New facilities make herb park more guest-friendly

NEW facilities were officially opened up around Kg Putat Herbal Recreational Park, Brunei-Muara District, yesterday by the Minister of Home Affairs.

The facilities, which include two new jetties located near the Herbal Recreational Park, a concrete walkway linking several pondoks in the park, a stage and public toilets, were provided by the Brunei-Muara District Office.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Yang Berhormat Pehin Udana Khatib Dato Paduka Seri Setia Ustaz Hj Badaruddin Pengarah Dato Paduka Hj Othman, officially launched and toured the facilities. He also made a short visit to the nearby Immigration post and police station. Accompanying him were the deputy minister of Home Affairs, Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Hj Halbi Hj Md Yussof, and other senior officials.

To celebrate the occasion, the villagers set up a market to sell local products, ranging from foodstuffs and handicrafts, which will run until January 1. The village Women's Bureau is also hosting a number of sports activities. 

Yang Berhormat Hj Jumat Akim, village chief of Kg Putat said that they also have a Pulang Kampong (Return to the village) programme featuring nostalgic activities such as drawing well water, using oil lamps, cooking with firewood and jungle trekking

Village is known for its flora, fauna

THE unique environment of Kampong Putat which is rich in flora and fauna has its own beauty which we hardly can find in some other places in the Sultanate.Some of lucky visitors may find some unique white hairy monkeys (masque) and the yellowish colour monkeys (prosbosis) or bangkatan jumping from one tree to another trees along the road.

Awang Jumat bin Akim, 58, head village officer of the Kampung Putat said that, there are a lot of attractive places that can be explored in the village such as it's greenery jungle and various fishing areas.

The village leader said that, the soil here are very fertile for the people here to do their agricultural activities.It was evident as some tropical fruits such as jackfruits, rambutan and many more are mostly planted along the village.

Speaking to The Brunei Times, Masri Jumat, 29, civil servant, said that he came here once in a while to have a different environment from other places in Brunei for fishing. 

The village head officer said that, some efforts have been taken to improve the lifestyle standard in the village such as by improving their transportation system. He hoped that with the concern of relevant authorities, the village will get their road to be fixed.

He continued that some of the project that they planned for tourism activities was to provide a "home-stay" by locals to the tourists.(BPA)

Kg Putat’s traditional taste with a twist

BENEATH the stage at the Kampong Putat Recreational Herb Garden, a group of women chatted amiably as some of them rolled dough with a rolling pin while others mixed multi-coloured batter in seven different bowls.

These women are part of Kampong Putat Consultative Council’s Women’s Bureau and they are hard at work demonstrating how tumpi, a local pancake, and Kuih Baulu Pelangi (Rainbow Baulu cakes) are made.

The Tumpi Rangup Kg Putat (Kg Putat’s Crispy Tumpi) and the Kuih Baulu Pelangi are the village’s one-village-one-product (OVOP).

I was there during the visit by the Kg Birau Women’s Bureau and took the opportunity to talk to the chairperson of the Kg Putat Consultative Council’s Women’s Bureau, Tirahmat Hj Mahali.

The idea to have the tumpi and the baulu as the village’s OVOP was planted when the village held aTahlil and the baulu and tumpi were presented as gifts for those attending the function, according to Tirahmat.

It was the District Office’s invitation to join the ASEAN Expo at Bridex in October 26, 2013, that started the establishment of the Food Unit of the Women’s Bureau and, to differentiate themselves from the OVOP of other villages, they decided to make the baulu and tumpi the village’s OVOP.

Twelve to fifteen members of the bureau, made up of mostly housewives, worked on making the products for the village.

“At first the kitchen under the stage was not a proper one. It didn’t have ventilators, fans or even a proper oven,” said Tirahmat.

Slowly as the efforts to make these products viable for the village, the bureau and the council members drew up the paper work to request for proper equipment to increase the productivity and the output of the council. They were given a bigger oven, a small industrial food mixer and fridges to store the ingredients and the completed tumpi.

Tirahmat explained that the baulu is called the ‘Rainbow Baulu’ because of their eight different colours, each with its own flavour. The colours yellow, blue, red, green, brown, purple and orange, represent the flavours of banana, blueberry, strawberry, pandan, chocolate, yam and orange, respectively. The eighth is uncoloured to represent the original flavour.

Sugar and eggs are whipped together before adding flour. The resulting batter is then separated into seven or eight portions, depending on the colours that are needed, and then coloured and flavoured. The baulu takes around 15 to 20 minutes to bake.

For the tumpi, there are two types made by the village’s women’s bureau – the plain and the spicytumpi. Both uses water, eggs, oil, garlic, and flour, with the spicy tumpi having spring onions and chopped bird’s eye chilli.

The ingredients are properly mixed in a bowl, weighed and apportioned onto plastic sheets before rolled flat and then stored in the freezer to be sold.

