List of Toponyms of the Puyan River Valley

This document contains the historic names of some 1645 places in the Puyan River valley surveyed by the Pos Gɔɔb community (2013-2015). Every Primary toponym has been etymologically investigated with the help of knowledgeable Temiars. It is my hope that this list might provide valuable insights into Temiar culture, history and knowledge of the environment. Of note, it is very telling that over 55% of primary toponyms originate from Temiar names of natural species, indicating how strongly attached the Temiars are to the forest environment around them.

For further discussion on these names, please refer to Chapter 6, Vol. 2, of my book, The Temiars of the Puyan River (2022), and also to Section 4.1 on names, in my draft work A Grammar of Kelantan Temiar, Part 1 (2023).

In Appendix 2, Vol. 2, of the book, a list of toponyms is given in categorised according to type of origin (natural species, animal species, environment, events, dreams etc). The list here, however, is arranged by type of geographic place (swidden, mountain, river, waterfall etc.). This means that, the list in the book is useful for cultural study, as one can see how many toponyms were derived from forest trees, from flowers, or from encounters with tigers etc. The list here is useful for historical studies, as one may view all toponyms of any geographic type together, such as all the rivers found in the Puyan Valley.