Today, Jahai people remains a relevant topic and of interest to a wide variety of people. With the advancement of technology and globalization, Jahai people has become a central point of discussion in different areas. Both on a personal and professional level, people continue to seek information, advice and opinions about Jahai people. As society evolves, so does the way Jahai people impacts our lives. Therefore, it is important to thoroughly explore the different aspects related to Jahai people, to understand its influence on our daily lives and the world around us.
The Jahai people believe in a religious system with Karei (pronounced "Karεy") as a supernatural force that oversees their actions and behaviours. In order to avoid attracting Karei's attention negatively, there are taboos and avoidance rules to follow. They believe Karei can be scared away or attracted to by various odors depending on Karei's preferences, for example, the unpleasant smell of a burnt crayfish. Therefore this led to a rich odor lexicon in the Jahai language, a trait also shared among the Maniq people in Thailand.
The Jahai people, who are traditionally nomadic, live in permanent settlements in parts of the Royal Belum State Park as part of the tourist attraction. They lived in isolation, and most likely lacking of infrastructure such as roads, schools, health services, and so on. This resulted in exhaustion of resources. The mortality rate of the Jahai people in villages along the Kejar River was as high as 50% in children due to serawan, a mystery illness which caused the population there to dwindle from 600 to 400.
The population dynamics of the Jahai people in Malaysia are as the following:-
Year
1960
1965
1969
1974
1980
1993
1996
2000
2003
2004
2010
Population
621
546
702
769
740
1,049
1,049
1,244
1,843
1,843
2,326
Other settlements of the Jahai people in Malaysia are:-
^Douglas Richardson (2017). International Encyclopedia of Geography, 15 Volume Set: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology. John Wiley & Sons. p. 2240. ISBN978-04-706-5963-2.
^ abCatherine Diederich (2015). Sensory Adjectives in the Discourse of Food: A frame-semantic approach to language and perception. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 23. ISBN978-90-272-6880-8.