Hard day’s work: Jaminan (right) along with his workers crossing a river with their bamboo bounty. (Bottom) Jaminan starts sourcing the bamboo two weeks before Hari Raya. — Bernama
SUNGAI SIPUT: Traversing hilly forests for over 2km and fording rivers are just part and parcel of Jaminan Alang’s annual routine as he seeks out bamboo to fulfil orders from lemang sellers whenever the Aidilfitri celebration draws near.
An Orang Asli of the Temiar tribe from Kampung Manggis, Pos Yum here, Jaminan has spent the last four years wandering through the forests seeking out the best types of bamboo.
“I would take orders of 4,000 to 10,000 bamboo segments a year from lemang sellers around Ipoh before venturing into the forest with some workers.
“Our preparations include calculating how many trips we need to make and how many hundreds of bamboo we would need to bring out a day,” the 36-year-old shared with Bernama during one of his bamboo hunting sojourns here.
The bamboo in his area are of high quality and suitable for lemang as they are quite thin, thus the glutinous rice would not need to be cooked for a long time.
“A bamboo patch can yield about 30 to 40 long bamboo that can be cut into segments. We get around 300 segments a day.
“A segment usually sells for RM1.40 to RM1.50 to wholesalers or traders, depending on size, and the highest order has reached 10,000 segments,” he said, adding that he would start entering the forest a fortnight before Hari Raya.
While sourcing bamboo is tough, it has become a source of income for Jaminan’s family and the villagers.
“There are risks entering the forests and we do know our safety is never guaranteed, but we are thankful that nothing bad has happened so far. Being cut by bamboo is a normal occurrence for us, as well as fording rivers and hiking up hilly forests.”
