PENAMPANG – Traditional dances, tapai (rice wine) drinking, handicraft and friendly merry-making filled the stalls at the Kadazandusun Cultural Hall (KDCA) Cultural Village once again after a two-year low-key Kaamatan festival due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The traditional Murut house (Tenom long-house) where the Pahun Lansaran, a floor contraption built to do the Lansaran dance in the middle of the Murut ethnic group longhouses, is again filled by visitors, swaying to the rhythm of the music of the Sumayau.
Not far from the Tenom long-house, lies big bamboo shoots tied to the pillar of the Ranau Cultural House, with white PVC tap water head protruding out from a few feet from the ground. A group of men was seen turning the tap open to fill their small plastic cups with the “tapai” under the hot afternoon sun.
They stood there and raised their cups before drinking them as their hands hung onto each other's shoulders as if they were brothers. They began shouting “Aramaiti” the popular slang which is equivalent to “cheers”.
The traditional cultural houses become lively again as thousands revelled in the cultural village. Young girls and boys were clad in their traditional clothes dancing to the Sumazau, the traditional folk dance of the Kadazandusun ethnic groups.
“It has certainly drawn the crowd again. This was what everyone had been waiting for after the pandemic – to revel in the traditions, the music, and the drinking in the Kaamatan merry-making,” said a visitor named Simon Augustine, 45.
Augustine, a Dusun Tatana from Kuala Penyu, is among thousands of people who visited the village during the two-day finale of the Kaamatan Harvest Festival.
The month-long celebration has its attractions, such as the Unduk Ngadau beauty pageant and the Sugandoi (singing competition). But the cultural village is where the cultural diversity of the KDMs is put on display to the thousands of visitors.
The main events are held inside the KDCA or Hongkod Koisaan. With Covid-19 still potentially spreading, only a thousand people have been allowed into the hall. But outside and especially in the cultural village is where the action is.
Augustine said this is where he would meet old friends and district kinfolks.
“I don’t need to go far to find them. I knew for a fact that they would be here. If not, I might also make new friends with all this merry-making,” said the medical supplier worker in jest.
The KDCA Cultural Village located at the compound of the KDCA Hall features 11 different ethnic tribe houses. They are the cultural houses of Penampang, Tenom, Beaufort, Kota Belud, Kuala Penyu, Keningau, Tambunan, Papar, Ranau, Tuaran and Kudat.
The village operates as a museum that preserves Kadazandusun ethnic culture. It aims to share the knowledge, history, culture, and tradition of Kadazandusun so they are not forgotten. In these houses, the indigenous groups also display as well as sell their bead ornaments, traditional baskets, and other household items.
A basket such as the Wakid can fetch up to RM120 to RM200 apiece, while a Bubu or fish trap (some converted into mood lamps) and weaved bags are priced over RM100. Traditional beads like those with the Murut traditional patterns are from RM28 to RM50.
It is during the Kaamatan Harvest Festival that the village is being filled up again. Some find it more entertaining than the beauty pageant, which is usually the main highlight of the month-long celebrations.
Kaamatan is a type of harvest festival celebrating the bountiful padi harvest of the KDM people in Sabah.
The event culminates at the KDCA Hall for the two-day opening and finale of the celebration, after the district held its own Kaamatan festival in the earlier weeks of May. – The Vibes, May 31, 2022
