Folklore from Bingkor

As told by Fazar Arif, NBHE member as she was herself was told by an old Bingkor lady.

Edited by : Justin Wong

Many years back I met an old lady in Bingkor (before all our wooden shop in Bingkor burnt down). I asked her if she could tell me some folklores (taangen) from Bingkor. She did tell me a story and as far fetched as it was she actually believed her story to be real. 

A long time ago in Bandukan, a man decided to go hunting. He brought his dog along with him to keep him company. They walked for a long long time and did not see anything. But as he went further in the jungle he suddenly saw a giant rock right infront of him. He was wondering why the rock was there in the middle of the jungle when suddenly his dog started barking like crazy. The dog barked non stop while it circled round the stone. This man tried to make the dog keep quiet but the dog just wouldn't stop. Soon he started getting curious why the dog wouldn't stop barking at the rock. So he looked for a very strong wooden pole that he could use to lift the rock. Once he found a strong wooden pole he sharpened it and pushed it underneath the rock. Because he was a strong man he managed to lift up the giant rock by himself. As soon as he lifted the huge rock he saw the ground underneath it opened up. 

"Apa lagi nah... keluar bah itu satu satu... Itu orang-orang banyak betul dari bawah tanah.. Itu orang putih-putih semua." said the old lady. [People start streaming out from the hole one by one. Many of them from the underground. They were all very white]

But because the man was frightened to see so many of these people he had never seen in his life, came out of the ground, he tried to push back the rock to stop the people from coming out. But as much as he pushed it he couldn't lift it up anymore. And so he ran back to get the other villagers to get help.

When he got to the village he told everyone what happened and asked the men to go to the jungle and help him pushed back the rock and stop the 'fair' people from coming out. So the villagers ran to the jungle with him. 

As soon as they got there they all helped him to push the rock back and cover back the big hole in the ground. 

"Nah! sebelum itukan, itu raja baru saja mau keluar dari bawah tanah itu. Tapi belum sempat lagi dia keluar sudah itu lubang kena tutup. Pengikut-pengikut dia sajalah yang sempat keluar."[The King of the white people was about to exit when the hole in the ground was successfully closed. So only his followers got out]

So according to her, that is the story/reason why Bingkor had no raja (King). It was because the villagers from Bandukan cover back the ground with the rock before the king had a chance to come out. 

"Bah yang diorang si anuh (she mentioned some names, I couldn't remember) diorang semua keturunan daripada itu orang orang yang dari bawah tanah. Kau tingu diorang semua putih-putih. Nah! Yang orang-orang yang keluar dari bawah tanah dulu-dulu itu moyang diorang lah tu."[You know so and so, they are all descendants of these people from the underground. You see all of them have fair skin]

"If you noticed these families (she mentioned their names) are all very fair. Those people who came out from underneath the ground were their ancestors."