Baram Tales : Rubber Tapping

Chinese surnames : Tiong and Hii. The third character means Garden.

A chance visit to a kampong house in Bekenu, 20 years ago,  gave me a special encounter with an Iban man who had lots of stories to tell. He said he was born in Marudi but he had no more long house to go back to already. He became a migrant worker in the Baram for years. His life must have been very sad and challenging.

He showed me some of his keepsakes. A charcoal iron, an old photo, an old wallet, an old lampit (mat). Then he had his parang in his old fashioned matted basket. There was an ash tray which I recognised as a rubber latex cup. 

He had tapped rubber for a Chinese family. When he heard that my surname was Tiong, he gave me one of the two bowls he had. He had been using the bowls for his cigarette butts and ashes.

He said, "After the rubber prices went down, my towkay moved to Miri to continue his business and later passed away. His children are all over the world now. I have worked in Marudi, Bekenu and even Miri. Now I am too old and I am staying with my daughter who is married to a Kedayan. "

The latex bowl has marking indicating the rubber garden belonged to two men, a Tiong and a Hii. What a remarkable souvenir.

I presume that their rubber latex bowls were custom made by Ng Sian Hup Pottery of Miri. Ng sian Hup's main branch was in Kerto, Sibu.

latex bowl: the outside is not glazed while the inside is glazed to make it more lasting.

The bowl still looks very new after I have cleaned it up. 

The old Iban man must have been a careful rubber tapper in the olden days and had kept all the rubber tapping equipment with him, the tapper's knives, and even the old lights which he wore around his head.

He was quite a sentimental gentleman by the look of it. 

He also told me that a long time ago the Ibans in Poyut owned a lot of rubber trees as the Rajah encouraged them to grow rubber, but when the prices went down they moved on to work for the Chinese in the timber logging companies in the ulu. He too moved to the logging camps with them.

If you visit a Marudi rubber garden you might still find rubber trees with all their marks of tapping, residue latex on the trees. May be you might even find a few broken latex bowls, sherds and others!!

Some trees are well tapped by the the workers and the cuts are very geometrically beautiful.

Many rubber trees in Lubok Nibong area have been cut down, and fruit trees like durians have been planted in the last 30 years. In fact some landowners have started to grow oil palm.

A glorious era has passed and a new dawn of a prosperous future is in the offing.

God bless all who work hard for the good of the community.

The metal plate to allow the latex to drip into the latex bowl is called spoon or gutter
and in fact you can still buy them in bundles in shops in Marudi and Bekenu.

 The story of rubber tapping in Poyut-Lubok Nibong started in 1920's when Foochows were invited by Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke (Rajah 1918-1946) to start a settlement in the Baram.

Pioneer Hii Nguong Shern recruite 90 Foochows (60 from Sibu and 30 from Fujian) to Mid Baram Valley. 1927 was considered the year they started the settlement of Poyut-Lubok Nibong Foochow Settlement in the Baram.

The Foochows were specially recruited to plant rubber (2000 trees) in 5 years. They were given a loan by the Rajah and they had to pay him back within 5  years. In return, they would be given the land on which they planted the rubber trees. The Third Rajah was hopeful that the group going to the Baram would be as successful as the Sibu group during his father's time.

The new Rajah was not wrong because the Baram Foochows were hardworking and honest people They were successful in rubber planting project and became prosperous. Subsequent generations have been very successful too.