Lably
Skip to content

Temuan people

  • 24 min read
  • 11 chapters

Explore on Lably

ToursExplore Lably’s 3D tours

Outwardly, the Temuan people; like the other Proto-Malays, are virtually indistinguishable from the Malays themselves. They have straight hair and light brown skin, but strong individual variations are found among the Temuan people. Their average height is approximately 153 cm for men and 142 cm for women. Culturally, the Malays and the Proto-Malays are also closely related.

They speak Temuan, an Austronesian language closely related to Malay.

Demographics

The Temuan people can be found in almost every state of Peninsular Malaysia, but most of them still live in the countryside and suburban villages of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, as well as Pahang and Melaka. Usually these villages consist of purely Temuan people. Traditionally, the Temuans were forest dwellers. However, with the implementation economic development programmes, relocation of individuals of Orang Asli communities to new villages are often in suburban areas by the government. In urban areas, the Temuan people live alongside other ethnic groups.

The dynamics in the population of the Temuan people in Malaysia:-

Population distribution of the Temuan people by state (1996, JHEOA census):-

Despite the government's efforts to modernize the indigenous way of living, the Orang Asli are still a marginalized people of the country's population. Literacy rates among the indigenous stood at 43% in 1991, compared with 86% nationally at that time. The average life expectancy of an Orang Asli person is 53 years, and the poverty rate was 76.9%, with 35.2% is considered very poor ("hardcore poor").

Sign in to keep reading

10 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Regions and countries