78 MALAY LAND TENURE, 



pation.* Forest land arid land which, though once cleared, 

 has been abandoned and bears no trace of appropriation ( such 

 as fruit-trees still existing) are said technically to be tanah 

 mati, or " dead land." He who, by clearing or cultivation, 

 or by building a house, causes that to live which was dead 

 (meng-hidop-kan burnt) , acquires a proprietary right in the 

 land, which now becomes tanah hidop (" live land ") in contra- 

 distinction to tanah mati. His right to the land is absolute 

 as long as occupation continues, or as long as the land bears signs 

 of appropriation. 



This qualification of the right of the proprietor is the key 

 to several important distinctions which help towards the classi- 

 fication of the subject. Malays practice two kinds of cultiva- 

 tion — either permanent cultivation ( wet rice-fields and plan- 

 tations of fruit-trees ) in the plains ; or shifting cultivation 

 ( dry rice-lands and vegetable gardens ) on the hills. In cul- 

 tivation of the latter kind, the element of continuous occupa- 

 tion, and, therefore, a lasting proprietary right, is wanting. 

 Again, between wet rice-fields and fruit-plantations there is a 

 wide difference in respect to the permanence of evidence of 

 appropriation ; the former, if left uncultivated for a few years, 

 are soon covered with brushwood and rank vegetation, in 

 which are harboured vermin of all sorts, to the injury of the 

 crops of contiguous owners, and shew no signs, except the 

 absence of heavy forest, of ever having been cultivated ; the 

 latter, on the other hand, even if abandoned, do not disappear 

 for many years, not, in fact, until the insidious growth of jun- 

 gle chokes and kills the fruit-trees. Malay custom has, there- 

 fore, fixed three years as the term within which wet rice-fields, 

 if left uncultivated, shall remain subject to the proprietary 

 right of the owner. If wet rice-land remains uncultivated for 

 more than that period, it is open to the Raja, Chief or head- 

 man, within whose district it is situated, to put in another 



* " In practice there may be said to be but one original foundation for land 

 tenure's in Burma, viz , that the cultivated-land clearer acquires an abso- 

 lute dominion over the soil, subject only to contribution for the service of 

 the State. He can alienate it by gift or sale, and in default of his doing so, 

 it descends to his heirs in th ! usual order of succession. The title to land, 

 therefore, is essentially alio Hal." British Burma Gazetteer, I, 438. 



