 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 50,000 [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Malaysia (Perak and Pahang) | |
| Languages | |
| Semai language, Malay language | |
| Religion | |
| Animism, Christianity and Islam. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Temiar people, Lanoh people, Khmer people |
The Semai (also known as Mai Semai or Sengoi Hik[2]) are a semi-sedentary ethnic group living in the center of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia, known especially for their nonviolence.[3] This characterization was made by Robert Knox Dentan, an anthropologist who studied the Semai in the 1960s, though he offered a more nuanced view after subsequent fieldwork.[4] They speak Semai, an Austroasiatic language closely related to Temiar, spoken by Temiars nearby. The Semai are bordered by the Temiars to the north and the Jah Hut to the South.[5] The Semai belong to the Senoi group, and are one of the largest indigenous ethnic group in the Peninsula and the largest of the Senoi group. Most Semai subsist by cultivating grain crops, hunting, and fishing.
- ^ Kirk Endicott (2015). Malaysia's Original People: Past, Present and Future of the Orang Asli. NUS Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-99-716-9861-4.
- ^ Ivor Hugh Norman Evans (1968). The Negritos of Malaya. Cass. ISBN 0-7146-2006-8.
- ^ Csilla Dallos (2011). From Equality to Inequality: Social Change Among Newly Sedentary Lanoh Hunter-Gatherer Traders of Peninsular Malaysia. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-144-2661-71-4.
- ^ "Semai: The Naked Truth". Columbia Center for Archaeology. 2022-04-19. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
- ^ Dentan, Robert Knox (1968). "The Semai: A Nonviolent People Of Malaya". Case Studies In Cultural Anthropology.
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