| Temak's Legitimacy Out Of The Woods |
4
Nov 2005
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| The
whole botanical community in Singapore should find this amusingly
incredulous !!! For as many years as one can remember, the root word for 'Timah' had been tossed up in speculation between two possible Malay words -- 'timah' for tin, and 'temak' for Shorea roxburghii. But none of these were found to be satisfactory; for no tin had ever been found on Bukit Timah Hill, and neither had any Shorea roxburghii trees been recorded for Singapore Island as well. One * sentence in the book 'A View from the Summit' did come exasperatingly close on the heels of truth. Unfortunatedly, it ended like a bungled detective story ! Just when the 'smoking gun' was about to be uncovered, a false lead turned the whole |
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That false lead turned out to be Shorea curtisii -- a Dipterocarp whose dorminance on Bukit Timah is well known, and quite frankly it seemed, cannot be ignored. The investigators surmised that the word 'temak' might have been loosely applied to 'any Shorea' other than Shorea roxburghii, and if so, 'the cap would fit' Shorea curtisii -- being the most common Dipterocarp on Bukit Timah.
But alas, as the old saying goes, how 'Time and truth tries all' ! The investigators must be forgiven. They were right on track about 'temak' being loosely used but 'barked up the wrong tree' literally. To their credit, they were at least half-correct and brought Temak's significance essentially to the fore.
Incredulously, we needn't go deep into obscurity to find out the truth. Temak's legitimacy actually lies in one of the annal of botanical records for Malaya which is glaringly available for all to read, e.g. at the library of the Singapore Botanic Gardens or the National University of Singapore. The not-so-unfamiliar book in question is 'The Malayan Forest Records - No.5; Malayan Plant Names, J.G. Watson, 1928'; both Shorea macroptera (photo above) and Shorea bracteolata were recorded as 'Temak' here.
If legitimacy of publication in a reputed document can be anything to go by, it would be safe to assume that the recorded name 'temak' was correctly applied. If so, then any of these two trees present on Bukit Timah could have given their name to the hill. And since both species can also be found in the rain forest of Singapore Botanic Gardens, it is quite logically followed that the entire Bukit Timah district got its name from 'temak' as well !
Lastly, J.G. Watson was no ordinary man. He was the Deputy Conservator of Forests in the Federated Malay States, and was assisted most capably by his native forest rangers with whom he unreservedly named and praised in another forest record - No.6, Mangrove Forests of the Malay Peninsula, 1928. Such was his closeness to them and esteem for their contributions !
Now that the legitimacy of 'temak' is finally out of the woods, it is my pleasure thus to acknowledge J.G. Watson with his contribution in solving the 'Timah Mystery'. Sherlock Holmes would have said the same -- 'It's elementary, my dear Watson !'
Yes, it is truly elementary indeed !
* 'But if the word Temak was applied loosely to any Shorea, which seems quite likely for Asian laymen not much bothered about the details of Western scientific classification (taxonomy), then the cap would fit, for the Shorea curtisii species or Seraya is a distinctively tall and pale-crowned, as well as a valuable timber-bearing tree, which is common in the Bukit Timah forest - accounting for the technical classification of Bukit Timah by botanists as "Coastal Hill Dipterocarp Forest."'
[Source: Page 13, A View from the Summit, 1996]
See Web of Life -- the forest is not just a collection of trees