Cave Dwelling and Painting

In the prehistoric times, the previous ancestors of the Orang Asli, tribes of Sabah and Sarawak would draw on the walls of caves that they inhabit. Starting 170000 years ago, some homo sapiens live in cave systems now known as South Africa. However, these ancestors here only started inhabiting caves around 2000 years ago in Gua Tambun and Gua Kain Hitam as the hematit paintings only date back so far.

For an example, the cave paintings in Lenggong Perak, records the experience of the Orang Asli communities during the colonial era. It is really not too long ago as they were drawing British officers on horses, and even drawing of motorcars. These cavemen inhabited caves to seek shelter from rough climates, wild animals, and other environmental factors. It is often said that when they eat and rest, they would often sit with their backs against the walls to be safe from anything attacking them from the back. In the caves, they document their daily activities, life experiences and rituals. Often you would see hematit being used as chalk, which gives the colour red. Otherwise, they used manganese, or mixed charcoal and tree sap, which is a common art tool that was used around the region.

These ancestors drew the animals they hunt, soldiers on horses that invaded their land and geometric shapes on the walls as a way to document their daily activities, their experiences and the rituals that they followed. In Gua Kain Hitam, paintings of a symbolic boat placed on the cave floor, relating to the practice of interring the body of a deceased person can be found. It is a depiction of the journey to the afterlife. In Gua Sireh, Sarawak, there are paintings of groups of people in a festive setting, along with a horned human figure. Some cavemen also left their handprints, which is much bigger than our average-sized hands as they needed big strong hands to hunt and live in the wild.

These handprints were left as a signature, like a sign saying ‘I was here’, they either painted on their hands to plaster on the wall, or they would paint over their hands, as a negative contrast. If you look at it another way, the handprints would have symbolized a power to save the species, with the achievement of the person who left the mark, acting like a motivation to follow the success of the handprint ‘s owner. As fire or sunlight made shadows from the hand, it would appear to as if be moving, giving it a life of its own.