Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Profile of a Lipat Kajang man

Here is a man who I have known for almost all my life. A relative , a friend and someone that I can trust. We grew up together in the kampong, playing almost the same games (but later in life he was more sportsman than I) , have almost the same buddies in the kampong. We ate, we slept, we swam and we now grow old together but in different towns (well almost). He is my friend Hj Teh Seman.

Our age is only about a few years different. His father was my father’s cousion, on my grandmother’s side and he on his grandfather’s side (my grandmother and his grandfather were brother and sister). Our house was only about 200 meters apart, and he was my grandmother favourite grand nephew. His father was a respected headman (Tok Mukim) of a combination of precints by the Pahang River (collectively locally called ‘baruh’).

We went to the same Malay School in Lipat Kajang, him a few years junior, and when I left the school to go to another school he also left the school a few years later to go to a nearby English School, Abu Bakar School in Temerloh ( about 20 km downriver). He left the Abu Bakar School school after getting his Certificate and he became a Cadet Reporter, but because of certain reasons only known to ourselves he left and entered the Language Institute in Kuala Lumpur training to become a Teacher. And he made himself a good Teacher and on top of that he became a part time Army Officer up to the rank of Major with Provost at his retirement age. And he has settled in Kuantan.

What is interesting about this guy is that he has interesting hobbies. In the kampong when we were small we had the hobby of trapping birds (bull bull and birds in that family mostly), and at time we went into the bushes near our houses to ‘catapult’ small birds. And when he was a working man took interest in hand weapons, guns and knives. He has a fantastic collection of knives and hand weapons.


Some he procured himself and some he inherited from his grandfather and his father.
A "kerambit" from his grandfather,


A big "kris" also from his grandfather,


A long "parang" from his father,


Spears and other weapons, from the old house.



He is Licenced to own a shotgun which her uses usefully to be an accomplished Licenced hunter (for venison). Once he had a private mini zoo behind his house.

And he collects the old earthern wears vessels which were used in his parents house when he was a small boy.



A narrow mouthed earthen water container which was used to collect rainwater to be used for washing feet before going up a house (kampong Malay houses have wooden climbing steps),


smaller earthen ware pots where his mother used to keep her salted preserved fresh water fish (Malay = pekasam),


an open earthenware container where his mother used to keep her cookies (a sort of cookies ‘jar’ really but in this case of earthernware),


a nicely varnished earthen ware pot where his mother used to keep her fresh water fish after the inside had been cleaned out prior to putting salt and ‘sour fruit’ for preservation (in those days we did not have fridges, there was no electricity supply in the kampong).


And surprisingly he has other collections of earthen ware jars of various sizes, the black one shown on the right (in the photo) I recognised as An earthenware vase where rock salt was normally kept, at least my late grandmother’s house.


The above is written from memory and I haven not asked him of the other events in his life. I am in the opinion that if ever he reads this blog he may want o add more interesting things in his life. Perhaps his other friends and his siblings may like to add more in the Comments.

A typical Lipat Kajang man, interesting and just unassuming. Other Lipat Kajang man may have a more interesting life history, but Hj Teh Seman is typical Lipat Kajang man in my opinion. He does not forget his roots, his friends and relatives and he visits the kampong often when he is able to.



Lipat Kajang people (or decendents) are encouraged to participate& contribute (Orang Lipat Kajang, atau keturunan, di jemput memberi sumbangan idea)

11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Abang Teh Seman, when i saw him a few years back he looked (at that time, his real self) much younger than how he looks in this photo...nak tahu lah apa rahsia nya

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  3. Ayah Teh Seman,

    Handsome in the military attire.

    I think, somehow or rather a coincidence, most of the Lipat Kajang , Pahang men's folk are either involve fully or partially in uniform
    organization.

    Askar, Police, Wataniah, PGA to name a few.

    My common sense is that our forefathers are mostly Panglima, Pawangs and so forth.

