Tiga Tumpuk

The words 'Southeast Asian wet market' bring to mind images of bounty - heaps of gorgeous fresh vegetables, showy mounds of extravagantly colored fruit, the glint of sun off the scales of dozens of varieties of fish.

We find the opposite at this weekly market in western Sumatra, about thirty kilometers south of the Aceh border. Though it's lively in the way that once-a-week markets are, the selection of produce is limited. Stall after stall of dried fish is a testament to the local standard of living. Fresh fish and vegetables are expensive, dried fish can stretch a meal among family members and over days.

This woman sells cabe, or chilies. Tiga tumpuk - three piles - of cabe, to be exact (the chilies in the basket are another vendor's and she's selling the stink beans in front of her chilies for a neighbor). Each tumpuk sells for 2,000 rupiah (foreigner's price?), or less than 25 cents. She grows them in her garden and makes the trek to this market every week to sell her 'harvest', rarely more than five tumpuk in total.

'They're good chilies! Very hot,' she assures us. And agrees to pose with her produce.

Catcalls ensue immediately. 'Look pretty! Smile! You're going to be on TV!' Most of the hecklers are young male CD vendors with outrageous haircuts.

She doesn't know what to make of it, at first. But then she gets into the swing.

We're on the road and have no kitchen, but buy two tumpuk anyway. It's the least we can do, for a smile like that.

Comments

[serena]

so i have commented on this blog more, in the past week, than i generally do - but just wanted to say that it is posts like this that make EatingAsia one of my favourite blogs.

[Jennifer Jeffrey]

Oh, this is fabulous. What a marvelous smile. Made my day!

[Kiriel]

My brother is living in Indonesia at the moment; thank you for bringing a little of his life there to me!

[ELE]

Tiga Tumpuk is a wonderful entry. This one is going to stay with me at least all day, I already know. Thank you.

[Robyn]

serena and ELE - actually, it's these kind of posts that I like writing best. So glad you both enjoyed it.

Jennifer - 3 piles, 3 teeth. Did you notice it?

Kiriel - ah, I think your brother is lucky! You should visit if you get a chance.

[Adil]

Are you going to get some tahu goreng to snack on with those chillies? I guess you'd use cabe rawit for that though!

[mary shaposhnik]

Are you in Aceh now? Your Sumatra posts -- even ones involving just 3 piles of chiles -- have always been compelling. This one is no less so, bringing home the difficult life of the region but the sparkly moments you seem to find.

[RST]

Ah! the tumpuk-that most basic and most archetypal of all the Southeast Asian units of trade! The tumpuk, by definition a small mound, is also a reflection of the miniscule scale of the economy of the region-the preference for modest transactions which are nevertheless richly invested in other non-economic forms of social exchange. For certainly, it cannot be just for a few coins that this woman has travelled so far to display her three mounds-she comes to market every week like everyone else-simply to be there, to be among friends, to exchange gossip, to help with the friend's stink beans, perhaps to show off her dress or her bag...It is not to romanticize poverty to recognize the purity of these spare gestures, of these elementary desires. There is wonderful almost Giottoesque poetry in these pictures!!!

Richard

[Robyn]

Adil - tempeh goreng, please! Actually, we'll eat just about anything with plenty of chilies in it, cabe rawit or otherwise.

Mary - I wish! No, we are at home in KL and not sure when we'll next get to Sumatra. There is something about the place that makes posts like this (and photographs like this) incredibly easy to produce.

Richard - well put! Yes, this type of market is as much about social as economic exchange, surely.