IDNO

P.46017.SKT

Description

"Some of the women 'Bearers' of the 'Betel-leaf' stands carried at the procession of Initiates (masok Jawi) at Patani." [Skeat's caption]

Four young women in sarongs bearing the "betel-leaf stand" - ceremonial trays decorated with flowers - carried in the procession of initiates before their circumcision. At their feet are decorative trays and ritual? bowls.
They are standing on a bamboo platform, probably the threshold of the house in which the ceremony is taking place. In the background is a man clad in a white top and sarong looking on. [LC 08/02/2007]

The two women on the left side probably carry a set of snacks that in Malay language are called Putu Semangat (Putu = rice cake, semangat = soul), which consisted of many kinds of rice cakes. In this photo, it might consist of at least two kinds of local cake, Kuih Putu (the white cake carried by the women on the left) and Kuih Karas or Karah (the dark, triangular cake). This identification is based on the two rows of threads that are wrapped around the set of Putu semangat.
Putu semangat are always found in many local Patani Malay cultural events, especially such as Masuk Jawi (circumcision) and Nikah (wedding ceremony).in the past
Skeat's? caption of the “Betel Leaf stand” (local term is Bungo Sireh or standard Malay language is Bunga Sirih, literacy means the flower of betel) may indicate the objects that the two women on the right carry. However the shape of the the betel leaf stand here is different from what we found in other historical photos, which show the stand made in a cone shape of many layers of the betel leaves.
The check sarongs the women are called Kain Punca Potong in Malay language, and were popular in the area of Patani-Kelantan (now north Malaysia) in the past.  [Knowledge shared by Ekkalak Rattanachot, researcher from the Excellence Center for Biodiversity of Peninsular Thailand (CBIPT), Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand, 14/05/2024]

Place

SE Asia; Thailand; East Coast; Pattani; Pattani River [Siam; Patani]

Cultural Affliation

Malay

Named Person

Photographer

Gwynne-Vaughan, David Thomas

Collector / Expedition

Skeat, Walter William [from Cambridge Expedition to the North-eastern Malay States and Upper Perak, 1899 - 1900]

Date

1899

Collection Name

Skeat Collection

Source

Skeat, Walter William

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Bibliographical Reference: This is probably the circumcision ceremony recounted in Skeat, W.W., 1901. Notes on the Ethnography of the Malay Peninsula. Man No. 142, pp. 179-180, and Skeat, W.W. 1953. Reminiscences of the Cambridge University Expedition to the North-Eastern Malay States, 1899-1900. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 26, Part 4, pp.79-82.

This print was kept in a box now numbered C153/ by the cataloguer. This box was formerly numbered 160.

P.46000.SKT - P.46074.SKT were found in the envelope now numbered C153/1/.
Taken during the Cambridge-sponsored expedition to the (north east) Malay Peninsula in 1899.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Liana Chua 8/2/2007]