An account of a journey from the Cameron Highlands to the east coast railway and of a visit to the Temiar settlements in the valleys of the Sungai Blatop and S. Ber
A.C. Baker, a Malayan Civil Service officer, published this reconnaissance account in 1933 documenting a journey from the Cameron Highlands to the Gua Musang railway station through the previously unmapped interior of Ulu Kelantan. The expedition, directed by the Governor of the Federated Malay States, aimed to assess a potential east-west access route linking the Cameron Highlands road system to the East Coast Railway while simultaneously recording ethnographic and geological observations of the Temiar (Sakai) communities encountered along the way.
Summary
The article addresses a specific colonial-administrative problem: the South East corner of Ulu Kelantan between the railway and the Cameron Highlands remained one of the few blank spaces on the map of Malaya in the early 1930s. Baker situates his journey within a small but growing body of recent exploratory work by Bellamy-Brown, Edney-Hayter, Noone, Cuisinier, and Evans, each of whom had penetrated different portions of the area. His own party—comprising Baker, T.R. Blackman of the Survey Department, and a rotating group of Temiar carriers—filled the remaining gap between the Cameron Highlands road and the valley of the Sungai Ber, following a route that crossed the Gunong Senjort range and descended via the Sungai Blatop, Brok, and Ber to the Jeram Gajah rapids and thence to the railway at Gua Musang.
The narrative is structured as a day-by-day travelogue but is densely interwoven with ethnographic observation. Baker devotes considerable attention to Temiar social organisation, material culture, and physical characteristics, drawing on H.D. Noone’s classification of the Temiars as “Nessiots”—a primitive Indonesian stock distinct from the round-headed Oceanic Mongols. He records the communal sharing of food and labour, the construction of fish traps (meriang), the musical and dance traditions observed at Penghulu To’ Jagor’s long house, and a notable break in tribal cohesion at the Jeram Gajah falls, where the previously open and friendly relations between ladangs gave way to watchfulness and separation.
The geological and agricultural assessment forms the practical backbone of the report. Baker, assisted by the Director of Geological Surveys and the notes of prospector Sasse, identifies the transition from the granite of the Cameron Highlands through mica-schist and brecciated granite to sedimentary shales and quartzite below the Jeram Gajah, and notes tin oxide deposits in the Sungai Brok bed and reported tin deposits between Sungai Betis and Bukit Ayam. He concludes that the wide valley between the Pahang-Kelantan boundary and the Sungai Blatop offers a valuable extension to the Cameron Highlands agricultural area, while the flatter 200 square miles between Kuala Betis and Gua Musang, with its excellent soil and rail access, is suited to immediate development.
Key Findings
- The Temiar population of the area traversed is estimated at approximately 3,000 individuals (p. 293).
- The long house at Penghulu To’ Jagor’s ladang on the Sungai Ber accommodates at least 100 people grouped around five fireplaces with no internal partitions (p. 290).
- A Chinese-managed gold mine at Panggong Lalat, visited en route to Gua Musang, produces approximately 70 tahils of gold per month (p. 293).
- The area between Kuala Betis and Gua Musang comprises roughly 200 square miles of reasonably flat, excellent-soil land with good rail and river access, judged suitable for immediate agricultural development (p. 293).
- The Jeram Gajah rapids mark a clear break in Temiar social organisation: above the falls, communities share freely and move between ladangs as one family; below, distinct parties keep severely apart with visible watchfulness (p. 291).
- Geological survey identified tin oxide deposits freely in the bed of the Sungai Brok and definite reports of tin deposits between Sungai Betis and the limestone range of Bukit Ayam (p. 293).
Conclusion
Baker’s definitive historical takeaway concerns the future of the Temiars under colonial development. He characterises them as “clearly a superior race” who retreated into their inaccessible valleys under pressure from earlier waves of invaders, and he urges that adequate reserves be set aside between Kuala Cherus and the upper ridges of the Ber should they wish to maintain their present form of life. Simultaneously, he expresses confidence that, if their trust can be gained, they are capable of development, drawing an explicit parallel with the Māori of New Zealand as a model for a future in which a “virile race” integrates into the multi-ethnic polity of Malaya without losing its distinctive character.
Context
- Baker held the rank of M.C.S. (Malayan Civil Service), and the expedition was explicitly commissioned at the direction of the Governor of the F.M.S., who identified the potential access route as a matter of administrative interest (p. 288).
- The article’s framing is that of a colonial reconnaissance report: the ethnographic and geological observations serve the practical purpose of assessing land for agricultural settlement and transport infrastructure, with the Temiars evaluated in terms of their capacity for “development” within the colonial economic order.