The Kinoingan Question

The following article was written by Tan Sri Herman Luping and published on The Daily Express on 4 September 2011.

Source : www.thesabahsociety.com

THERE is a difference between the Nunuk Ragang legendary first person, Kinoingan and Kinoingan the accepted name in Kadazandusun for God in the Bible. 

I mentioned this in my article in this series. I thank Marcel Jude, for understanding precisely what I meant. 

Marcel is a practising lawyer and has a fine grasp of the law as well as history and social sciences.

He is also well versed in Kadazan legends. His account of the history of God is very sound. 

He must have read the book written by a former nun, Karen Amstrong entitled " The History of God". 

According to the Tangaah of Penampang Nunuk Ragang story or legend, two children, male and female, came out from a rock which had split open at the banks of the Tampias river. The rock was underneath a big nunuk tree (banyan or fig tree) and the two children lived under the canopies of the tree whose foliage when seen from afar was red - hence Nunuk Ragang. The two children's name, according to the Penampang legend were Kinoingan and Suminundu. They were human beings with supernatural powers, therefore considered semi divine, but not God. 

Korom Anduat

By Justin Wong

Korom was an early 20th century Murut warrior. The Murut is one of the oldest community in Borneo. They inhabit the interior and south-western parts of North Borneo and the territory straddling the Kalimantan and Sarawak border.

They were the last ethnic group to renounce head hunting in North Boreno. Some account that they did this when they embraced christianity. The word Murut means "Hill People". 

As head hunting community go, they were probably the most troublesome group. Other ethnic groups collected heads only during time of war with other villages or "country" as what the natives called other village then. For the Muruts, the rite of passage for a man was for him to collect a head from other villages. Failure to do so, would mean he would not be able to get married. 

The other great warrior of the Muruts was Ontoros. Unlike Ontoros, Korom it seems, do not get much publicity. There's not much literature on him. 

The Muruts referred to Ontoros and Korom as guru na amul, teachers of amul. It was said that Korom was born blind, that is why he was named Korom. In Murut, it means "his eyes was closed". 

The Story Behind Tambunan's name

For the uninitiated, Tambunan is a town in the interior of Sabah, about 80 km away from Kota Kinabalu. Its populace are mostly Dusun. According to Low Kok On of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, in the early 20th century, the social structure of the Tambunan Dusuns consisted of seven sub-tribes namely Tuwawon, Tagahas, Tibabar, Bundu, Gunah, Palupuh and Kohub. Today, the Tuwawon, Tagahas and Tibabar sub-tribes are still concentrated in Tambunan.

From Dudley Colliery to Borneo - by Marshall Creswell

By : Justin Wong

I found an interesting journal written by one Marshall Creswell who traveled to Sarawak sometime in 1856. The document is freely circulating in the internet, so I'm going to reproduce it here and I will highlight parts that I found interesting. For your information, I downloaded the document from www.scribd.com. 

So, join me for a trip to Sarawak of old -

Credit of course to the original author and to Mr Martin Laverty who transcribed and annotated this piece. Annotation at the bottom of page.  

Email Interview with Lynette Ramsay Silver

For NBHE - Justin Wong

Lynette Ramsay Silver, the Australian writer who wrote Blood Brothers : Sabah & Australia 1942 - 1945, recently agreed to entertain our email interview despite her busy schedule. This Australian writer had immersed herself for the past 20 years, towards championing Sabahan World War II heroes and also the natives who helped the British and Australian POWs. Hence, I thought she is a personality...... her work, her efforts should be appreciated. One wonders why our State Government has yet to honour her with a Datukship, not that she would be bothered about it, I think.

A Dusun Tatana Ghost Story

By : Justin Wong
First Posted Here

The Dusun Tatana's word for ghost/spirit is rogon. Dusun Tatana are the Dusuns found mainly or possibly only in Kuala Penyu, in the old days at least. Old folks swear that in the old days, before Christianity was spread among the Dusun Tatana, sightings of rogons were quite normal. Before Christianity, the Dusun Tatana practiced their pagan religion. So I guess maybe that was why rogons presence were aplenty in those days. Ok, some smart fellow just scoffed at this notion. Yes, I'm aware that the reported sightings could just be due to the Dusun Tatanas' being superstitious and attributing everything that was out of the norm to paranormal activities. I'm trying to tell a story here, do you mind?! Geez..! You're such a wet blanket, aren't you. I'm retelling a culture's folklore here, not the instruction on how to build a rocket to the moon!! It's like watching a Superman movie, do you think that people could actually fly? But you still watch it, didn't you? Why? Because it is entertaining! Oh?! What did you say? Superman isn't human but is an alien from Krypton. So you believe aliens exist but not spirits? Hoookay! You lost me in aliens... Shoo! Shoo!

Early Chinese Settlement in North Borneo

By : Justin Wong

In 1894, Mr. P. Brietag, the manager of a tobacco estate from Kampung Batu Putih in the Kinabatangan area, led the first expedition to Agop Batu Tulug, a limestone cave systems found in Sabah or North Borneo then. In 1965, Mrs. Barbara Harrison of the Sarawak Museum and a group from Sabah Museum started an archaeological study of the caves.

Source : http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Malaysia/East/Sabah/Kinabatangan/photo317934.htm