Daily ritual of the kampong life

For some of you that haven’t been to a kampung before, the kampung life is actually different from the city life. From what we can see clearly is that the city is compact place, its very crowded, and it has pollution everywhere. On the other hand, the kampung is still very peaceful, they still have trees and vegetations everywhere, which makes the air so fresh. That is what I saw when I visited Dusun Tua, Hulu Langat, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur.

People in the Kampung have a different life style from people in the city. The men of the house don’t usually have activity in the house. They usually spend their time with farming vegetations or farming animals or do other works outside the house. The women of the house on the other hand take care of their children if they have children, take care of the house needs. Sometimes they also have a kampung gathering and a gotong royong.

In this hari raya they basically do their activities normally. But during the month of Ramadan leading up to Hari Raya, they have fast without eat or drink anything from dawn until dusk. They will recite the takbir, which is held in the mosque and surau. Usually approaching the celebrations, especially mothers and housewives will be busy preparing foods, kuih, and various delicacies to be served on the Hari Raya day. On the Hari Raya celebration, they usually gather with their family members.

In the Hari Raya Haji, they normally dress in they’re finest and perform a prayer in a congregation in the mosque. They also sacrifice a cow as qurban.

The Penghulu and the system of the kampung

JKKK (Jawantankuasa Kemajuan Dan Keselamatan Kampong)

The JKKK is a organization that manage and control a kampong. In traditional kampong, ‘Penghulu’ automatically become the president of the organization JKKK. For at least five years. The responsibility of the ‘penghulu’ is to make decision for certain minor issues with regards to the villagers. There are different ways to address the ‘Penghulu’ in different place. In Perak, they named ‘Penghulu’ as ‘tok siding’. In Negeri Sembilan, ‘Penghulu' named as ‘tuk empat’ and ‘tok dagang’. In Kelantan, ‘Penghulu’ also named as ‘Penggawa’.

Meeting of JKKK held once one month and the members of JKKK also can get allowance if they are present at the meeting. These meetings are normally held at the Community Hall. ‘Penghulu’ will report the problem to district officer and the officer will report to chief minister of the state.

Layout of Dusun Tua, Hulu Langat

The Origin and History of kampung

Dusun Tua is located at Batu 16, Hulu Langat. Its geographical coordintes are 3°8΄0΄΄ Noth, 101°50΄0΄΄. It consist of seven kampung and three taman. Currently there are about 1500 families and approximately 4000 people living in here.

Dusun Tua was originated from an old Durian tree around the area about a hundred years ago. Before the kampung was named under Dusun Tua, it was used to be a fruit estate.

Then people from Indonesia started to move in due to the good condition of the soil and the river provide lots of natural resource for the people nearby. Then they started with a paddy field, rubber plantation and more.