Sampan Kajang: the orang laut’s maritime cultural heritage in the East Coast of Sumatra

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the history and existence of sampan kajang as the Orang Laut’s maritime cultural heritage in East Coast Coast of Sumatra. The results of the research showed that the sampan kajang had existed in the East Coast Coast of Sumatra since the 7th century AD. The archaeologis findings in the area of Kayu Agung Komering Hilir, South Sumatra showed similarities in the name and shape of the sampan kajang used by the Orang Laut in East Coast of Sumatra that we still can watch now. Before the 1980s, sampan kajang was home to the Orang Laut in living nomadic lives at sea. All activities of family members, like fishing, cooking, eating, sleeping, sexual activity to birth, are carried out on a sampan kajang. But now almost all of Orang Laut the East Coast of Sumatra is dwelling on the land. The integral function of the sampan kajang as their line of life has moved to the stage house in coastal. In the Lingga Archipelago, the sampan kajang is currently only used when they will go bekelam for a short time. Orang Laut Duano in Riau and Jambi, even only remember sampan kajang as a reminder of their ancestors’. Modernization further alienates and obscures the existence of sampan kajang as an endangered identity and cultural heritage of the Orang Laut in the East Coast of Sumatra.