SPATIAL INTERPRETATION OF ORANG ASLI PERFORMANCE HERITAGE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i43.2129Keywords:
Orang Asli, Performing Arts, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Cultural Performance Spaces, Cultural LandscapeAbstract
This paper identifies the cultural spaces sustaining Orang Asli (OA) performing arts within a planning-oriented framework for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Domain 2. Existing records often isolate dances, chants, healing ceremonies, instruments and symbolic enactments, obscuring their relationships within performance settings. The study combined semi-structured interviews with OA knowledge holders and community representatives with ethnographic materials, studies and heritage reports. Content analysis classified manifestations by performance form, occasion, cultural purpose, symbolic meaning and practice setting. Inductive-deductive thematic analysis interpreted their ritual, sonic, bodily and communal functions. Six experts assessed the framework using the Content Validity Index, informing four themes and sixteen facets. These encompass ritual and ceremonial performances, vocal and oral expressions, embodied enactments and instrument-led performances. Spatial analysis produced four conceptual layers and eight performance spaces, including healing grounds, ancestral settings, seasonal landscapes, processional routes and soundscapes. The framework strengthens performance-space inventories, landscape assessment, development screening and place-sensitive safeguarding.
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