The Semai are a semi-sedentary ethnic group living in the center of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia, known especially for their nonviolence. This characterization was made by Robert Knox Dentan, an anthropologist who studied the Semai in the 1960s, though he offered a more nuanced view after subsequent fieldwork. They speak Semai, an Austroasiatic language closely related to Temiar, spoken by Temiars nearby. The Semai are bordered by the Temiars to the north and the Jah Hut to the South. The Semai belong to the Senoi group, and are one of the largest indigenous ethnic group in the Peninsula and the largest of the Senoi group. Most Semai subsist by cultivating grain crops, hunting, and fishing.
A Semai man in Tapah, Perak, Malaysia.
Wax sculpture of a Semai woman at the New York Museum of Natural History
Newly married Semai couple; woman with painted head-band and nose-quill in Ulu Itam, Perak, 1906.
A Semai man in traditional attire opening a durian fruit in Cameron Highlands District, Pahang, Malaysia.
The Temiar are a Senoic group indigenous to the Malay Peninsula and one of the largest of the eighteen Orang Asli groups of Malaysia. They reside mainly in Perak, Pahang and Kelantan. Their total population is estimated at around 40,000 to 120,000, most of which live on the fringes of the rainforest, while a small number have been urbanised.
Temiar people
A Temiar headdress.
