Young Blonde Girl Reveals On The Hill Above The Village

Southeast Asia
Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia
The term kampung (sometimes spelling kampong) in the English language has been defined specifically as "a Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country" In other words, a kampung is defined today as a village in Brunei, Indonesia or Malaysia. In Malaysia, a kampung is determined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of a penghulu (village chief), who has the power to hear civil matters in his village (Courts of Malaysia). A Malay village typically contains a "masjid" (mosque) or "surau" (Muslim chapel), paddy fields and Malay houses on stilts. Malay and Indonesian villagers practice the culture of helping one another as a community, which is better known as "joint bearing of burdens" (gotong royong), as well as being family-oriented (especially the concept of respecting one's family - particularly the parents and elders), courtesy and believing in God ("Tuhan") as paramount to everything else. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque, as all Muslims in the Malay or Indonesian village want to be prayed for, and to receive Allah's blessings in the afterlife. In Indonesia, the terms differ, villages are called desa/kelurahan, and village heads kepala desa but the same general concept applies, there is some variation among the vast numbers of Austronesian ethnic groups. In some areas such as Tanah Toraja, elders take turns watching over the village at a command post.