Buah Langsat

 The fruit season of Sarawak is over and done with. The excitement of eating durians and looking for them is a thing of the past and life goes on.. And the last of the langsat skins have been thrown away and town cleaners heave a sigh of relief. No more fruit peels to dispose off!! And it will be another 9 or 10 months before the fruit season comes again.

We do not have the usual four seasons of spring,summer ,and winter in Sarawak. But we have the rainy season, the planting season, the fruiting season and now in recent years the hazy season. Due to the global warming in the past decades the fruit season is no longer  fixed and exact  towards the end of the year in November when students go home for their school holidays. The fruit season this year was in January and tapered into February.

Each fruit season is a happy season and when the langsat arrives we know that it is the end of the fruit season.

Lansium domesticum, also known as langsat or lanzones, is a fruit from the family Meliaceae. The plant, which originates from western Southeast Asia. It is the provincial flower for the Indonesian province of South Sumatra

I love to see a langsat tree bearing fruit. It is  only a small tree and yet it can bear these gold skinned fruits in bunches like succulent grapes- and one just can't wait for them to ripen. But their arrival in the market is also a remarkable tell tale sign that the fruit season is over in Sarawak!!

The langsat is like the last runner coming up the finishing line and you know that the race is finally over.

When still on the tree these  fruits are firm and ready to burst out of their skin.

The thick leaves of the langsat tree.

Succulent and sweet the langast is a good fruit to eat when having a good family time.

Mangosteen displayed in an antique Chinese bowl

when the flowers of the durian appear every one in the valley gets excited and relatives from afar are told to come back to visit during the ripening period. In fact people get into a durian eating partying mood! "Durian party" "waiting for the durian to drop" are catch phrases and idioms in the Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Iban vocabulary as only the locals can understand.

the buah langsat is a succulent fruit found in South East Asia . It is very sweet and tasty and almost every one likes it unlike the durian which some people dislike because of the smell..



People do not use poles or knives to pick the fruit. A lithe climber would be invited to climb up the small tree with a basket and each bunch of fruit is picked by hand like the way grape pickers pick their grapes. In the longhouse community where there is no fencing no one upon seeing the ripening langsat would climb up the tree and pick as they like. Each tree is owned by some one they know and property rights are very much respected by young and old.

. Usually when the last of the langsat is picked it can really be a sad time because it means that relatives would go back to town and the fruit picking season is over.



Money will become tight again for many of the poorer farmers who depend on sale of durians and better fruits to add to their cash flow. If a man has no skill and no regular jobs he will have to find an odd job in town. However a skilled person would have taken leave during the fruit season and when the langsat appear he will go back to his post which may be very far away from the longhouse.

So once again with the arrival of langsat in the market one knows that the fruit stalls may shrink and many of the rural fruit sellers would be packing their baskets and make their way home until the next season..and they will come back again!!

The atmosphere is like that of the last birds flying south for the winter....and the last of the flowers fade before autumn sets in.

extra notes:
L. domesticum is cultivated mainly for its fruit, which can be eaten raw. The fruit can also be bottled in syrup. The wood is hard, thick, heavy, and resilient, allowing it to be used in the construction of rural houses.
Some parts of the plant are used in making traditional medicine. The bitter seeds can be pounded and mixed with water to make a deworming and ulcer medication. The bark is used to treat dysentery and malaria; the powered bark can also be used to treat scorpion stings. The fruit's skin is used to treat diarrhea, and in the Philippines the dried skin is burned as a mosquito repellent.

The skin, especially of the langsat variety, can be dried and burned as incense.
The greatest producers of lansium domesticum are Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. The production is mostly for internal consumption, although some is exported to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Baby Boy or Baby Girl?

