Job’s Tears, also known as adlay or adlay millet, is locally referred to as Dalai or Jelai in Sabah. This plant looks like a cross between corn and grass, and its hard-shelled, woody seeds are nicknamed the “Pearls of the Borneo Jungle” (Mutiara Rimba) due to its glossy surface and teardrop shape, providing a glimmering touch to ornaments. It has been utilized in traditional medicine, food, and crafts for centuries and is often associated with good luck, prosperity, and spiritual healing.
Left: Dalai plant and the seeds. Right: This is not the Dalai we are talking about (Photo credit: Image by Bishnu Sarangi from Pixabay).
The Dalai plant is a tall, grain-bearing, perennial tropical plant scientifically known as Coix Lacryma-Jobi. The wild variety, Coix lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi, has hard-shelled pseudocarps. The Dalai seeds naturally come with pre-existing holes, eliminating the need for artificial puncturing. The beads are strung together to to create various crafts, including rosaries (prayer beads), jewelry, bead curtains, and fashion accessories.
Job’s tears have historically been used as beads to make necklaces and other traditional accessories.
Artisans have been using Dalai beads in jewelry since 3000 B.C. Dalai has a long history as part of indigenous fashion in Sabah. I’ve observed Dalai seeds being used in the traditional costumes of the Dusun Kiulu, Dusun Liwan, Dusun Tindal, Dusun Tagahas, Dusun Malapih, and Tombonuo, the native tribes from the western and northern parts of Sabah. Dalai is primarily worn as accessories, such as necklaces, bracelets and belts. According to Wikipedia, other Borneo tribes such as Dayak, Kelabit and Kayan also use Job’s tears in their costumes.
Sinulamba dress of Dusun Kiulu decorated by Dalai seeds
The Dusun from Kiulu use Dalai extensively in the embroidery and decoration of their Sinulamba dress, one of the most unique garments and heritages in Sabah. The Sunduk, a hood covering the head or hair, represents the dignity of a woman, while the Kurilib, cross shoulder sashes, symbolize a loving woman.
Dusun from Kiulu and TamparuliLeft: Dalai seeds will turn grey or brown colour when they are ripe. Right: Dusun Malapih from Papar
The variations in shades of grey and beige give Dalai seeds a natural appearance. Over time, Dalai seeds become shinier when in contact with the skin of their owners. For instance, rosaries made with Dalai beads may transition from a light grey to a shiny, warm chestnut brown color after being held many times during prayers. Saint Teresa of Calcutta was known to pray with Dalai rosaries.
Dalai necklaces, bracelets and earrings of Dusun Tindal
While Job’s Tears grains can be consumed as a cereal, such usage is not widespread in Sabah. The cultivated varieties, known for their soft shells, are more preferred for food. Job’s Tears is also commonly sold as Chinese pearl barley. Additionally, some Kadazandusun communities in Sabah make a decoction from Dalai leaves as a traditional herbal remedy for treating coughs or fevers.
Dalai seeds can mix with other beads and materials to make beautiful crafts.
Dalai is a fast-growing and easy-to-cultivate plant that demands minimal water and fertilizer. It can reach a height of about six feet and thrive in various soil types and climates. Germination typically occurs as early as seven days after sowing, with flowering taking approximately five months.
From left to right: Tombonuo Bobolian, Tombonuo girls, Dusun Kiulu and Dusun Tagahas (from Kota Marudu)
Job’s Tears derives its name from the story of the prophet Job, as mentioned in the Bible and the Quran. Job, a devout follower of God/Allah, faced a challenge to his faith when Satan caused him to lose his wealth, children, and health. Despite enduring a life of misery, Job did not complain. Throughout his ordeal, he remained steadfast in his belief and continued to love God as always. In the end, God rewarded Job with more than he had before. According to legend, when the tears of Job touched the soil, tall grasses sprouted, bearing oval seeds resembling his tears. This is how the name ‘Job’s Tears’ came about.
Creative designs of Dalai seeds. The dalai suit at the right is created by Madam Jusnah Jinos from Kg Bitoon (Ranau).
