Batek people
A Batek family.
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (1,516) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Malaysia (Kelantan, Pahang, Terengganu) | |
| Languages | |
| Batek, Malay | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional religion and significant adherents of Islam, Christianity or Buddhism. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Semang, Lanoh people |
The Batek (or Bateq) are an indigenous people (currently numbering about 1,516) who live in the rainforest of peninsular Malaysia. As a result of encroachment, they now primarily inhabit the Taman Negara National Park. They are nomadic hunters and gatherers, so the exact location of their settlements change within the general confines of the area that they inhabit.
The common phrase used to refer to them, 'orang asli', signifies a diverse group of which the Batek tribe is a part. It means 'original people' in Malay and was probably first used to identify these people by Austronesian-speaking settlers who arrived by boat from the islands of Southeast Asia. The Batek people were first documented by Europeans in 1878, when explorer-naturalist Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai of Russia wrote about them.
Until about 1970 much of inland peninsular Malaysia was difficult to reach for the purposes of logging, so the Batek were widespread throughout that region. Since it is now possible to harvest the trees in that region, the Batek are pretty much confined to Taman Negara National Park and the surrounding region.
The Batek language belongs to the Eastern Jahaic sub-branch of Aslian languages which is part of a wider Mon–Khmer language family. Batek's closest linguistic relatives is Mintil and Jahai and distantly related to other Aslian languages. Despite being a small language, it has quite a number of dialects namely Teq, Iga, Deq and Nong, with the latter two probably considered distinct enough to be separate languages. Batek is mostly an oral language with few written records, but it is usually written in a modified Latin alphabet.
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Wikipedia