Tag Archives: Murut

People of Sabah

Traditional costumes of Sabah indigenous people are always one of my favourite photography targets. So far I never see an “expert” in such area. Coz most people, even those from tourism or cultural sector, cannot name more than 10 indigenous groups in Sabah. Many say Sabah is a melting pot for so many cultures and ethnics, but how many of us really know what are inside the pot? I found that even newspapers got the name of the ethnic group wrong sometimes.

Click Here to see 230+ photos of Sabah Indigenous People >>

There are more than 30 indigenous groups in Sabah. Each indigenous group can have over 10 sub-ethnics / sub-groups, which might use different languages and costumes. For example, Suluk and Iranun are the sub-ethnic of Bajau. Getting the photos for 100+ groups seems like a Mission Impossible.

In the past one year of travelling around Sabah, I have been trying my best to “collect” the photos of indigenous people in different district. Their photos are scattered around in my 50+ photo galleries here, so I decide to categorise them for easy viewing below (most photos may look familiar to you). I know my collection is far from complete, but it is one of the best sources to see the people of Sabah online. You can even find the photos of minority such as Iban and Ulu of Sabah. Anyway, this is just a draft verion. In the future, I will add more photos and write-up. If there is any mistake, please correct me.

Click Here to see 230+ photos of Sabah Indigenous People >>

Photos of Sabah indigenous people:

Related Links:
1) Kaamatan Festival 2006
2) Sabah Fest 2006
3) Kaamatan Festival 2005

Sabah Fest 2006

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It is quite late to blog about it coz it has happened for more than 10 days (since May 5). Sabah Fest was started annually since 1988, but this was the first time I watched it. I would say it is the most colourful and best cultural show of Sabah. I will come again next year.

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Though the cultural show (8pm – 10pm) was only two hours, it gave you a very good overview of the traditional dances and colourful costumes of Sabah indigenous people such as Bisaya, Murut, Bajau, Idahan, Suluk, Kadazan, Lotud, Rungus, Orang Brunei, Dusun Tobilung. Tell you, I have seen all these costumes and dances, after I travelled almost a year to many places in Sabah like Kota Belud, Semporna, Lahad Datu, Kudat, Kota Marudu, Sipitang… Now you only need to pay RM10 (USD2.50) ticket to watch all these comfortably, in an air-cond ballroom. So lucky lah you.

Click Here to see photos of Sabah Fest 2006 >>

As a Sabahan, if all you know about Sabah indigenous people is only Sumazau and KadazanDusun, your knowledge is really poor man. I have seen many locals who can’t even differentiate the costumes of Bajau and Murut. If I am not mistaken, Sabah got over 30 ethnic groups, and each of them may have sub-ethnic that they may speak different language or wear different costume. For example, KadazanDusun got 16 sub-ethnics such as Dusun Tatana, Dusun Tindal, Bajau got 20 such as Suluk, Iranun, Murut got 14 such as Tagol, Paluan. If you sum up all these, it will be more than 100 groups. So far I don’t see any book has complete text + photo documentation on all Sabah ethnic groups.

Click Here to see photos of Sabah Fest 2006 >>

In normal Sabah cultural show, one or more of the dances below are popular choices for performance:
1) Sumazau by Kadazan Penampang
2) Sazau by Kadazan papar
3) Magunatip (bamboo dance) by Murut
4) Limbai by Bajau
In Sabah Fest, you will see more:

Click Here to see photos of Sabah Fest 2006 >>

Before the show began, all the dancers were lining up from the entrance to the hall, to welcome all the guests with friendly greeting, dances, and traditional musical instruments. I walked back and forth many times, to see if I could name their ethnic and took some photos of them. Many of them were really the village people so they could be a bit shy, but very willing to cooperate. I know coz I saw my Idahan wives from Lahad Datu (just kidding), haha… they still recognised me. So happy to see them again.

Click Here to see photos of Sabah Fest 2006 >>

If you miss Sabah Fest, don’t worry. You can see more indigenous people dress in their beautiful costumes at Penampang KDCA from May 30 to 31. Last year I took a lot of photos and post them all here. According to my web report, it is always the TOP visited page every month. FYI, it is the first photo gallery of MySabah.com (posted in June 2005). My first blog was started in August 2005, so I didn’t blog about it. One of the goals of MySabah.com is to provide the most photos of Sabah people (especially beauties). Hope you will continue to support me by introducing this site to your friends.

