A MAN AND HIS CRAFT
In Kampung Putat, 73-year old Haji Junggal is hard at work crafting. In a little workshop that adjoins his home, Haji Junggal works by himself, cross-legged on the floor, hammering at pieces of wood, tweaking and pulling using homemade tools, until he gets it perfect. His rough work-hewn hands work the pieces of wood with hard-earned familiarity, understandably, he’s been doing this since he was a child.
For Haji Junggal, this is honest work that has been passed down from generations. As a child, he sat in a similar workshop to watch his grandfather make traditional wooden handicrafts and learned the craft himself. Until today, he still makes and sells his traditional wooden wares to the public, still representing an important part of the nation’s culture by preserving this age old handicraft which includes the crafting of items such as traditional musical instruments, cooking utensils, walking canes, and traditional local board games like saluk-salukan, kercang, gasing and congkak.
In a country that is mostly verdant rainforest, a traditional woodcrafter’s relationship with trees is a learned one. In this case, Haji Junggal chooses materials for its sturdiness, aesthetic and medicinal properties. Rasamala wood is used in large quantities – a type of herbal wood that if used to stir food, can help ailments such as asthma, headaches, flus, even to make your hair grow. While he used to forage the jungle to cut the wood himself, these days and at his age, he has to buy them in bundles.
But these days, Haji Junggal has had to use different materials from the traditional wood used to make these handicrafts. From experience and with an understanding of his consumers, Haji Junggal has used alternative materials like plastic to make the traditional games although he still strives to use as much wood as possible.“we have to modernise it to make it more attractive,” Haji Junggal explained, pointing at the saluk-salukan in his workshop. The rattan and the kembayau seeds used are traditional materials, but we use the convenience of strings to tie it up instead of making it completely rattan. We varnish them, making it nicer to look at, and people buy it as decoration.”
“People want the authentic traditional craft, but just as many want a nicer looking version. This is why I modernise it like this, because the traditionally made handicrafts are not as nice to look at. I don’t agree with it, when people say, ‘I’m not buying this to play with it, I’m buying it for decoration’. An authentically made handicraft lasts longer than modern ones. But these days, these items are not used in the traditional sense but displayed.”
Modern technology has come up with new, colourful, oftentimes digitalised ways of giving your brain a break and a challenge. With today’s variety of console games, mobile application games, modern board games and more, there are so many game options that it baffles the mind. But a revival of sorts has come to fruition in the past few years, as consumers have begun to reach out for the gameplay of simple and challenging retro games and traditional board games. An appreciation of heritage, tradition and aesthetics has found a new home in the modern world, with the youth today taking eager steps to learn more about the beauty of our history and culture.
But while there is a demand, the skills unique to making these handicrafts are limited to a band of experts – youths from the Brunei Arts and Handicraft Training Centre, and a group of aging citizens steadfastly clinging to an art that speaks volumes of the nation’s history.
And it’s always comforting to know that somewhere in Brunei, a man named Haji Junggal sits in his workshop, making his wooden crafts with his bare hands, keeping the tradition alive for the country’s future generations.