SABAH FEST VISITORS CAPTIVATED BY CULTURAL PERFORMANCE

By RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s annual showcase of its colourful and diverse cultures was launched on Saturday night with a special twist – a little known dance of a Kadazandusun tribe from the remote interior was performed for the first time in public.

The crowd that thronged the Sutera Harbour Resort were enthralled when women from the Dusun Gana community in Bingkor, Keningau district, traipsed daintily through clacking wooden staffs fashioned from belian, Borneo’s hardest wood.

They were performing the rare monsilad dance. For cultural aficionados, the thrill of the hour-long performance began with the rarely seenmemahui pogun (cleansing the universe) ritual of the Dusun Lotud community from Tuaran district.

Steeped in tradition: Performers carrying out the rarely seen ‘memahui pogun’ or cleansing the universe ritual at the Sabah Fest in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday.

Once thought to be on the verge of extinction, the ritual has been revived thanks to efforts of the Sabah Tourism Board and its subsidiary, Sri Pelancongan Sabah Sdn Bhd.

Some 80 people, including a group of tatangas or Lotud traditional high priestesses and elders performed an abridged re-enactment of the ritual that in reality runs over 10 days.

Visitors to this year’s Sabah Fest would also be treated to demonstrations on the making of unique Sabahan handicraft such as thesompoton or bamboo air horn of the Kadazandusun, the intricately wo-ven sinsulayan bamboo mats of the Murut and colourful dastar or fabric headgear of the Bajau and Rungus.

Local food such as linopot or compressed rice packed in leaves andempapor stewed fish, as well as the state’s own Sabah tea and Tenom coffee, were also made available.

Board chairman Tengku Datuk Zainal Adlin Tengku Mahmood said the Sabah Fest that would run till May 11 was a worthwhile experience.

“We have rituals and heritages that most people have never seen before,” he said. “This is really something.”

Among those who will be taking in the performances over the next few days is Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when he makes a two-day visit to the state beginning today.