Dalai seeds come in over 10 variations of colors, shapes, and sizes, such as Tuntul, Watu, Oitom, providing artisans with ample creative possibilities in design. For more information on buying, planting, or learning about Dalai, you can contact the following groups via their Facebook pages:
Countryside is always stereotyped as a backward place for the poor. However, as a city grows big, urban people have to deal with more traffic jam and pollution, high living cost and smaller space, and now they envy the Orang Kampung (villagers), who enjoy a richer and healthier life because of fresh air, clean water and organic food in rural area.
Kiulu is one of the most beautiful villages of Malaysia
I read somewhere that says Kiulu is the second most beautiful village of Malaysia and also known as the Valley in the Mist. In fact, Kiulu is a kingdom of villages because it consists of 103 villages. When driving on the winding and hilly road in Kiulu, you will be mesmerized by the lush hills, clean river, scenic plantation and peaceful villages.
Kiulu, the Valley of Mist
Therefore, I was so glad to visit Kiulu Farmstay in April to experience village lifestyle for 2 days in this magnificent place. Kiulu is only 1 hour and 15 minutes away from Kota Kinabalu City (KK) by car, very convenient for me to reconnect with nature and to appreciate what are gone in city, i.e. fresh air, clean rivers and starry sky.
Tamparuli Town
On the way to Kiulu Farmstay, my guide, Pius and I stopped briefly in Tamparuli Town for a walk at Tamparuli Bridge and local market. FYI, Tamparuli Mee, a homemade local noodle, is a must-try if you eat in this town.
(left) Tamparuli Bridge that looks like a Natgeo logo, and (right) view of Mt. Kinabalu on the way to Kiulu
I saw people feeding fishes under the bridge. There are probably thousand of them, most are fat fishes over 1 feet long! According to a local, the river is under Tagal system (no fishing), so the fishes can grow really big.
“Village is a place where you can find peace, unity, strength, inspiration and most importantly a natural and beautiful life” – Minahil Urfan
The Fig Tree Eco-Lodge
After 45 minutes of driving from Tamparuli, we arrived Kiulu Farmstay. I was excited when I saw the crystal clear river from the hanging bridge. The emerald color of the river is a sign of natural water, something healthier than chlorinated blue swimming pool.
Hanging bridge to Kiulu Farmstay
River under the hanging bridge
Kiulu Farmstay is surrounded by greenery. The bamboo lodge blends very well into the nature. I saw no big cement structure.
I overnight in the building at the right. The small building at the left is common bathroom and kitchen for campers.
In contrast to warm and sunny environment of beach resort, the riverside Fig Tree Lodge is tranquil and refreshing. I always dream of owning a house next to a river, so I can go swimming and fishing anytime. Staying in Kiulu Farmstay makes me desire it even more.
Bamboo houses of Kiulu Farmstay (Fig Tree Ecolodge)
The Fig Tree Lodge itself is an attraction. It’s so well built and designed, you can tell that they spend a lot of efforts to details. Except the roof, most items such as furniture and wall are made of locally sourced bamboo and wood. Some big bamboo poles are 20 years old. It’s an unique traditional house with some contemporary elements.
Dining area in the bamboo house. Nazllie (left, journalist), Pius (2nd from right, tour guide), and Jumadi (middle) & Esther (right) are our host
The lodge has two rooms that can accommodate about 4 to 6 people, big enough for a family group. They plan to build 8 more rooms in future. Electricity is on 24×7, so fan, light and hot water are always available. The lodge is also complete with a kitchen, bathroom and dining area.
My bedroom and the paddy grinder outside
The bedroom is clean and neat that I had no problem sleeping deeply. The split bamboo walling and flooring make this lodge looks like a cozy home of farmer. They add layer of rice husk waste between the walls to regulate the temperature.
This fig tree is the icon of Kiulu Farmstay
Near the lodge is a big fig tree. Locals believe fig tree is spiritual (never swear or curse under fig tree), so some traditional rituals are performed under fig tree.
Fresh organic food in Kiulu Farmstay
Esther is our cook who can make very nice local dish from fresh fruits and vegetables such as banana buds, tapioca, maize, pumpkin and sayur manis (Sabah vege). Worrying that we were not used to village food, she always asked, “is it good?” She should know that we are happy by looking at our empty plates lol.
