Tag Archives: Kadazandusun

Unduk Ngadau, Kota Marudu (Day 3)

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.

Click Here to see 114 photos of Unduk Ngadau >>

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.

Click Here to see 114 photos of Unduk Ngadau >>

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.

Click Here to see 114 photos of Unduk Ngadau >>

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)

Copyright Notice

I know some of you are very good in Photoshop, know how to remove the “MySabah.com” copyright stamp in my photo in seconds, then use it as if it is your work. Please note that you are welcome to distribute and use all the photos of MySabah.com for NON-PROFIT purpose, as long as you DO NOT remove the “MySabah.com” wording on the photo, and I will thank you for using my photos. Otherwise, you will get yourself into trouble. You have been warned.

Monsopiad Village Revisited

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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.

Cultural Carnival, Lahad Datu

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I think I am among the very few Sabahans who really appreciate the traditional costumes of indigenous people. Whenever I tried to share the photos of these colourful costumes with my friends, most would answer coldly, “Hmmm, Hmmm… good…” (try to entertain Smoke Head)

Well, I don’t really care if anyone is interested in my hobby. I just enjoy doing it, and that is what motivates me to visit all the local festivals throughout Sabah since last year. After nearly 1 year of photo hunting, I have posted hundreds photos of so many Sabah indigenous people such as Bajau, Suluk, Dusun Tatana, Rungus, Bisaya, Murut, Kadazan Penampang, Kadazan Papar, Lotud, Dusun Segama Subpan, Kimaragang, Dusun Lobou Sook, Dusun Tindal, Kimaragang, Tombonuo, Iranun, Orang Brunei, Lundayeh, Kedayah, Orang Ulu… Hope there are foreigner visitors, who like this stuff, attracted by my photos and come to Sabah. I am looking forward to the Harvest Festival in May. That whole month will be really a harvest time for me.

Click Here to see the photo gallery of Cultural Carnival >>

I read the news about Cultural Carnival 2006 in Lahad Datu (Mar 11 – 12). Without hesitation, I went to Lahad Datu excitedly to see it. It is fun to look for pretty models wearing beautiful traditional costumes. They are always happily pose for photo shooting. Not bad lah this trip, coz I got the photos of people in Idahan, Lidu, and Bugis costumes.

The 2-day Cultural Carnival was organised by Sabah Cultural Board. I must say it is very well done. They got cultural performance in the morning and evening. The stage setting, dance performance, costumes… all was excellent. High quality show, a big thumb up. Because of that, my index finger lost control already and kept on pressing the camera shutter, until my 1 GB memory cards all full. You don’t need to travel long distance to see this. Just click the picture below to view the photo gallery.

Click Here to see the photo gallery of Cultural Carnival >>

Monsopiad Village and House of Skulls

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Hope the 360 degree Mount Kinabalu Panoramic views did not make your mouth wide open, cool huh? Before you close your mouth, I still have more Panoramic Virtual Tours to show you. Can you digest fast enough? 🙂

Yes, the next one is Monsopiad Village in Penampang. Monsopiad is the name of the most popular Kadazan headhunter, a legendary warrior who harvested 42 human skulls. In the past, the more skulls you owned, the more heroic you were. The headhunters believed that the spirit of the victim would trap in the skull and protected them. Today there is no more headhunter in Borneo, but you still can see the 300-year old human skulls displayed in the House of Skulls of Monsopiad Village. Monsopiad Village is one of the BEST tourism spot in Kota Kinabalu but is not very well-known among the Sabahans. Don’t know why…

Actually I feel a bit guilty to publish this virtual tour because it is so thorough and complete that — after you watch it, you can close your eyes walking in the village and know where you are, like you had been there. I have posted 150+ photos, 4 video clips, and 1, 2, 3, 4… 10 panoramic tours for this village. Goodness… I hope they will not kill me.

Click Here to Start the Tour

Video Clips of Traditional Dances
BTW, another thing that I would like to highlight is — I find that the Kadazan Sumazau video clip is the most popular download item of MySabah.com.

To make your life easier (find them all in one place), I list all the links to the Sumazau video clips below:
(1) Orchid De Villa, (2) Pesta Kaamatan, (3) Monsopiad Village.

If you are interested in Murut’s Magunatip (Bamboo Dance), I also got four versions:
(1) Monsopiad Village, (2) Pesta Kaamatan, (3) Orchid De Villa, (4) TV3 Carnival (by kids).

If you visit Monsopiad Village, normally they will show you Sumazau, Magunatip and Sazau (by Kadazan Papar) dances. For more video clips of traditional dances of Sabah indigenous people, you may check out my Pesta Kaamatan page.

Photos taken in Penampang, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo