Malaysia's oldest nomads try to find a home 馬來西亞最古老的遊牧民族想安家落戶

黃裕美輯譯 |2009.11.15
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For thousands of years, Malaysia's nomadic Batek tribe have roamed the country's ancient tropical rainforests, completely at one with their natural habitat. But now the Batek's traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle is under severe threat from deforestation and development, and mainland Malaysia's last nomadic community may soon have no choice but to abandon their traditional life and settle down.

數千年來,馬來西亞遊牧民族巴迪族在馬國古老的熱帶雨林中遊走,和大自然棲息地渾然融為一體。但今天,巴迪族傳統靠打獵和採集為生的生活形態,因森林濫伐和開發而受到嚴重威脅,這個馬來西亞大陸最後遊牧部落可能別無選擇,很快就得放棄傳統生活方式,定居下來。

"We are just guardians of the forest and we cannot take more than we need," said Hamdan Keladi, a Batek headman in Gua Musang district about 500 km northeast of Kuala Lumpur. "But town people come here and take everything like the trees and pollute the river with development, so I don't know how long we can continue to roam the forests."

在吉隆坡以北約500公里的話望生區,巴迪族酋長哈姆丹‧克拉迪說:「我們只是森林守護者,除了生活所需,我們不能多拿沒必要的東西。但城裡的人來到這裡,砍伐拿走林木之類一切東西,還開發建設汙染河川,因此我不知道,我們還能繼續在森林裡遊蕩多久。」

The plight of the Batek is not unique. The United Nations has warned that the impact of deforestation and desertification could displace 50 million people globally by next year and will address the issue at its climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.

其實,不只巴迪族陷入這個困境。聯合國警告,濫伐林木和沙漠化所造成的衝擊,明年可能造成全球五千萬人流離失所,聯合國將在12月於哥本哈根舉行的氣候變遷會議中討論這個問題。

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization's Global Forest Resource Assessment 2005 report said the rate of negative change in the extent of Malaysia's primary forests increased to 140,000 hectares per year between 2000 and 2005, from 78,000 hectares between 1990 and 2000.

聯合國糧農組織在2005年全球森林資源評估報告中指出,馬來西亞原始林發生負面變化的比率,已從1990至2000年每年7萬8千公頃,增加為2000至2005年的每年14萬公頃。

With their habitat shrinking, Hamdan leads 30 families who for the past year have set up a village they hope to call home in a clearing next to the entrance of the Kuala Koh National Park in the northeastern peninsular Malaysian state of Kelantan. Children play in a clearing, watched over by the womenfolk while the men head off into the thick forest each daybreak to hunt for birds, barefoot and armed with blowpipes and machetes.

隨著他們的棲息地急速流失縮小,哈姆丹去年帶領著30戶人家建立了一個村落,他們希望在位於馬來半島東北吉蘭丹州吉島國家公園入口附近一片空地安家落戶。兒童在林中空地玩耍,女人在一旁看顧,男人則每天大清早就打赤腳到密林裡用吹箭筒和大砍刀抓鳥。

Census figures vary but experts say there are about 1,000 Batek, spread out in the forests of Kelantan and neighbouring states. The Batek are part of the Negrito, peninsular Malaysia's last indigenous community categorised as semi-nomadic. Collectively referred to as "Orang Asli", or Original Peoples, peninsular Malaysia's indigenous communities make up about 150,000 of the country's 27 million population.

人口普查數字各異,但專家指稱,約有一千個巴迪族散布在吉蘭丹州和附近各州的森林裡。巴迪族被列為馬來半島最後一個半遊牧原住民部落矮黑人的一支,統稱土著,馬來半島這些原住民部族總共約15萬人,全國人口則有兩千七百萬人。

Apart from expanding towns, the Orang Asli habitat is also threatened by palm oil, one of Malaysia's main export industries. Malaysia is the world's second largest producer of palm oil, and Hamdan's village, located at the edge of the national park, is surrounded by plantations. According to the Center for Orang Asli Concerns, an indigenous community non-governmental organisation, land belonging to the indigenous community in peninsular Malaysia is presently less than 19,000 hectares.

除了城鎮擴建,原住民棲息地也飽受棕櫚油威脅,這也是馬來西亞主要出口產業,馬國是全世界第二大棕櫚油生產國。哈姆丹坐落國家公園邊緣的村落,四周是新開墾的農地。據原住民部落非政府組織「原住民關懷中心」指出,馬來半島屬於原民部落的土地目前不到一萬九千公頃。

Another pressing threat is logging. The 1,048 square km national park Hamdan calls home, nearly 1.5 times the size of Singapore, is off limits to all forms of development. But officials say logging companies have long eyed the park's buffer zones rich in valuable timber. Abdul Rasit Mat Amin from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks said there is a proposal before the Kelantan state government to conduct logging near the park's buffer zone. If approved, it would lead to siltation of the river the Batek rely on. " If the river here is jeopardised, it is likely that flooding could get worse," he said.

另一個緊迫的威脅是濫伐問題。哈姆丹稱之為家園的國家公園,占地1048平方公里,幾乎是新加坡的一倍半,這裡禁止所有形式的開發計畫。但官員說,伐木業者長期覬覦國家公園內長滿茂密珍貴林木的灰色地帶。來自野生物部門和國家公園的阿都爾拉希表示,有人向吉蘭丹州政府提案,要在公園附近灰色地帶伐木,如果通過,將導致巴迪族賴以為生的河川淤積,他說:「如果危及河川,可能導致洪氾更嚴重。」

Early efforts at settling down haven't been easy for the Batek. Batek children are encouraged to attend school, and the government provides aid to enable the children from the village to attend a boarding school two hours drive from the village. But only 12, or about half the village's children, enrolled.

巴迪族想停止流浪、安家落戶剛開始並不簡單。政府鼓勵巴迪族的子女去上學並提供協助,鼓勵村裡的孩子到兩小時車程外上寄宿學校。但只有12個孩子,或全村孩子的一半肯去。

Despite pre-dating all other ethnic groups in Malaysia, experts say the rich heritage of the indigenous communities is not given enough attention in the government's policy of encouraging the country's Orang Asli to settle down and integrate with mainstream society.

儘管比馬來西亞其他族裔歷史更久遠,專家表示,原住民的豐富傳統,在政府鼓勵原住民安家落戶並和社會主流整合的政策中,並未得到足夠的重視。

Headman Hamdan, whose title "Tok Batin" roughly translates as "Spiritual Elder", possesses in-depth knowledge of the community's traditions. There are 10 other Batek headmen, each leading encampments spread out in the forests of Kelantan and its neighbouring states of Terengganu and Pahang. Some have settled in a permanent settlement set up by the government outside the national park. "But most of the others are still in the forest, watching us to see whether it's worth it for them to join us," said Hamdan.

酋長哈姆丹的尊稱Tok Batin,意譯大約是「精神長老」,他對部落傳統有很深刻的認識,馬來半島另外還有十位巴迪族酋長,各自帶族人散布在吉蘭丹州和附近的登嘉樓州及彭亨州扎營生根。有些已經由政府安排在國家公園外永久定居,但哈姆丹說:「其他大部分原民仍在林中流浪,想先觀察我們,看看是否值得加入我們。」

Photo shows families from the Batek tribe gather outside their homes in a village next to the entrance of Kuala Koh National Park in the northeastern Peninsular Malaysia state of Kelantan October 21, 2009.

圖為巴迪族人今年10月21日在馬來半島東北吉蘭丹州吉島國家公園入口附近一個村落的住家外舉行家族聚會。(路透)

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