Hiking
After a fulfilling lunch, Jumadi and Pius took us to explore the jungle nearby. Actually the so-called jungle is “forested orchard”. Instead of clearing the land for plantation, they let the fruit trees grow scatterly and wildly among the wood.
Plantation in village and forest. Can you tell what these trees are?
That’s why at first I was puzzled when Pius pointed here and there to introduce variety of crops, herb, vegetables and fruits that he spotted along the way, when I thought we were walking in a forest. My late grandfather also used to have such orchard in Tamparuli, and I often saw fowls, pangolin and other wildlife foraging in his plantation.
Variety of edible plant and fruits. From left to right, top to bottom: Pineapple, edible fern, cempedak, salak
Just to list some crops that we saw, mango, durian, bambangan, rambutan, cempedak, rubber, peanut, maize, tarap, fern, sayur manis (Sabah vegetable). The best month to visit is September, which is the start of fruiting season, and they say you can eat so many free fruits that are almost worth as much as the tour.
Liposu fruit
Among the dense undergrowth are some herb and spice plant too, like gingers and tuhau. We also walked around the farmland of villagers. They are really friendly and don’t mind we roam in their territory.
Edible ginger or tuhau
No matter how developed a country is, agriculture is still extremely important for a nation to achieve self-sufficiency on food. A healthy environment is crucial to sustainable farming, so it shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Trekking along the river
Even first world countries such as Japan and UK send their students to expose to farmstay, to learn the relationship between agriculture and mankind.
Mantob Waterfall in the forest
During jungle trekking, we also crossed a few streams and went upstream to see Mantob Waterfall. Watch at the video below and see how clean the water is, as if we can drink it unboiled.
The clean river isn’t by luck. The villagers of Kiulu love their environment, so they keep the water source free from pollution and deforestation.
Unpolluted river of Kiulu Valley
River
We sweated a lot after 2.5 hours of hiking. Kiulu has one of the cleanest rivers in Sabah, so it’s a shame not to take a soak there.
Hanging bridge and the river
I camped in Kiulu more than 20 years ago. I’m happy that the river still remains clean and chilling until today. Now Kiulu even becomes the most popular destination for white water rafting.
Crystal clear river of Kiulu
In America, 40% of the rivers are polluted and are considered unhealthy for swimming, fishing or aquatic life. The same thing will happen to Sabah, if we don’t protect our rivers.
Enjoying the clean water (but too shallow to do tubing)
I wanted to try tubing, but too bad the water was too shallow that time due to prolong drought. Further downstream there is a spot where you can snorkel and see many fishes. The world populations of freshwater species have declined by 55% between 1970 and 2000. Fortunately, many rivers in Sabah have tagal (no fishing) system in place to prevent over-fishing.
Buffalo skull next to the bridge
Buffalo skull has replaced human as sacrifice for bridge construction
To locals, river is the source of life and the origin of civilization, and it is also viewed as the guardian. In our history, people were sacrificed to appease the river god, whenever a new bridge was built. Nowadays, buffalo skull is used instead.
The Stars
Kiulu Farmstay is formed by three villages: Kampung Mantob, Kampung Pinagon Baru and Kampung Dumpiring. City people can live at a place many years without knowing who is their neighbour, but nobody is a stranger in a Sabah village.
Party with villagers at night. Thank you Saidin, Sikong, Johari, Pius and others for the wonderful time.
In the evening the villagers shared some food and liquor (Montoku and Lihing, the local rice wine) with me. We drank and played music until late night. Some local stories, history and folktales were told, the most interesting one is a snake-like eel up to 5 feet long could be found in their river in old days.
Milky Way in Kiulu
I ended up quite tipsy going to bed, so it’s a miracle that I could wake up at 3am to take some photos of Milky Way. Though starry sky is nothing special to our villagers, light pollution prevents 1/3 of world from seeing Milky Way. 80% of North Americans and 100% of Singaporeans can’t see Milky Way in their cities.
Quad Biking
Somehow I managed to get up on time in next morning and tried quad biking the first time. Initially I thought it would be something leisure like cycling in a garden. Oh my lord, the quad bike really rocks like a mini 4-wheel drive and able to conquer any terrain.
Quad biking in Kiulu
Quad bike can go really fast and furious. The braver you are, the more fun you can get out of it, and it’s really addictive. I would say it is the highlight of this trip. The deeper part of Kiulu is the best playground for quad biking, as it has many rugged road in undulating slopes, with scenic forest, hill, gorge and village view along the way.
