SAHAR DIMUS MEMORIAL FUND

Sahar Dimus was our chief guide on all four of our expeditions to Sumatra. We first met him back in 2003 in his little village in the shadow of Gunung Tujuh. A smiling, resourceful and energetic little chap, Sahar soon became not only our guide but our good friend. Sahar was a wizard at jungle tracking;: able to pick up the faintest trail and identify animals from the barest of traces.

For fourteen years he tracked the orang-pendek, hearing its call and finding its tracks, but never laying eyes on the beast itself. However, in 2009 he finally managed to get a clear view of the mystery ape, an event that so moved him he wept for 15 minutes.

As well as being a jungle guide, Sahar had been active in tiger conservation. He cared deeply about the jungle and spent much of his time destroying poachers’ snares. When not involved in jungle work he supported his family by subsistence farming.

Sahar had many adventures with us over the years and was a mine of information relating stories from the forest, and accounts of what had happened to both him and his late father. We often stayed in his little, self-built house whilst his wife cooked for us.

Sahar died suddenly at the age of just 42 on Monday, 14th November. He leaves a young wife and four children, ranging from a toddler to a teenager. Sahar’s family are now without support. In Indonesia there is no welfare state. Therefore, we are starting an ongoing appeal for donations to help support his wife and children. Money from this appeal will go straight to Sahar’s family. His eldest son Raffles is currently learning how to become a guide. Without your help the future will be bleak for Lucy and her children. Even a small donation will go a long way in Sumatra.

MORE SAD NEWS

It seems that Dipu Marek's wife has just died. More news as we get it.

For those of you not in the know, Dipu is the Indian researcher with whom the CFZ team liaised on the 2010 expedition. He was also immortalised in song by Kate Bush

See the feature-length film of the Indian expedition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEoMAS8J7xw

There will be a collection for him, and for the widow of Sahar Dimus, the Sumatran guide who worked with the CFZ on all our orang-pendek expeditions.

BREAKING NEWS - Death of cryptid tracker Sahar Dimus

It's with sadness that we learn of the death of the expert tracker Sahar Dimus.

Richard Freeman writes these words:

February 3^rd 1969- November 14^th 2011

I first met Sahar in 2003 on the first of my trips to Sumatra in search of the orang-pendek. He was to be our chief guide and had been personally recommended by Debbie Martyr. I was surprised upon meeting him at how unassuming he was. A smiling, be-spectacled little man he could have easily passed for an accountant if dressed in a suit. A great example of how looks can be deceptive, Sahar was a master of bushcraft and the most impressive guide I ever had in the jungle. He could tell what animal had passed and how long ago simply by the slightest disturbance of leaves that no one else would have noticed. He was immensely strong and fit and could carry huge weights up the steepest and most treacherous hills like an ant carrying a leaf up an anthill.

Not only that, he was a tiger shaman. His people held the tiger as a sacred animal, according to their tribal tradition the man who founded their tribe lived to a huge age before walking into the jungle and becoming a tiger. Tiger shaman are supposed to be able to call down the tiger spirit in tribal ceremonies. They are said to be able to look through the eyes of the tiger, observing far off things in the jungle and to become possessed by its spirit. Debbie herself had witnessed this and seen the happy, inoffensive Sahar turn into a feral, snarling dervish unrecognizable as himself.

He proved not only to be a great guide in the jungle but a great friend too. He was patient with slow bumbling westerners who found the terrain hard and the food harder. He held us spellbound around camp fires with stories of the jungle and the experiences of both himself and his late father. He was a mine of information on both Sumatran folklore and wildlife.

So good was Sahar that we used him as chief guide all of the CFZ expeditions to Sumatra. We often stayed in his house at the foot of Gunung-Tuju with his lovely wife Lucy and his sons. Over our many trips we watched them grow up. His eldest, Raffles, was training to become a guide and accompanied us on our last expedition.

Sahar had lived and worked in the jungle for 14 years and had come across orang-pendek tracks and heard its call but never saw the creature until 2009 when he and Dave Archer encountered the creature in the clod forests of Gunung-Tuju. After the sighting he wept for a quarter of an hour due to the fact that he had no camera to capture an image of the beast on. Plans were afoot in 2011 to plant permanent camera traps in Kerinci Sablat National Park and had to pay Sahar to check the pictures each month.

On our last trip he seemed a little tired and slower than usual. His leg was hurting him. We all thought that in was nothing but age catching up with him and the rough terrain. I came home from the Fortean Times Unconvention 2011 to the news Sahar had died on 11^th of November. He had been taken ill and was unable to walk. He was taken to hospital were apparently he was finding it hard to recognize people. He died shortly afterwards of what appears to be liver failure.

To me Sahar was Sumatra. He was just as much a part of Kerinci National Park as the lake, the mountain and the jungle. Sumatra and Sahar Dimus are inextricably linked in my mind; they are one in the same. Now he has gone it feels like a piece of Sumatra has died. The island can and will never be the same. He leaves behind him four children and a wife.

Goodbye old friend.

Sahar Dimus: Jungle guide, tiger shaman, orang-pendek witness and researcher.