Every year in May is the month to celebrate the Harvest Festival (Pesta Kaamatan). Each year one district will be pre-chosen to launch the Pesta Kaamatan in state-level, on 1st of May. This year the launching was held in Kota Marudu. After the launching, each district will have its own regional Kaamatan celebration and Unduk Ngadau Beauty Pageant. No matter who you are, what is your nationality, where you are from… all are welcome and invited to join the fest.
Pesta Kaamatan was used to be celebrated annually by the KadazanDusun and Murut communities, after the harvest of paddy, the primary food of our people. Now it has become the most colourful and joyful event of Sabah. Unduk Ngadau beauty pageant is only part of the programme of Kaamatan celebration. This was also my first time seeing the Tobilung Bobolians (native priest) performed the Magavau ceremony, a ritual to appease Bambarayon, the Spirit of Paddy, to ensure the bounty of next harvest.
Kaamatan Festival is a “harvest” month for me too coz it is the best time to take photos of indigenous people in their beautiful and unique costomes. The organiser also built about 7 traditional houses of indigenous people to attract the tourists. I have shared the photos online here.
MySabah.com is incomplete without covering the Unduk Ngadau. I have been waiting a year for this traditional beauty pageant of Sabah, which is part of the celebration for Harvest Festival (Kaamatan) of KadazanDusun community. I shot hundreds of photos, until my 1.5 GB memory was full. The weather was bad that the rain and dark condition made my photography harder. I worried that I would miss any important moment so I stayed around the stage from 10 AM to 6 PM, even skipping my lunch.
Unduk Ngadau, is also known as Harvest Festival Beauty Queen Pageant, is carried out annually in different district during May, the Kaamatan month. To celebrate the launching of state-level Kaamatan Festival, Kota Marudu organised an Unduk Ngadau on May 1. There were 28 KadazanDusun ladies participated this year (The last number is No.30, but No.5 and No. 27 never showed up). They all dressed up in traditional costumes such as Kadazan Penampang, Kadazan Papar, Dusun Tuaran, Rungus, Tobilung, Kimaragang, Tindal.
There were only 2 rounds. The first round was a catwalk, followed by a IQ test session for individual. Then 15 ladies were shortlisted for the final round, based on the total score of their look and IQ. From there, top 5 winners would be chosen. I share 114 of their photos here. Satisfaction guaranteed as i didn’t miss out anyone of them. I post at least 3 photos for each beauty, so you can really see them from different angle and up-close. This time I publish the photos at bigger version. Hope you will like them.
Below is the result of Unduk Ngadau for Kota Marudu:
Unduk Ngadau 2006: Kelly Jubin (Contestant No. 19)
1st Runner-Up: Amylia Edmund (Contestant No. 25)
2nd Runner-Up: Dionysia Marius @ Alice (Contestant No. 24)
3rd Runner-Up: Ellyca Paul (Contestant No. 3)
4th Runner-Up: Aheronica Chen (Contestant No. 26)
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This is to continue the last blog on Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) launching in Kota Marudu. The Marudu Bay Carnival was part of the program of Kaamatan Festival launching. The event was carried out in Tanjung Batu of Marudu Bay, which is more than 20 KM away from Kota Marudu town.
The carnival looked more like a fishermen festival for me. They organised some interesting competitions such as oyster shell handicraft, oyster food *drool*, beautiful boat. Let’s look at the pictures and see if you know what they were doing. You can check out the photo gallery for the answers. Hope that will give you a good laugh.
🙂 OK lah, tomorrow I will blog about the Unduk Ngadau, the Miss Harvest Festival Beauty Queen Pageant. I know some of you have been waiting for this. There were about 30 Kadazan Dusun ladies took part, so it will take me some time to pick the photos. I am quite sure MySabah.com is the only place you can see the most complete photo collection of these beauties. Haha… advertise for myself a bit. Please tell your friends about this site.
This year the launching of Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) month was held in Kota Marudu town from April 29 to May 1. I didn’t want to miss anything, so I was already there on the first day. To go to Kota Marudu, you can take the mini bus near the Padang Merdeka (in Kota Kinabalu). The ticket costs RM14 and it takes less than 3 hours to get there.
Most of the events were carried out in the football field of Kota Marudu. The first day was only a “warm-up” day, so the only highlight was the Tamu Besar (big local market), where you could buy some food, drink, fruits, vegetables and handicraft. Besides, there were some exhibition booths of government and a mini fun fair.
