Semban Village-Culture & Forest.

It was going to be my first and like all first times, you just don't know what to expect. But after hiking through the secondary forest, rubber and cocoa orchards I can safely say that it was one memorable experience. The walk along the narrow jungle treks and under the canopy of trees and bamboos, the familiar vegetation and smell and the sound of the river and the waterfall . The place in its entirety is beautiful and so are its people. It felt just like home the village call 'Kampong Semban'.I learnt a lot of interesting things about the Semban Villagers , their culture and their traditions!  You may remember that the people of Semban are in the process of being relocated, which will inevitably result in the loss of many of their existing way of life.  Yet we did find out about many of their rather interesting and sometimes curious traditions and this post I would like to share some of the more memorable ones.

The hospitality of the Bidayuhs in Semban is overwhelming. They shared with us the beautiful produce of their land, made sure we saw and experience all the things we wanted to and even had the doors of their home open for us to visit and take picture .  We totally enjoyed our visit to their village. It was also my first encounter with the Bidayuh’s traditional bamboo smoke pipe.Hookah, a traditional water pipe for smoking tobacco. Made from bamboo, the pipe is half filled with water and the smoke passes through the water before being inhaled by the smoker.They plant they own tobacco leaf.

It was by chance that we stumbled upon a Bidayuh lady, seated comfortably slicing tobacco leaves. The tobacco leaves, harvested from the nearby farm was folded carefully and sliced finely for drying.

Jungle trekking to the biggest and highest Tapang Tree in the village.The tapang tree (aka Mengaris, Honey Bee Tree,Tualang) is a majestic emergent tree of the Southeast Asia rainforests best know for the disk shaped honeycombs which hang from its horizontal branches. Towering above the canopy the tapang can reach 250 feet, or the 30 stories in height.

Mr Sagen also explain on plants along the path to Tapang Tree.

and the history of old part of Semban Village....

Next to Ijok palm, there’s of course the Terap tree where the inner barks are also used for cordage. The Bidayuh seems to prefer the Ijok cordage for general rough use. Nevertheless, coils of harvested Terap and its application can be seen around the village.The ijok is a very useful plant to the villagers in Semban  besides providing an excellent alcoholic drink and gula (sugar) Ijok  its fibers for example has been used for generations as cordage to bind things together. It is so strong that  the villager’s use it to hold together bridges, houses and even floorings. It is useful in mat making too.