can be considered eligible for marriage, she must first learn the skills of weaving various items such as hunting baskets, containers, mats, and ceremonial decorations.

Currently, there is no official body responsible for advocating the indigenous woodcarvings of the Mah Meri. However, a modest showroom in Kampung Sungai Bumbun provides one channel where you can see works that are available for sale. These works of arts are sold for about RM100 and above, depending on its size and the type of wood used - a small price considering the unique beauty of the carving, and the amount of work taken to produce it. But the interest shown by bodies such as the Kuala Lumpur Craft Complex, that has conducted exhibitions on indigenous crafts, and the Shah Alam Arts Gallery which has engaged several of the artisans to produce carvings for its collection, gives hope for the art. With such interest and support, perhaps soon these works of art will be more recognised and appreciated locally and internationally, in the near future.


Words: Salmah Nur Mohamed
Photos: Roslee Md. Ali