Anyaman (weaving) is considered women’s art and it was once a necessary skill for a bride-to-be as she had to weave several mats for her own wedding. It was also a showcase of skills as women who make fine weave-work would be well respected in the community for the ability to produce superior work.

There are two types of anyaman that we make: anyaman hake’ and anyaman dawud.

Anyaman hake

Anyaman hake’ is basically weaving from pandanus (hake’) leaves. We source our raw materials from four species of hake’ which can still be found on the island today. We only harvest the matured hake’ leaves to ensure that our crafts are produced in sustainable manner.

After harvesting, the long hake’ leaves are wilted over embers, dethorned (if any and cut into uniform strips using the jangka’, a comb-like knife. The strips are then smoothened and tied into bundles before they are soaked for two-days in a water-flour mixture to remove the leaves’ sugar and chlorophyll content. After soaking, the strips is then rinsed and sun-bleached to a beautiful beige.

In order to achieve the various coloured designs in our crafts, we soak the dried strips in a chemical dye-bath. The processed hake’ strips are then ready to be woven into pouches, mats and baskets.



Finer strips are used to make bujam pouches. The pouches are traditionally used to store betel nuts, betel leaves, tobacco leaves and rolled tobacco. Nowadays, we have modified the design into purses, mobile phone pouches and name card holders to keep up with market demand. It usually takes us about three days to complete one bujam. Larger-width strips are woven into mats, or baskets like the thorny dudo’ duri.

Anyaman dawud

The other form of weaving is anyaman dawud in which nipah leaflets are woven as decorations for spirit houses, altars, homes and jo-oh dancers. It relies on a combination of weaving and plaiting strips of nipah leaflets.



Nipah is easier to weave compared to hake’ as it requires almost no processing. It is however very difficult to extract as the nipah groves only thrive in muddy river estuaries. As there are no nipah groves within the village, we have to travel via motorcycle to Sungai Kuang and beyond for supplies. In order to get a bi-coloured effect, we selectively harvest both young and mature fronds and interweave them (however both fade to dull beige when dry).

Common nipah ornaments include flowers (bunga’ bintang and jering), birds, fishes, prawns (hudag) and horseshoe crabs (angkheas).