Cultural Attractions in Sabah
Sabah is a multicultural state with many different ethnic groups. The largest ethnic groups are the Murut, Kadazan/Dusun, Bajau, Chinese, Indonesians, and Philippinos. Top cultural attractions in Sabah include a
Rungus Longhouse. To see or live in one could make a stimulating and interesting trip. Experience living in a traditional longhouse in the valley of Bavanggazo.
A visit to
Kota Belud, the "Land of the Bajau Horsemen" or "Cowboys of the East" is another interesting Borneo tour. Also, a trip to the House of Skulls offers the opportunity to see the legacy of ancient feuding families.
Rungus Longhouses
There are few traditional longhouses left. One of the most famous and interesting ones is the Bavanggazo longhouse near Kudat.
The Rungus are a sub-tribe of the Kadazan/Dusun indigenous ethnic group. They are found only in the Kudat and Bengkoka Peninsula in the Northern tip of Sabah (or Borneo for that matter), and are descendants of Austronesian stock. They would almost certainly qualify as a rare tribe. Given that their number is nowadays only about 40,000, this population is marginal but special in the context of world population.
Of interest to many is that considerable numbers of them still live in traditional longhouses. While a longhouse may appear to be a simple structure, made easily of weather and time wearing materials like palm leaves for roofing, bamboo for floors, fragile barks for walling and flimsy timbers for supports, it is rope and elaborate knots, which defeat most people, that have been used for centuries to tie everything firmly into place.
A Rungus longhouse doesn't become long at once. It usually starts with a father building, a single apartment which comprises a raised sleeping area sharing an enclosed room with the hearth and dining place. Immediately outside the doors there runs a up to four feet wide corridor across with a twice wider, raised section which is multi-functional: a working area such as a weaving place or a sleeping area for friends and relatives.
When children grow up and start their own families, they add more apartments similarly structured, laterally, and thus creating a longhouse. Relatives may, with permission, join in and add more apartments. Hence, a Rungus longhouse forms a very close-knit family complex.
Just as many Chinese use geomancy (Fung-shui meaning "wind and water" factors) to select housing sites and in which direction a house should face in order to maximise the positive influences of wind and water, the Rungus too have their own concepts and belief systems to determine whether a site is good or bad. For instance, a priestess called Bobohizan may instruct seven grain seeds to be placed on the ground and left covered underneath a ritual ceramic bowl for one night or for seven days. If the grains remain intact after the bowl is removed, the site is considered good. If one or two grains are missing, the omens are not good. Under close study, this may even have some scientific basis. But the Rungus longhouse is always built on an East-West axis, in order to keep the interior cool in the tropical heat.
When a total solar eclipse passed over the Rungus district Mattunggong near Kudat on October 24, 1995, many eclipse watchers from Japan, Singapore, Europe, Canada and the United States, including space scientist Professor John Parkinson of London University College, choose to stay at a Rungus longhouse to wait for the dramatic moment when total darkness enveloped the area just after mid-day. The choice was pertinent in context. It was logical that when one goes to a Rungus territory to observe such a momentous event like a total solar eclipse, one should cap that highlight in one's life with a stay in a Rungus longhouse.
Kota Belud
The culturally discerning visitor will find Kota Belud's diversity in traditional costumes, dances, music, ceremonies, talents, as reflected in their usually hand-made products, a treasure and an encouraging support to their belief in variety and to the preservation of cultural wealth in the world, and that will keep Planet Earth interesting in an age of hastening globalisation.
For instance, while the Bajau men are famous for their horsemanship to the extent that they have been branded "Cowboys of the East", Bajau women are also well known for their fine woven cloth called Dastar which is very colourfully interwoven with red, yellow, green, orange, gold, and white thread into unique floral patterns.
The best time to view Kota Belud's striking cultural mix is the annual Grand Tamu Besar which is scheduled usually in December, when all the tribes will come out fully donned in their respective traditional costumes for a cultural extravaganza.
This type of dance is one of the most well known traditional dances in Sabah as well as throughout Malaysia. It belongs to the Kadazandusun tribe. This ritual dance serves varied functions such as thanksgiving for bountiful paddy planting and harvesting, prayer against evil spirits, honouring the spirits as well as to cure illness. The movement and rhythm of this dance is elegantly soft and slow. The dancers, male and female, will face each other, move their feets in small movements and move their heels up and down to the beat of the music. While dancing the dancer will spread up their hands and move it up and down just like a bird spreading their wings to fly. The Sumazau is usually performed during festive occasions and gatherings.
This is an original traditional dance of the Bajau. The Limbai dance is performed during a wedding ceremony. It is an act of welcoming the bridegroom and his entourage and to invite them to the bride’s house. The melody and rhythmic movements of the dancer will accompany the bridegroom to the bride's house and would preceed the "ijab-qabul" or wedding ceremony. The graceful movement of the dancers’ wrists will sway their shawls to express their warm welcome to the party concerned.
This dance belongs to the Murut’s tribe of Kuhijaw (Kwijau). The "Magunatip" word is derived from the "apit" word, which means "trapped". In this dance one must master and show their agility and dexterity in jumping and putting their feet between the clapping bamboos without being trapped. This dance does not usually require any instrumental music because the rhythmic clapping and stamping of the bamboos produce a loud, harmonised, beat and interesting sound or rhythm. This dance is usually performed to highlight any festive occasion.
This traditional dance was brought over from the Mindanao archipelago by the Suluks and does not originate from Bajau tribe in the Semporna district. The intermingling relationship between the Bajau and Suluk in those early days resulted in the dance becoming a living heritage of the Bajau community residing in Semporna. The phrase "daling daling" actually originated from the English word "darling". The main characteristic of the dance is the interchange of quatrains between the male and female dancers and is usually performed as an entertainment in various occasions.