Quad bike is quite easy to operate. Before we hit the road, they let us practiced in a field first. We started at 8:30am and had fun riding 22 Kilometers until 11:30am.
Gorge in Kiulu
Quad biking is more powerful than scooter, so it can cause severe injury if we are not careful. However, I didn’t know what happened to me. I’m not a risk taker, but my personality changed when I was riding this bike. I was so reckless and fearless in speeding on bumpy and steep road. Anyway, it’s really fun.
Quad biking in Kiulu
Quad bike is a beast and seems like having a mind of its own. You have to fight a bit hard with it to fully control the stiff steering, or it’ll take you to hell. Don’t worry. Just go slow and get used to it in the beginning.
Big Foot Point in Kiulu
After 11 KM, we stopped by Big Foot Point in Kipunti Village for a break. Locals say footprints of big foot were seen around here, when they constructed the new road. Kiulu is also the Valley of Mystery.
Rumour says there is big foot around here
Kiulu has gradually become a popular place for people who want to experience village lifestyle and outdoor adventure in nature. You can book the tour online. Other activities you can do include rice processing, rubber tapping, cooking, buffalo riding, BBQ, fish spa, camping, etc.
No matter how cool is your weekday job, your best day in office can’t beat an outing to try something new. My last weekend in Kiulu was a day filled with laughter, all from my heart. Before that, I was angry with the rude text from my boss that spoiled my weekend mood. Now I pity her that she can’t free her mind from work on Saturday.
Kiulu is the second most beautiful village in Malaysia. One of the factors is its beautiful Kiulu River, the place where we raft. The river is so clean that the visibility is nearly 10 feet. Due to increasing pollution, you don’t find many rivers like Kiulu in Malaysia. Most of them are in milk tea color.
The starting point of the white water rafting is about 40 KM from Kota Kinabalu city. The rafting route is about 12 Kilometers, which took 1.5 to 2 hours. To do white water rafting, you need to book a tour package with travel agent such as Riverbug, who provides the transport, boat, equipments, guide and lunch.
Starting point of White water rafting (Kiulu)
White water rafting may sound too adventurous (scary) to you. But no worry, the difficulty of white water rafting in Kiulu is only rated as Grade 1 to 2, which means “Some rough water, maybe some rocks, small drops, might require maneuvering”. It is not a challenging level like the Grade 3 to 4 level of Padas River. Even kids find it easy, great for family tour.
Group photo before white water rafting in Kiulu River
After travelling over an hour on bus, we reached Kiulu about 10am. For safety, we put on life jacket and helmet.
Daniel, our friendly guide, gave a short briefing before the white water rafting. We only need to know 3 instructions, paddle forward, backward and stop.
Everyone must wear helmet and life jacket for protection
Everyone couldn’t wait to start so we got on-board very soon and started rafting. There were about 6 boats going together. Due to the dry season, the river is not deep and swift.
We encountered some rapids along the way, but they are almost effortless to cross. In Grade 4 river, your raft will be capsized by strong waves if you don’t paddle hard to fight your way out of the rapid. Most of the time, we were lazy and left the guide did the paddling. :-p We waste more energy making “water war” with other boats LOL (can watch it in video below).
We were very relax and enjoy the scenic countryside view along the river. We saw many big Pelian fishes in the river and some friendly villagers waving hands at us from the shore.
White water rafting is thrilling
Though the rapids were not strong, a few inexperienced tourists still fell into river. A tourist was so panic at first then found that actually he could stand in the shallow water, so funny. The playful guides also purposely pulled a few tourists out of the boat. When stopping for a rest, some of us jumped into the river to enjoy the refreshing clean water in hot day.
Overcoming rapid in Kiulu River
There was an official photographer stationed at a few nice photography spots to shoot us in action. You can buy the photos from him during lunch. I paid for a few photos so I could post them in this blog for sharing.
We reached our ending point around 12:30pm. Then we were transferred by bus to the activity center where we took shower, changed our cloth and had our lunch.
The lunch is quite nice. We had BBQ lamb and chicken. The muscles of my arm and legs were so sour in next day, haha..
