Chapter 1 : The Kampung Life

History of Kampung Dusun Tua

 

Map of Selangor, highlighted is daerah Hulu Langat

Dusun Tua is the oldest and largest kampung (Malay village) at Mukim Hulu Langat, Selangor. Name of Dusun Tua was named after the aged fruit orchards. True to its name (dusun means orchard in Malay), there are many orchards here and attracts visitors who want to feast on durian, rambutan and other local fruits. On the other hand, Tua actually means old age in bahasa Malaysia.

According to the penghulu kampung, Kampung Dusun Tua has approximately 100 years of history. It is not surprise, because you can still find old giant trees at their orchards. There are not many natural features are remained. For instance, the paddy field were replaced by roads, houses and shops.

Layout of the kampung

Layout of the kampung

Key public buildings :

1. Mosque Al-Muttaqin - act as a focus point for villagers to meet socially. Sometimes they will also held bazaar in the mosque.

2. Convenient shop 

3. Restaurant

4. Pondok - place for meeting specially for key people like penghulu and the committees  

5. Hardware shop

6. Gazebo - place for gathering, resting and chilling for the residents

7. Sekolah Dusun Tua - a place where children get to learn and study

8. Surau - a place for Muslims to pray. Besides praying, they also held the activities and wedding dinners in the surau.

9. Adopted kampung house

10. Cemetry - a place where dead peoples were grounded. Residents will usually pray their ancestor at the cemetry.

11. Jalan Hulu Langat - the only main access, it is a road filled with Tar

When we enter the boundary of the kampung, we can tell that we are no longer in a city but a village. In the kampung, there is no high rise or any commercial buildings around. There are only community buildings like mosques, mamak and schools. The orientation and site planning are also vary, they are not as compact as city buildings and actually developed randomly far from each other and isolated with vegetation surrounding. The kampung comprises Malay houses and their compounds. The houses are usually organized in family clusters and each house are being occupied by a family. Each cluster are usually belongs to related families.

Meet the Penghulu

Interview session with the Penghulu kampung Hulu Langat, En. Razaly

Once we reach the village, we met the Hulu Langat village chief (Penghulu), Encik Razaly. He gave us a brief history of the kampung, population, and culture of the village. He has been a penghulu kampung for 5 years, he is 67 years old and a father of 6.

As a ketua kampung, he has the responsibly to take care of the whole kampung. He has to be the supervisor, as to settle every incident happen within the kampung. He is also the representation for the whole kampung to speak out, as voice of the residents.

There is no any specific system and organization of the kampung, however the penghulu has a team of workers under him. The team (petugas bilik gerakan) has the responsibility on assisting the penghulu in managing the kampung ritual.

Board of directory in Batu 16, Kampung Dusun Tua

Population, Social Organization

There are approximately 1500 family lived at Batu 16, Kampung Dusun Tua, Hulu langat and the population of people is about 400 peoples. Hulu Langat has many villages besides Batu 16, such as Kampung Batu 15, Kampung Kenanga, Kampung Udang and others.

There are also parks in Hulu Langat. Park (taman) is unlikely village (kampung). Parks are developed by the government and their ownerships are owned by the government, while villages are owned by the owners or their family. The residents in the village are mostly come from Indonesia, Orang Asli, and Melayu.

The kampung contains a full percentages of Malays, hence that make the whole kampung is muslim village. According to Islam culture, Zakat is a fund that usually all kampung people will organize. Every village people will pay to Zakat once a year and the fund collected would be an aid for those who needed.

There is a special characteristic of kampung houses is there are no any physical boundaries, like fences between houses. This shows that the village people not only concern about individual household, but also the community.

The neighbours get to know each other better without any physical boundaries.

Celebration

As usual Malays, they celebrate Hari Raya Haji and Hari Raya Aidilfidri. Representative of kampung will usually throw a ceremony of "buka puasa" to treat the residents of kampung. They even celebrate Hari Raya korban. On that day, they will slay a cow to pray and then share the meat among the residents.

One of the committee member is preparing the "bubur labor" for "buka puasa".

Another committee member helps preparing the "bubur labor".

Once a period, the penghulu will organize some gathering and dinner in the village to enhance the relationship between the residents. Annually, they will also have "gotong-royong" in the kampung. During "gotong-royong", everyone helps to tidy up the area within the kampung.

Wedding dinner will usually held in the mosque or surau for the first day and then carry on the traditional wedding at their own house in the second day.

Daily ritual of kampung life

In old times, the men will usually do the heavier work such as the plantation job at paddy field and fruit orchard. After the plantation is mature enough in growth, they will sell the fruit or the paddy and this is how they earn the money to support the living. On the other hand, the woman will do the lighter works at home. Usually they will raise fish, chicken and duck. They will also do the housework and take care of the children, hence prepare the meal for the family members. Some family will also have small orchard vegetable for their own personal and do trading. Normally, the children will play and enjoy at the waterfall.

Coming to this modern time, the men’s job and women’s job are slightly different. Men will go out to the city to work, no more planting in paddy field but however there are still some of them feeding animals like ducks, rabbits, fish and chicken. Certain women will also do some small business like selling the food at roadside or open up a shop. But the women are also taking care of the chicken and preparing the meal. During night time, the families will usually rest together and have light activities together like watch television and chit-chatting.

During free times, there are residents who likes to go fishing and gardening. These are the hobbies and activities they usually do during weekends.

 Ducks feeding by one of the family in the kampung.

 Pet rabbits in one of the resident's house.

Fish pond at Mr. Mat Salleh's house

Gardening at the backyard of Mr. Mat Salleh's house

An old man was spotted catching fish using a net.

Two young adults were found fishing by the river.

Stalls selling duck's egg, meats and "kuih bumbai"

Evolution of kampung

Years ago, they plants and do fishing to live, there are a lot of paddy-growing areas and fruits orchards. Nowadays people prefer to work in the city, because no more young people want to plant paddy or plant fruit trees.

The design of the Malay houses are different, there is no specific type of kampung house. Mostly the Malay houses there has been build since 1940, yet now some of them are still well maintained. However, there are some of the Malay houses had been renovated into brick house. Somehow, there are some elements of traditional houses remained. The original Malay house are usually built by natural material like wood, they need to carry the wood themselves by hand when they build it. Last time there do not have any transportation and well performed road as now.

One of the tourist attraction in Dusun Tua is the hot spring. It is produced from the reaction of sulfur in the soil. Many people believe that hot spring can be cure their skin disease and willing come for it.

Nowadays, there are some public facilities and transportation in the kampung like polis station, hospital, fire station. The other features of Dusun Tua are Institut Kemahiran Belia Negara Dusun Tua (IKBN), Kolam Air Panas Dusun Tua and Air Terjun Sungai Longkak.

Historical timeline of kampung evolution