There is a tribe in Malaysia that can make poisonous arrows that can kill wild boars, pythons and other animals.
Sarawak is the oldest and most diverse region in the world, home to one-third of the world's plants and 30 million species of insects, so Sarawak doesn't even have a national park because it's full of beautiful scenery. Sarawak was once a paradise for tropical rainforests, but for more than 50 years, sarawak's primary forest area has been less than 10% due to excessive logging, and most of the forest resources are obtained from secondary forests.
They would stay in their cabin for a few months before going to the next hunting spot. Punans have lived in this pristine jungle for a long time, but they still can't withstand the ravages from government-funded logging companies. Because over-logging posed a great threat to the survival of the Punan people, some people chose to stay away from this place and settle in the city, while many more gradually abandoned this beautiful forest, and only a few families remain in this forest.
Bamboo is used to hold poisonous tajim. The sap of the Tagim tree is a highly toxic, once it enters the blood vessels, it will cause arrhythmias, as long as the trunk is cut, a large amount of white liquid will flow out of the wound. Applying Tajim's toxin to the tip of the needle allows the prey to be killed in two minutes.
In terms of hunting, the Punans have a special set of hunting techniques. When hunting wild boars, they use special straws with steel needles that can penetrate the animal's skin, and when they come into contact with the animal's skin, the toxins will act, making it impossible for them to escape far. And when the Punans encountered invaders, these steel needles were not limited to animals, and sometimes these invaders did not realize that they had been poisoned by poisoned arrows, they only felt that they had been stabbed by a small steel needle, but they would soon be poisoned and die, and the whole process could not even let them return to their camp alive.
In order to refine a more powerful poison, they will mix the sap of various poisonous plants in a certain proportion, and then wrap these poisons on steel needles and bake them with flames to create a deadly poison needle.
The only tropical rainforest river in this forest is still clear because it has not been polluted by the soil caused by deforestation, so the Punan people still have the opportunity to fish here with their own fishing gear. In addition, they will use bread as bait in the swamp to fish, because the ecology in the river is very good, there are so many fish, usually within three seconds of the fish will be hooked.
In the Punan tradition, they would not tell the names of their women. And because there are a lot of wildlife in the forest, turtles are their most common lunch, they also make a cassava called Naon, which tastes like water, and they also distribute their food to their pets.
Most of the Punan people's crops come from sago palm trees in the rainforest, so when they extract raw materials from their trunks, they consciously do not harm the roots because they know the importance of sustainable development. They will collect a moss called jakah, which keeps the skin dry at all times and is the main ingredient for the Punan fire. In addition to the moss on the epidermis, its center can be eaten directly and can also be made into nutrient-rich flour.
The Punans have a special method of communication, they make marks with branches, the roots are deeply rooted in the soil, the tilt of the canopy means that this direction is inhabited by humans, and a leaf is tied to the trunk to indicate that there is food or shared food, and all this stems from a Punan proverb: "We are with one heart." ”
Unlike the modern way of life, Punans moved near the national park, where they shared a room with many people, the so-called "longhouses." Every family has its own house, but the children who live in the long house grow up together all the time. Punan women also weave beautiful baskets out of rattan, but today, the craft is no longer there.
The Punan people can also make clothes from the bark of the betel nut tree, and the peeled bark is beaten and softened to make a traditional Punan-wrapped loincloth, but cotton cloth has gradually replaced it. There are many species of snakes in the rainforest, and in the battle with the forest snake, they found a universal plant that can treat the wounds of snake bites, as long as the roots of the plant are applied to the wounds, and then eat the plant, they can heal all the wounds of snake bites.
A plant used by the Punans to treat snake bite wounds
For those Punans who have been forced to migrate, they have bid farewell to their freedom in the rainforest, there are no longer tropical rainforest animals around their houses, and their livelihood can only rely on money to survive, but many Punans do not have modern technology, they can only struggle in a modern society. The Punan tribe is now facing a devastated rainforest, with landslides and roads collapsing due to over-exploitation, and many unique traditional crafts are slowly disappearing, but they will eventually face eternal extinction.