Standing amid tropical vines and a cacophony of cicadas, I look Piyan in the eyes, hoping he is pulling my leg. But the young man is deadly serious: He claims he has just seen the golden back of what sounds like ngah in the unwritten language of the Batek people -- one of Peninsular Malaysia's 18 seminomadic orang asli (aboriginal) subgroups.
Tea Leaves
Contemporary life lessons from an ancient rainforest
Jungle odyssey in Malaysia highlights importance of ancestral wisdom
Batek guide Piyan, left, and the author wearing traditional orang asli face paint made of river mud. (Photo by Kit Yeng Chan)
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