The second day was the Marudu Bay Carnival with lot of water sport activities. The BIGGEST attraction was on the third day (May 1), the Unduk Ngadau (Miss Harvest Festival beauty pageant). I will blog about them and upload the photo gallery ASAP. Make sure you come back and check later.
There were lot of handicraft on sale. I think most of them are made by Rungus people, who are skillful weaver live in Kudat and Kota Marudu area nearby. The prices are so cheap, can be up to 50% lower than the price in Kota Kinabalu! One of the booths even offered to weave my name on a bead bracelet, everything for RM5 only. The handicraft sold in the city was marked up really unreasonably high. It is the “tourist price”, I guess.
After shopped around for a while, I decided to buy the ship handicraft below. This 9-inch-tall ship is made of seashells and requires great deal of time and labour work. But it only costs RM10 each, so unbelievable, so I bought two. If you want to get this in city, I am afraid you will have to pay RM20 or more for each? But it was quite a headache to carry these fragile things back, on a bus. Glad I made it. They are in my room now.
My story and photos about Tenom’s Pesta Kalimaran was out in the newspaper last Sunday (30/4/2006). Quite happy coz my article made it to the FIRST page this time. You can click the picture below to read the article. Sorry lah, it is in Chinese language. Why not in English? If you have been reading my blog, you all know my English standard lah hor. Actually I had submitted this article last month. From my past experience, it took about 3 weeks for them to appear on the newspaper. There are still two more articles pending, they may or may not print it. This week I will write another one if got free time.
It has been a long time I didn’t write for the newspaper. One of the main reasons is that it is time-consuming and I am not paid much. If I count my income on writing, you will see me chewing tree root and grass to feed my stomach. I just wrote for my interest. It feels good to got your article posted on the newspaper and read by thousands, isn’t it (next time should get my face inside the photo)? I just treat it as an “extension” of my blog. Well, just try to enjoy what I am doing.
Last year, I met a guy from Sandakan in a function. Once he heard my name, he instantly recognised me, and said, “Oh… I know you. You were the xxx who wrote this and that story for the newspaper. Well done man.” Wah, I got a fan, I got a fan! Haha, not a big deal, but feel great anyway, consider I didn’t write a lot.
Actually I had blogged about Monsopiad Village last year. You may check out the photo gallery and 360 degree virtual tour if you haven’t. In short, Monsopiad Village is a 300-year historical site about the Kadazan legendary hero and headhunter, Monsopiad. You will see 300-year old human skulls, ritual items, long house, handicraft, etc. and also learn about the history, live and culture of Kadazan community. This cultural village is managed by the descendant of Monsopiad.
In fact, I always think that Monsopiad Village is one of the best tourism spots in Kota Kinabalu area. You are not only invited to see the thing, you are also given many chances to experience it if you like to. For example, drinking the Lihing rice wine, playing the traditional games such as blowpipe and walking stick, making handicraft, participate in bamboo dance, and eating the sago worm (if you dare!). In case you are curious, I ate cooked sago worm before in Sago Festival at Kuala Penyu. It tastes like sweet coconut milk but the skin is like rubber, hard to chew.
The reason I visited Monsopiad Village again was because they got a costume exhibition there this month. As usual, they got friendly and knowledgeable guide to show you around and answer all your questions. The weather was bad. But surprisingly, the guide said the rainy day was a good news to them coz it would bring in more visitors. This is because the tourists cannot go to beach and island during rainy day, so they will come to the village. She was totally right. Very soon we saw plenty of foreigner tourists walking in.
Since I was there, I decided to take some photos of their cultural dances before I left. I found that they changed the dance a bit and made it more interactive and exciting. See the pictures below and guess what happened to the girl. Don’t be scared ok. They purposely acted fierce just to speed up your heart beating. They are very friendly people. Nobody was hurt and shocked in the performance. I won’t tell you what did they do. Want to know? Visit the village then.
Lastly, if you want to visit Monsopiad Village, you can find more information in their official web site. The village is open daily from 9 AM to 5 PM. Please note that they got fixed schedule on guided tour and cultural dance performance.
There was a Lundayeh Festival from April 21 to 22 in Sipitang. Lundayeh is one of the indigenous groups of Sabah. To be precise, they are the indigenous people of Borneo coz they have been living in Sarawak, Kalimantan and Brunei, before the states and countries drew the territory borders. In Sabah, there are about 10,000 Lundayeh people, concentrated in Tenom, Sipitang and Long Pasia area.
Lundayeh was also headhunter in the past. The “Ulung Buayeh” (cutting crocodile monument) ceremony, which you can see in my photo gallery, was to show the bravery of the headhunters. The crocodile represents their strong and aggressive enemies. Nowadays, Ulung Buayeh is performed as opening ceremony of important functions. The VIP will place a sword on the neck of crocodile status to symbolise the cutting.
