Finely built, naked to the waist, they peered timid as fawns from their clustered lean-to shelters, concealed deep in the rain forest. Even the infants happily smoked cigarettes rolled from jungle leaves.

Around January 1991 we experienced this rare encounter with the Sakai people who live deep in the primeval rain forests of Taman Negara (literally, national park), deep in the heart of the Malay Peninsula - yet just a bus ride from Kuala Lumpur or an overnight train ride from the polished chrome and gleaming malls of hi-tech Singapore.

Malays call these unaffected people Orang Asli or tribal people, members of the dwindling band of negrito aboriginal races still found in remote corners of South East Asia.

Almost all of these images are scanned from 35mm negative