Senoi

Senoi, Veddoid people found in the Malay Peninsula and in small groups along the coastal plains of eastern Sumatra, Indonesia. In the early 1980s they were estimated to number about 18,000. Traces of such a people also appear in the eastern islands of Indonesia. They are sometimes called Sakai, a term meaning “slave” in Khmer.

In the peninsula they speak Semai, a language belonging to the Mon-Khmer language family, itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. In Sumatra they have adopted the language and matrilineal institutions of the Minangkabau. There are indications that the Senoi entered the area with a well-developed dry-land agriculture and that they lived in communal houses and had some degree of political development. Despite their cultivation of cassava (manioc) and rice, they are also active in hunting, fishing, and food gathering. In the hunt they employ the blowgun and poison darts, like the neighbouring Malay and Semang of the peninsula. Although skilled in basketry, they do not weave or do metalwork.