The Lundayeh Festival got 250 participants from Malinau (of Kalimantan, Indonesia), 40 from Sarawak and 10 from Brunei, so it is more than just a small regional celebration. The festival was considered very well done. The programme was good, packed with lot of cultural performance to show the unique culture and beauty of Lundayeh. I am sad to know that Sabah government didn’t allocate any funding to sponsor such an excellent event. Their festival is not even listed on the Sabah Tourism calender.
The highlight on the first day were the longest “Nuba Tingaa” (Nasi Bungkus) line and Lundayeh traditional wedding ceremony (got cancelled). Nuba Tingaa is the traditional food of Lundayeh. It is just rice that is cooked til it becomes very smooth, fine and soft, then wrapped in the leaf. I went to Kaban Village to see them align more than 6,000 Nuba Tingaa together to form a 308.95M line, recorded as the longest in Malaysia Book of Records. Best thing was – everyone, included me, was invited to eat it after the record is officiated. Too bad, I was too busy taking picture so I didn’t try it…
Lundayeh Festival offered me the best opportunity to take photos of Lundayeh people. If you look at the picture below, you will find that their costumes could be very different. The costume of Lundayeh Sarawak is very bright and colourful, with complex motif (like Dayak). The costume of Sabah Lundayeh is plain and simple, with black and white as main colors. The Lundayeh from Sarawak calls themselves “Lunbawang”. Despite the difference, they all speak ONE language.
Most of the events were held in Dewan SFI, from morning until midnight. There was no bus at night. Fortunately, their people were very kind and helpful and sent me back to my hotel. I hope I can write an article about this festival soon and send it to the newspaper, so more people will learn more about them. In the cultural night, there were many dance and song performance. The Lundayeh’s Suling and Bas band is also famous. The main attraction were the Puteri Lundayeh (kids) Beauty Pageant in first night, and Ruran Ulung (adult) Beauty Pageant in second night. I have uploaded over 90 photos for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy~
Bus from Kota Kinabalu to Sipitang is available at the bus terminal next to Wawasan Plaza, at 8AM, 12PM and 4PM. The ticket costs RM13 and the ride takes 3 hours. This was the second time I went to Sipitang. Last year I was there for the Gasing and Tamu Besar Festival (GATA 2005) and stayed in a scary hotel (FYI, it was TBB Hotel). Nothing much change to Sipitang, only the old wooden shoplot next to the beach was demolished.
There was a Lundayeh Festival from April 21 to 22, at Sipitang’s Dewan SFI, which is about 8 KM away from town. The taxi wanted to charge me RM15 one way, so I decided to take the mini bus in front of the Sipitang market. That costs me only RM1.50. But the mini bus will only move when there are enough passengers. Have to wait.
Sipitang is a place where you can find something not commonly seen in KK city. For example, I found the frog purse above. It looks so real. I was impressed and took picture of it. Then the hawker told me that it was made of real frog skin (only the eyeball is faked). She said the vendor caught the frogs in the padi field, injected some chemical to harden their skin, so they could use the skin like leather. Quite hard to sell too coz most girls don’t dare to touch it. So disgusting… I bought one for RM9. But whenever others see this frog purse, they would cry, “YAM KUNG (kesian) loh! The frog died in such a horrible way.” I feel a bit regret now..
Another interesting stuff is the headhunter sword of Murut people. I don’t know why I can’t find it in KK. Probably it is too expensive, about RM300, a lot more expensive than the Bajau’s parang and knifes, which cost between RM60 and RM200 only. But nowadays, headhunter sword is mainly used in performance only. I also liked the batik banner from Indonesia. The Dayak fierce-face motif is so cool. But it costs RM120…
The things below looks like dumpling right? Actually they are salt wrapped in leaves. The people collected the salty water from salt spring. Then cook it to vaporise the water, to leave only the salt. There is no sea in the interior area, so that’s how they got the salt.
On the first day of the Lundayeh Festival, I wanted to go to Kampung Kaban longhouse to see the longest “Nuba Tingaa” line (nasi bungkus), made to be listed in Malaysia Book of Records. But the village is 16 KM away, with gravel and uphill road, so there was no bus going there. Taxi would charge me RM30 one way. Luckily I found the Vice President of Persatuan Kebudayaan Lundayeh Sabah (PKLS). He was very kind and pleased to take me with him. I ate quite a lot of dust, but fun anyway.
