Tong Tana - Bruno Manser Fonds

tan beckon. Some glow like flaming red
heads of hair in a green sea of leaves. “Thick
is the skin of the Maha fruit, but sweet its
flesh!” (Kapan ipa buá Maha, tapi mee
luneng néh) says the song to honour a woman
who is not the most beautiful at first sight but
has inner qualities.
In contrast to
the cultivated
Rambutan Kahwin,
the flesh of
the wild fruit [ill.
4] does not easily
come off the
almond-sized
seed. Whoever
does not want
to swallow it
chews the meat
and the sweet
juice off the
seed with his
front teeth. The
ill. 4: Wild Rambutan fruit
only shadow
over this fruit
paradise is the
fact that an astounding
number of young Penan already
have damaged teeth from the fruits’ acids and
urgently need treatment.
The thick skin of a whole family of nut-sized
to peach-sized fruits (Buá Ipa, ill. 5) opens under
pressure into three segments. When fruit
is plentiful only its flesh is collected in a bamboo
container, the contents of which turn into
a sweet alcoholic drink
after 2–3 days (Borak
Buá). Fermentation can
be enhanced through
the addition of a middle
section of a Nakan
fruit. Unfortunately, the
production of this drink
by the Penan, resembling
fermenting grape
juice, was forbidden by
the Christian mission
SIB.
The largest and most
nourishing fruits of the
jungle are summarised
by the Penan as Buá
Jato (fallen fruit). The
most well-known – or
ill. 5: Buá Ipa fruit
the most infamous – of them
is the Durian, head-sized, 1–2 kg heavy and
spiked. It mainly grows on large trees and exists
in types with white, yellow and red flesh
[ill. 6]. Overripe fruit smell like vomit. Neither
hotels nor airlines permit them in the luggage.
Whoever does not (yet) know it, finds it disgusting.
Whoever dares to try it can become
addicted after
the third time.
All indigenous
people love it
and there is
hardly a child
who will not lick
the smeary flesh
from its fingers.
A tree can provide
several
ill. 6: Bela fruit
hundred fruits
and feed a family
for 2 weeks.
For easy transport
only the inside
of the spiky
fruit is carried
home in a leafy package. The flesh can be
dried to a black-brown dough over a fire and
be preserved (dusi). The eyeball-sized seeds
used to be cooked, peeled and dried over the
fire as provisions for later (gurem).
The Nakan fruit (jackfruit, ill. 7) are as fine
as the Durian. Looking like huge hanging
breasts, they grow directly
from the trunk
which, according to
the myth, was once a
Penan woman.
When a group returns
to the settlement
from an expedition,
part of the harvest is
shared with all the
other families and the
feast of fruits continues.
Although the
Penan nomads do not
pursue agriculture,
they become gardeners
during the fruit season:
as the seeds of
eaten fruits are spit out
or land in the bushes
after passing through
the digestive tract, a
new fruit garden soon
sprouts in and around
the settlement!
ill. 7: A Penan boy
plucks Nakan fruit
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