Tuesday, May 6, 2008

PADIAN




When Antonio Pigafetta, who sailed with Magellan, visted Brunei Darussalam in 1521, he wrote,"When the tides rises the women go in boats through the city selling provision and necessities." (quote from a Primary 4 History text book).


As a request from a good friend of mine, he asked me to do an article on padian eventho in the Belait District i can't recall regards on the exsist of a padian, maybe in Kampong Sg Teraban, which i'm not sure of that.


Today only a handful of these women vendors or padian remain, all of them are elderly. These women who for long served the people of Kampung Ayer in Brunei Darussalam capital, Bandar Seri Begawan,paddling thier tiny boats around the houses to sell their goods.There are easily recognised by huge hats called seraung which protected them from the sun and the rain. Sources from my friend working in the Brunei Muara District Office, nowdays the padian abandoned paddling around the house of Kampung Ayer and now concentrate on selling to people who pass by the town waterfront near water taxis landing point each day.


Before they would paddle their boats everyway but now they don't dare to paddle out in the river now due to the fast and furious so called water taxis in the river.

Padian would usually sell fish, prawns, crabs,mussels, shellfish and vegetables and other daily needs.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. Sorry to dissapoint you but I live in Bandar and trust me, not a single Padian in sight. If I recall my memory right, the last time I saw was during a show at HM's birthday at Taman Jubilee, near Pusar Ulak.

fazzuri said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

hi, thanks for the info , are you sure not even a single padian on the Brunei water? Not even at the remote part of kampong ayer, anyway thanks for the info ,btw its sad to hear that our 400 years old traditional kampong ayer related gone due to the modern lifestyle

bathmate said...

This is wonderful posting. Thank you.


Bathmate

Yen67 said...

Missed the "padians" sight, which i used to see almost everyday while followed my parents to "tambing" next to old custom & excise / dermaga, BSB in late 70's ~ early 80's. Currently, i'm doing tourism project which involved to bring back the "Padians" into Brunei River. With Allah SWT bless, wish we best of lucks...ameen

Yen67 said...

This may include to retained the old concept and atmosphere of traditional Kampong Ayer, not "modern" Kampong Ayer. I Love Brunei

Anonymous said...

Salam tuan empunya blog.. kan minta izin utk mengambil gambar abiskita yg berkaitan dengan padian ani ah. beguna untuk kajian..mudahan kajian ku nnti berguna utk tatapan generasi kitani akan dtg.. amin.. :) terima kasih

Anonymous said...

salam. saya minta kebenaran untuk menggunakan gambar yang ada dalam blogger ini untuk bahan pengajaran saya. terima kasih

Anonymous said...

Assalamualaikum to the Owner of this blog. Saya ingin meminta izin kpd biskita untuk mengambil gambar-gambar padian yang biskita pamerkan sebagai bahan kajian saya. Terima Kasih jua for the very interesting post about Padian. ��