Since the beginning of the Chinese civilisation patriarchy has been the issue of the day. Every Chinese man would like to have a male offspring. It was common place to hear of Chinese marriages being terminated because of lack of male offsprings and all the blame would go to the female womb which was not "strong enough" to fight for the mother!! Indeed many  mothers throughout the history of the Chinese even committed suicide when no son was born after giving birth to 10 or more daughters!! And obviously female infanticide was most rampant in the 19th century from the documentation found in the archives.But the other side of coin if we look deeply many of these "unwanted females" fought and did more for the society  than the males!!Such is my Chinese background.

After I have given birth to THREE girls in the 70's and 80's...neighbours and relatives came around to give me plenty of advice.

Here are some :
An aunt who had many boys told me to eat more vegetables than meat to conceive a boy.

Then the usual belief that you need to conceive in the middle of the ovulation period to guarrantee a boy seem to be the most popular. Well that is good for people who have regular periods and can count well.

One man friend even asked me to put a huge axe underneath my bed which would guarrantee a male offspring.

A friend told me to wash with a special combination of leaves to wash away the "female spirits" from my body...

Another friend advised me to go for a special "drainage of the uterus" to take out all the wrong acids and alkalis and have a clean uterus for the next conception. (I did not dare!)

But I did enjoy all the herbs friends provided...Life was so good trying out all those herbal treats!! (Not treatments LOL)

Then came the fad of Feng Shui and all sorts of ideas circulated around but for a very big fee!!

Furthermore as I looked into all these options I also realise that Sarawak with its multi racial background there were other kinds of advice and theories . But I am glad that most of my friends were really caring enough to help me "get a boy".

However the following recount may not prove anything. But it was the desperate measure I took in order to conceive..and hope for a boy. I already had three girls and was quite happy with myself being the modern and educated woman I was.But again I was doubtful...what if I had another girl?

But neighbours and colleagues had started to cluck their tongues and continued to try their best to "educate" me in having a boy.

Apart from praying every day for a son I did follow this chart..or was it coincidence?

/a


Throughout the pregnancy I did not go for a scan to check whether it was a boy or girl as I did not want to be disappointed. I allowed nature to take its course...I just waited for the delivery and it was to be in the Lau King Howe Hospital because it was going to be difficult as I experienced foetal distress quite early. I had pre-eclyampsia almost from the beginning.


This chart is derived from some Ancient Chinese research. You need to read the upper horizontal (umur) column which states your age. The month is on the left vertical column and you can read all the Ps and Ls in the other columns below the age..that will guide you on  sex of the baby. So should you want to conceive a  boy at age 31 you should try in March.P is for perempuan or baby girl. L is for Lelaki or baby boy.


 Now I am not sure if you should be following the Chinese Age only. But according to the chart I conceived my fourth child when I was .36 in May and the baby was born a boy!! My first baby was conceived in Sept when I was 26 and well..she was a bouncing curly haired little princess!!


Please check this out with friends who have already given birth...and it might not be 100% accurate.


By the way this chart has been circulating around for more than 30 years and I only used it in 1985 and 1986 when my colleagues shared it with me..


My boy was born in Sibu during the Rabbit Year of 1987.at 7.02 p.m. on a Friday...The delivery was almost a disaster . However thanks to a special and caring  gynaecologist who  had to come to rescue  . He was in the middle of his dinner. The doctor in attendance also came to monitor the foetal distress. And I was told to be strong and not lose my vision!! A simple and successful delivery can be carried out by experienced midwives - and I had no doubt about their expertise!!. My cousin Dr.T had been monitoring my pregnancy from Kuching . Here I would to thank all the nurses and midwives and doctors who formed to team to deliver the healthy baby boy who had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck...


He was welcomed to the world by a loud applause from the team which had been so expectant and worried..


Yes indeed..a boy and I do believe that the whole Sibu was happy that he was a boy....


..and he would soon be 25!!  God blessed me with a boy and he has grown up to be a very responsible and caring son.

(This chart can surface every now and then in magazines or even newspapers...but what you can do is have a check on the children you already have. Is the chart accurate? Did I get a boy really on that specific day?)