The Art of Senoi

The Temiar are one of the major groups under the Senoi tribe.
They have become famous among psychotherapists and dream researchers as the supposed inventors of the "Senoi dream therapy" currently practiced by several groups in the United States.

Arts. The designs woven into or inscribed on mats, pouches, the walls of houses, and bamboo dart quivers are abstract and geometrical. The greatest degree of indigenous aesthetic attention is directed to the tightly woven rattan caps that cover the geometrically decorated bamboo quivers in which Temiar men carry their blowgun darts. Unlike some other Orang Asli groups, the Temiar do not produce representational images of any kind. Music, dance and storytelling, however, are cultivated with enthusiasm, and certain individuals gain considerable local fame for their abilities in these domains. The women's singing, in particular, is among the finest indigenous choral music to be heard in Southeast Asia. Appreciation for this art form is now so keenly developed among the Temiar that they make and circulate among themselves homemade tape recordings of their own musical performances. This activity was stimulated initially by the example of Malaysian Radio, which has been airing field recordings of Temiar music since around 1960 as the major component of its Temiar-language broadcasts.

Ceremonies. The ceremonial centerpiece of Temiar life consists of public performances by spirit mediums, at night within the house, involving choral singing, dance, and trance. (These have continued even in communities that have adopted the Baha'i religion. Trance is not always present, however.) Performances are put on when there is a demand for shamanic healing rituals or when someone's spirit guide has indicated in a dream that it wishes to be entertained. The sessions are known as gnabag (singsongs). Most of the community is involved, with the women and children singing responses in overlapping canon to the lead verses sung by one or more mediums. The song lyrics are considered to be the spirit guide's own, sung through—not by—the medium.

A much rarer kind of performance involves tiger shamanism, performed by a medium squatting within a special palm-leaf hut set up inside the house. This is performed only by a "big" halaa', without dancing, with the fires extinguished, and with distinctively minor-key melodies.

Other rituals are performed more casually and on a small scale. These include the pouring of warmed (i.e., enculturated) water over a newly delivered woman or into the post holes of a new house, or the special treatment accorded to some specially selected rice grains at the beginning of the planting season.

There are also what might be called antirituals. These are an open-ended collection of rather oddly chosen acts that must be avoided if the thunder deity is not to strike. One should not laugh at butterflies, display colored mats outdoors, dress animals in human clothing, laugh too loudly, and so on. Such acts are classed as misik (probably from the Malay bising, "disturbing noise"), and seem to have in common only the property of attracting undue attention. As already explained, one should avoid disturbing the cosmos's subjectivity for fear of causing disastrous floods and storms. If such disasters do nevertheless occur, then individuals who feel themselves guilty of having committed misik might slash their shins with a bamboo sliver, gather up some blood, mix it with water, and throw it up as an appeasement offering to the thunder deity. This blood sacrifice is also found among other Orang Asli groups (especially the Semang), but it is very rare among the Temiar. Another such rite involves slashing at the ground with a knife, sometimes while hammering a lock cut from one's own (or one's child's) hair into the soil; this is still sometimes done by Temiar during violent thunderstorms.