The Concept of Land Management in the Temiar Tribe in Kelantan

Abstract

The Orang Asli community of the Temiar tribe is an indigenous ethnic group whose majority practice a traditional way of life, namely farming and village communities. The majority of the Orang Asli people of the Temiar tribe live in areas near the forest and practice a traditional way of life that is heavily influenced by the old practices of their ancestors and the influence of the natural environment. In general, the Temiar tribal community highly depends on land used especially for settlement and agriculture. The Temiar tribe has some concepts related to tek saka and types of land that are not yet known by most of the outside community. Accordingly, a study using qualitative methods was carried out by taking an ethnographic approach to obtain information related to the concept of land and types of land use in the lives of the Temiar tribe. Interview techniques, participant observation, and FGD were used to obtain data from thirty informants from Orang Asli leaders, village residents, the Office of the Director of Lands and Mines State Officer, and the JAKOA Officer. The data were then analyzed using NVivo PLUS 12 software to obtain more accurate data. Findings show that land is the most important element in the life of the Temiar tribe that has been inherited from generation to generation to be used as a place to live and for agricultural activities. When it comes to land type, the Temiar tribe categorizes land use into tek saka (residence), tek selai (agricultural land), and tek tengos (forest area). For them, owned land only involves tek saka and tek selai. While tek tengos (forest area) is land that is not owned but is used jointly with the community.