Unduk Ngadau Competition, Tawau

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OK, some of you may have been waiting for this. The photos of Unduk Ngadau Beauty Pageant in Tawau on May 6, 2006. There are 4 reasons I report for Tawau: (1) I want to blog a Unduk Ngadau competition in west coast, (2) to avoid taking same event pictures with other photographers, (3) looking for excuse to go to Tawau, (4) want to marry an Unduk Ngadau. FYI, there are more than 30 districts around Sabah organised their local Unduk Ngadau competition.

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The Sabah Tourism Magazine (Page 14, Issue: May 2006, Volume 63) wrote about the meaning of Unduk Ngadau. I post it here for your knowledge:
“The Unduk Ngadau embodies the spirit, beauty and personality of Huminodun who, according to local legend, was the self-sacrificing daughter of the almighty creator Kinoingan. She was sacrified to the land so that her people would not starve. Her head gave rise to coconuts, her flesh nourished the paddy fields, her blood became red rice, her fingers ginger, her teeth maize, her knees yams and other parts provided a variety of edible plants.”

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There were 16 KadazanDusun and Murut ladies competed in this event. Below is the final result of Unduk Ngadau Beauty Pageant for Tawau:
Unduk Ngadau 2006 (Tawau): Diana Yaqub (No. 15)
1st Runner-Up: Eneycia Doulus (No. 4)
2nd Runner-Up: Jessy Liew (No. 6)
Miss Favourite: Cindy Celestine (No. 12)

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This is the last blog about my trip in Tawau. Hope you enjoy reading them all.

Pesta Kalimaran on the Newspaper

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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.

Pesta Kalimaran (Apr 1-2), Tenom

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You may call it Murut festival. I was staying in Tenom for 3 days coz of this annual event. In general, this festival is to celebrate and honour Murut people and their traditions. Murut is the third largest indigenous group in Sabah, with a population of over 100,000. Murut got 14 sub-ethnics and their costumes could be very different from one another. One of the best time to see them is in Pesta Kalimaran held at Murut Cultural Centre.

Click Here to see the photo gallery of Pesta Kalimaran >>

Murut people are famous for three things: (1) Head-hunting (in the past), (2) Bamboo dance (Magunatip), and (3) Lansaran (a spring board). You can learn more about their culture in the mini-museum inside Murut Cultural Centre. To go to Murut Cultural Centre, you can take a mini-bus in front of Sri Perdana Hotel in Tenom. The Centre is about 15 KM away from Tenom town, and the one-way bus ticket costs RM2 (USD0.50). The earliest bus is available around 7:30 AM.

There were two highlights in this festival, namely, (1) Miss Kilamaran Beauty Pageant, and (2) Tilau Wedding ceremony by Murut Tagol. Besides, you can see hundred of Murut people wearing their traditional costumes. The Murut female costume we normally see in cultural dance performance is not so “traditional”. To make dancing easier, the dancers wear shorter skirt, use less accessories and the design is quite simple.

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If you like those cultural stuffs like me, you would be really glad that you came. The Murut traditional costumes can be so colourful and beautiful. The embroidery is hand-made, so you find no two same design. Usually they use nature things such as flowers, wildlife, insect, trees, stars… for the picture design on the dress. One of them even got the wording “Sabah Boleh” on it. The Murut costumes presented in Miss Kalimaran Beauty Pageant were even more impressive. I found that the most colourful designs are from Murut Tagol. BTW, the Miss kalimaran this year is gorgeous. The moment she walked out, I already knew she would win. You can check out the photo gallery. I got some photos of her.

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The Tilau wedding ceremony by Murut Tagol was also interesting. I consider Tilau the biggest wedding in Sabah coz it can take year to prepare. One of the tradition in Tilau is “Agiruandu”, all women dress like man, and “harras” the men who wear women cloth. It is just for fun. They also got “joker” in the wedding. The most important things are to eat and drink. I also tried a bit of Tapai. This local wine is very strong. If I drank too much, I would have danced among them already.

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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 >>