The Temiar are a Senoic group indigenous to the Malay Peninsula and one of the largest of the eighteen Orang Asli groups of Malaysia. They reside mainly in Perak, Pahang and Kelantan. Their total population is estimated at around 40,000 to 120,000, most of which live on the fringes of the rainforest, while a small number have been urbanised.[citation needed]
Temiar are traditionally animists.[2] The ceremonial Sewang dance is performed by the Temiar people as part of their folk beliefs.[3]
Population
The changes in the population of the Temiar people are as the following:
^P. Boomgaard (1997). P. Boomgaard, Freek Colombijn & David Henley (ed.). Paper landscapes: explorations in the environmental history of Indonesia. KITLV Press. p. 228. ISBN90-671-8124-2.
^Kyōto Daigaku. Tōnan Ajia Kenkyū Sentā (2001). Tuck-Po Lye (ed.). Orang asli of Peninsular Malaysia: a comprehensive and annotated bibliography. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. p. 60. ISBN49-016-6800-5.
^Sabihah Ibrahim (1989). "Universiti Malaya. Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi". Hubungan etnik di kalangan Orang Asli: satu kajian etnografi terhadap orang Temiar di Kampung Chengkelik, RPS Kuala Betis, Kelantan. Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi, Fakulti Sastera dan Sains Sosial, Universiti Malaya.
^Siew Eng Koh (1989). "Universiti Malaya. Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi". Orang Asli dan masyarakat umum: satu kajian etnografi terhadap komuniti Temiar di Kampung Merlung, rancangan pengumpulan semula [RPS] Kuala Betis, Kelantan. Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi, Fakulti Sastera dan Sains Sosial, Universiti Malaya.
Benjamin, Geoffrey. 1968. "Temiar personal names." Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 124: 99–134. ISSN0006-2294 (print), ISSN2213-4379 (online). JSTOR27860916.
Benjamin, Geoffrey. 1968. "Headmanship and leadership in Temiar society." Federation Museums Journal 13: 1–43. ISSN0430-2435
Benjamin, Geoffrey. 1993. "Temiar." In: Paul Hockings (ed.), Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Volume 5: East and Southeast Asia, Boston: G. K. Hall / New York: Macmillan, pp. 265–273. ISBN9780816118144
Benjamin, Geoffrey. 2001. "Process and structure in Temiar social organisation." In: Razha Rashid & Wazir Jahan Karim (eds), Minority Cultures of Peninsular Malaysia: Survivals of Indigenous Heritage. Penang: Malaysian Academy of Social Sciences (AKASS), pp. 125–149. ISBN9789839700770. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3115.9846.
Benjamin, Geoffrey. 2014. Temiar Religion, 1964–2012: Enchantment, Disenchantment and Re-enchantment in Malaysia's Uplands. With a Foreword by James C. Scott. 68 figures. 470 pages. Singapore: NUS Press. ISBN9789971697068 (paper covers)
Jennings, Sue. 1985. "Temiar dance and the maintenance of order." In Society and the Dance, ed. Paul Spencer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 47–63.
Jenning, Sue. 1995. Theatre, Ritual and Transformation: The Senoi Temiars. London: Routledge.
Roseman, Marina. 1991. Healing Sounds from the Malaysian Rainforest: Temiar Music and Medicine. Berkeley: University of California Press.