Article

Bes Hyang Dney: a Jah Hut myth of Peninsula Malaya

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Bes Hyang Dney: a Jah Hut myth of Peninsula Malaya

Boon Seong Teoh’s 1986 article presents the Jah Hut myth Bes Hyang Dney — a tale of a virulent forest spirit — in both its original Austroasiatic language and English translation, situating it within the broader cosmological and shamanic framework of the Jah Hut people of Krau Valley, Pahang. The piece serves as both a linguistic record and a cultural commentary on the tension between traditional Jah Hut heritage and the encroaching modernity of 1980s Malaysia.

Summary

The article opens by situating the myth within the 1985 seminar on Tamadun Melayu (Malay Civilization) at the University of Malaya, which formally included Orang Asli studies as part of Malay civilisational heritage. Teoh draws on the 1985 publication Tales of a shaman – Jah Hut myths, as told by Batin Long bin Hok (Holaday, Chin and Teoh), which recorded four myths narrated by Batin Long bin Hok, the oldest and most respected Jah Hut shaman (puyang) of Krau Valley. Bes Hyang Dney is the first of these four and is considered the most “original” and indigenous to the Jah Hut, with a version independently recorded by Gerard Diffloth in the late 1960s that does not drastically differ from the 1984 reconfirmation (p. 144).

The myth itself narrates the encounter between Jah Hut foragers and a malevolent spirit characterised by a long tongue, hair growing upside down, and a sharp head covered in hair. When encountered face-to-face, the spirit pursues, tears apart, and devours its victims; when seen only from behind, the encounter produces fever, chills, and a comatose state caused by soul-possession. The narrative culminates in a consultation with the puyang, who identifies the spirit and is asked to perform a curing ceremony (menisoy) for the afflicted group (pp. 142–144). Teoh uses this narrative to explain the Jah Hut cosmology in which evil (bes) was created before humanity as a faulty product of God’s adjutant, and in which the perpetual battle between good and evil maintains cosmic balance (p. 139).

A secondary thread of the article addresses the linguistic phenomenon of code-mixing in the transcribed myth, noting the conspicuous presence of Malay words throughout the Jah Hut text. Teoh argues this represents code-mixing rather than lexicalisation, reasoning that the narrator could have rendered the myth wholly in Jah Hut as he would during an actual menisoy ceremony, and that the Malay insertions reflect the multilingual reality of a community positioned at the crossroads of seven different languages (pp. 141–142).

Key Findings

  • The Jah Hut number approximately 3,000 inhabitants and occupy the Krau Valley in Pahang, at the southernmost point of the Austroasiatic Mon-Khmer language family on the Malay peninsula (p. 141).
  • The great annual curing ceremony (menisoy menak) lasts three days and nights, involves the rhythmic pounding of bamboo and the galong (a women’s chant), and is conducted in the shadow of Gong Benom (Mt. Benom) when disease or crop failure threatens the community (p. 141).
  • The myth’s textual stability is confirmed across three independent recordings: Diffloth’s late-1960s version, Holaday’s 1970 version, and a 1984 reconfirmation, with no drastic differences between them (p. 144).
  • The Jah Hut occupy a geographical crossroads where seven languages are spoken by immediate neighbours — Malay, Chinese, Semelai, Che Wong, Semai, Batek, and Semong Beri — making them bilingual or multilingual speakers (p. 141).
  • The menisoy (smaller, daily curing ceremony) takes the whole night, while the menisoy menak (great curing ceremony) is convened at least once a year when circumstances demand (p. 140).
  • The first Jah Hut shaman, Bongsu Saleh Layang, received his spiritual power from Raja Bes (the King of the Bes) himself, illustrating the Jah Hut conception that the boundary between good and evil is permeable (p. 139).

Conclusion

Teoh’s definitive takeaway is that the Jah Hut myths function simultaneously as cosmological explanation, medical knowledge, and cultural preservation mechanism for a community whose traditions are “fast disappearing” under the pressure of modernity — government schooling, television, and cassette players of pop music now compete with the menisoy for the attention of younger generations (p. 141). The recording and publication of Bes Hyang Dney is framed as an act of cultural salvage, intended to ensure the myth survives for the posterity of the Jah Hut of Kampung Pian, Krau Valley.

Context

  • The primary source material derives from the field recordings of Batin Long bin Hok compiled in Holaday, Chin and Teoh (1985), with corroborating data from Gerard Diffloth’s late-1960s linguistic fieldwork among the Jah Hut.
  • The article contributes to the small body of published Jah Hut scholarship (Couillard 1980 on wood carving; Werner 1975 on art and culture) by providing a full linguistic and narrative record of a core myth, and by raising the question of code-mixing as a feature of oral myth transmission in multilingual indigenous communities.

References