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  4. ingat Pak Uda Manap? segak orang nya. banyak jasa nya.

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  5. Hj Abdul Manaf Bin Talib (Pak Uda Manaf) - let it be known to all his children and grandchildren, and son...that Pak Uda Manaf was my favourite uncle, though only bapak saudara pupu (second uncle, or whatever)if they all have not yet acknowledge that fact even after they have all grown up, or just refuse to acknowledge, and simply ignore !!!

    and his wife as well, arwah MakUda Zaharah...

    i was like on of his own children, no doubt about that, i was literally with his family since i was a small boy, until ...i was one of the first to be informed when he passed away

    somehow PakUda Manaf had got that special bonding with PakUda Manaf, and another of his (my father's cousins, arwah AyahWer (or PakWer) Chik Bin Bidin (alias Chik Katak)
    though the family tie between these three was no different compared to the famly tie between them and all the others such as PakUda Man Tanjung, PakChik Ya, AyahNdak Derus, PakNgah Nordin, AyahNjang Ahmad, MakWer Saadah, and all ...

    Now back to PakUda Manaf, the ex army man
    i hope one of his children, in particular Suhaimi aka "Tan Tambi" bumps into this blog and have the urge to write about his father's glamorous army service and very rewarding lifetime, al fatihah

    Tan Tambi can also show us his Family Tree, as far up as he can possibly tell, or had possibly recorded, so that we can all see where/how exactly was/is THE LINK

    PakUda Manaf's brother, arwah Abdul Kadir Bin Talib was also a soldier, and so was his (PakTeh Kadir's) son, Halim, was also a soldier
    Halim i believe now lives and work in Temerloh

    Tan, Ti, Ba'iyah, Ijah, Itah...???

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  6. a son of Tan (SAM we call him) will be married in KL on 25th Jan. He SMS me, but cannot find my address to send me a card. Tak de' card pun tak ape', saya atau isteri saya akan pergi. (saya mungkin tak dapat pergi pasal saya kena pergi ke Segamat pada hari tu). I spoke to him on the phone, sms him my address and asked him whether he has seen our blog. He said yes, but being a busy man (he works in PETRONAS) he has yet to find time to open the blog.

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  7. like i said, we all have been (very) busy looking after "ourselves" only
    where got time for anything else, more so about Kg Lipat Kajang, what do I care...
    yes it's long overdue that we all should and must render all the due focus attention and effort towards making the kampong a better place and all its people including all of us more decent and more "civilised" ....and rid off all the "....centrics" (selfishness and cronyism small-scale as it may seem)
    I bet some of us may not understand but this is the plague that has soured so many relationships in the kampong and amongst its sons and daughters, I hate to say it...that's the stark reality

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  8. ahaa...now we seems to be related...i'm 1 of Tan Tambi's sons...

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  9. if any one of our parents is from Lipat Kajang, we are all related without doubt. Just post your picture/s somewhere. Or join our ning.com or be a follower of this blog.

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  10. "...now we seems to be related"

    this is not "seems to be ....." this is for real, tak boleh nak tolak ke mana

    buang segala "......centrics" baru lah jelas kelihatan siapa diri kita2 semua, dan mahu bertegur sape' dan memulihkan silaturrahim, berpijak dibumi nyata, hakikat dan kenyataan tak boleh nak dikikis buang, darah yang sama mengalir dalam badan-badan kita semua

    that's the most polite i can say, sorry
    but i am in a position to say so to adik-adik dan anak-anak, i am not obligated to anyone not to say so
    sampaikan salam saya kepada sdr tan tambi
    ayoh (atau apok) awok dan semua emak emak sdr awok - ti, bahiyah, ijah dan itah
    like i said before, i love you all, macam dik beradik sendiri

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  11. saya tak pernah lupa kepada sdr mara di lipat kajang walau pun saya telah menjelajah ke hampir .......... setengah dunia. itu lah puncanya tertubuhnya blog ini.

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