The Sireh Leaf and Betel Nut Culture in Brunei
File photo of elderly Malay-Dusun community about to enjoy a chewing session as they fill their ‘sireh’ leave with condiments from a ‘celapa’ during a traditional wedding showcase. Picture: BT file Rozan Yunos Bandar Seri Begawan Sunday, March 27, 2016 IT WAS not that long ago that Bruneians’ mouths were red from chewing their ‘sireh pinang’, which a mixture of ‘sireh’ leaf mixed with tobacco, slaked lime and areca nut. WH Treacher in his book ’British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo’ (1891) wrote that in Brunei, “both before, during and after a day’s work, the Malays, man and woman, boy and girl, solace and refresh themselves with tobacco and with the areca-nut, or the betel nut as, for some unexplained reason, it is called in English books, though betel is the name of the pepper leaf in which the areca-nut is wrapped and with which it is masticated.” It was a common practice, not just among Bruneians, but throughout the region to chew...