The products are usually sold at events, expos, District Office invitation or direct orders. For those interested, the numbers are: 8866134 (Chairperson), 8953065 (Treasurer) or 8624425 (Advisor).

Reintroducing Kg Putat’s traditional herbs

LOCATED close to the Brunei-Limbang borderlies a unique recreational park that aims to educate locals and tourists alike on local herbs and its uses; the Kampung Putat Recreational Herb Garden.

Kampung Putat is located in Mukim Lumapas and is about 15 minutes away from the capital, using boat or about an hour’s drive away from the capital.

I heard about the herb garden when I was tasked to cover a visit by Women’s Bureau of Kampong Birau to the herb garden earlier this month.

I was intrigued by the concept of introducing or reintroducing the various herbs that exist in the country and the various medicinal uses of these herbs.

I made a trip to the park on a separate day to talk to the Village Chief of Kampong Putat, Yang Berhormat Hj Jumat Akim who gave me a background on the garden and educate me on some of the more popular herbs available. “The idea to establish a herb garden came about when the roads through the village was upgraded and we found a nice patch of land that could be used to make something for the village,” said YB Hj Jumat.

He said at first that they wanted to make a gasing-playing arena but after seeing the various herbs and beautiful plants that grow in that patch of land, he put forth the idea to create a herb garden to set themselves apart from the other recreational parks in the country.

“Alhamdullilah, with the help of the Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation, we officially launched the park in 2010 and since then we’ve added facilities such as toilets, benches, huts and walkways,” he added.

The garden is five acres wide with about 95 different types of herbs in it, all of which have various medicinal and cosmetic purposes. There are six huts in the garden, which comes with a trash can and a barbecue stove with various benches scattered about the five-acre park.

Some of the herbs are commonly known such as Seri Rama, or more popularly known as Tongkat Ali(Eurycoma Longifolia) or Temulawak (Javanese Ginger, Curcuma Zanthorrhiza) while many others that I did not recognise with names such as Sinaran Bulan, Kunyit Hantu, Pulas Sari and many more.

“About 50 villagers attended a workshop held by the Agriculture Department and a Malaysian expert on how to identify, care for and harvest the herbs for various uses,” he said, adding that some of the older villagers would supplement the knowledge that they had with the course.

Most of the herbs in the park are unlabelled to prevent people from identifying and taking the herbs for themselves. Only the guides and caretakers of the park know which herbs are which. As such, if a layperson were to just come to the garden, they would not appreciate the garden and what it offers. However with their knowledgeable guides, the garden becomes a fascinating treasure trove of ancient herbal remedies.

The chief has more plans in store for the park, and the village as a whole, such as expanding the park and providing a home stay programme.

One of the challenges was the large distance and how far it is by car.

“Hopefully, once the Jalan Residency bridge is complete, it will greatly ease the access to our park and bring more eco-tourists to visit our village,” YB Hj Jumat said, adding that until then, they will continue on improving the park and its offerings.

Getting a guide is not difficult. Just contact the village chief at 8902109 or his spouse, Hjh Rokiah Hj Tahir at 8624425, and for $5 per visitor, they would arrange a guide to show the visitors around.

Even more, for $10 extra, they would prepare food for the visitors and much more, such as playing traditional games and a demonstration on the preparation of the village’s products.

Kampung Putat Herb Garden

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: In raising awareness to the practise of a healthy lifestyle and promoting cohesion of healthy living among the community, the Women’s Bureau of Mukim Lumapas Consultative Council started the first day of the year with an exercise session at the surrounding area of Taman Herba Kg Putat in Mukim Lumapas.

The chairperson of the Women’s Bureau of Mukim Lumapas Consultative Council, Hajah Hammah Puasa said that this was the second time the Women’s Bureau had organised a health, exercise session with the first one being held at the Sungai Kebun Sports Complex last October.

Meanwhile, YB Haji Jumat bin Akim, Member of the Legislative Council in his capacity as the Village Head of Kg Putat in an interview hoped that facilities and infrastructure such as the upgrading of roads and parking spaces at Taman Herba are further utilised in terms of safety, hygiene, cleanliness and other aspects.

He also expressed hope in a positive note for 2013 and to achieve development in building the nation’s infrastructure and increase the level of the education system as well as implementing fully the religious education system to ensure that children would not fall behind in religious studies.

“The Women’s Bureau of Mukim Lumapas Consultative Council is quite active particularly in organising various activities and programmes such as in religion and others. The Women’s Bureau of Kg Putat has also been supplied with equipment to prepare local delicacies and Insya Allah, the bureau will move to carry out such activities as selling products to the village residents,” he said.

The Women’s Bureau of Mukim Lumapas Consultative Council has already planned ahead for activities which serve the interests of the nation with a Zikir Syarafil Anam competition to be held on January 25 in conjunction with the Maulidur Rasul celebration, which falls on January 24.