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Article by Henry Joplin Mosiun
The dusun people of the old Putatan had an obsession for big rocks. With their thick, tough and hardened soles of the feet, clambered up hills and braved the mountains into dangerous territories of hostile tribes while some sailed the ocean to islands in search of the best-looking boulder. The valley of Sugud was occupied by people from the eastern part of Sabah. By the end of the 18th century, bands of indigenous people from the upper reaches of the Kinabatangan, Klagan-Labuk and Sugut rivers converge in Sugud.
Sugud was once called Malagavas. In a folk story relating to the founding of Sugud, began with Tovolok a man from Sugut in the north-eastern part of Sabah who travelled down to the west coast. Tovolok was entrusted with a buatan suluk (spear) that belonged to his bride-to-be’s father, the village chief. During a hunting expedition, he loses the spear while hunting for bakas (wild boar). Tovolok’s throw did not weakened the huge boar that eventually escaped with the chief’s buatan suluk stuck to its back. The chief was unhappy with Tovolok when he found out that he had lost his favourite hunting spear. Tovolok’s marriage to the chief’s daughter was hanging by a thread. Saddened, he went on a search to recover the lost buatan suluk and thus began his journey which brought him to Malagavas.
Sansaabon is the name given to a menhir that stands in the quaint valley of Sugud in Kampong Tindai. Tom Harrison recorded the name Libu as the person who erected sansaabon. The stone was acquired from Ulu Sugud which took 50 men and 5 days to transport and install it at its chosen site. It has never been fully understood why sansaabon was erected and has mystified even the locals. According to Sibius Kaahin, sansaabon was erected before the time of Datu Dulinggou Damidal.
Datu Dulinggou Damidal was born in 1820 more or less and passed away in 1927. Damidal was one of the dusun chieftains in Penampang to have been awarded the honorary title of Datu Delingga by the Sultanate of Brunei probably in the third quarter of the 19th century after the famous Kulintangon Buis Revolt. Damidal was also said to have taken part in an oath taking ceremony between the dusun tribes of coastal areas and the interior to mark the end of the Misangod (Warring) period. The Popotingkod do Pisangadan (To end enmity) ceremony was called forth by Sogunting, a bobolian from Kampong Widu in Tambunan. The event might have taken place just before the North Borneo Chartered Company began its administration in 1881.
The Sugud valley was already occupied before Damidal’s family settled in the area. Sansaabon was likely installed in the first decade of the 19th century. This occurred during the time of Datu Botulung and the Bangkaakon as Sibius Kaahin points out that only Datu Botulung could have known why sansaabon was erected.
Datu Botulung was an individual that possessed unnatural strength. Legend says he could leap over a longhouse and destroy a fortress single-handedly. The mad war monger, Datu Botulung led the bangkaakon horde to war where they fought the hill tribes and plundered villages in the interior and along the coast. Decapitated bodies were a common sight in the aftermath of a battle, and it was considered honourable to take the enemy’s head. The bangkaakon however quarrelled amongst themselves on who gets to keep the most heads and war booty.
Pius Kating, in his book “Alat-Alat Muzik Tradisional Sabah”, mentions how the bangkahak people (bangkaakon) used black magic to attack the tagaras (tagahas) of Kampong Mondolipau in Papar. A type of magical spell called kolulut is cast upon the targeted village. This magical spell manifests as a huge bugang bird that perches on the rooftop of the longhouse. Victims of this sorcery die from delirium.
The bangkaakon were actually groups of people from Kinabatangan who made a pact to set out from their original settlement in search of greener pasture elsewhere according to Sibius Kaahin. He recalls hearing the bangkaakon language which sounded similar to the dialects spoken in the Labuk and Kinabatangan areas. They were other tribes that lived alongside the bangkaakon in Sugud but their names had been forgotten such as the unknown tribe that lived at Ponontogon hill, a stretch of hill in between Maang and Sugud.
Riduan strongly believes those empty coffins at Batu Tulug belong to his ancestors. Riduan is an orang sungei from Kinabatangan whose mother is an orang sungei whilst father a hokkien chinese. Before indigenous people in Kinabatangan professed islam or embraced christianity, the ancient people in the area were called tulun tombonuo. The tulun tombonuo were big and tall people. Their lungun (coffin) are long and shaped like boats with intricate floral and animal designs and motifs. Long ago, many areas in Kinabatangan were submerged in water. The ancient tombonuo people buried their dead in holes dug out on steep limestone hill slopes. This was to prevent the corpse from getting wet and animals getting to it. Riduan’s funny description of the tulun tombonuo were people that ate anything and had no restrictions as opposed to muslims.
When the chinese came to Kinabatangan, they met the tombonuo people. The chinese who remained in Kinabatangan married the tombonuo. Union between the two produced the orang sungei. The language Riduan speak share many words with the dusun language. Many of these words are found in the vocabularies of the rungus, penampang kadazan and the mangkaak dusun.
Coincidentally, Limpai had a grandfather who was ‘keturunan cina’ (sino native) from Kinabatangan; as George Doivin of Kampong Terawi, a descendant of the former, recalls being told by village elders. Like Datu Damidal, Limpai was another venerable and influential person in the Putatan Sub-District who was conferred with the title Mantri Babu by the Sultan of Brunei. She played a pivotal role in the rebellion against the Sultanate of Brunei that led to its last leg at Kulintangon Hill, a hill near the present day Donggongon.
Tom Harrison was probably the first person to record the story of the bangkaakon. In “The Prehistory of Sabah”, the british polymath accounts the bangkaakan people that lived in a longhouse on a hill in Limbanak. The bangkaakan were under constant threat by the tagahas who were only interested in their heads rather than land. Harrison recorded the narratives from Malanggum in 1965 who stated the bangkaakan are the forefathers of the present Penampang kadazans.
A young Jitain Hoinsung went hunting with his father in the jungles of Kawang when they stumbled upon a grave mound of about 10 to 12ft in length. Jitain was told by his father that the extraordinary grave was the grave of Balajai, a bangkaakon. Balajai was described as a person who ventured and wandered across the land seeking knowledge.
Malanggum told Harrison that the bangkaakan were big people with an average height of 6 ft. Most bangkaakons grow 6 to 7 ft in height whilst some have reached 12 ft explains Sibius Kaahin which tallies with Jitain Hoinsung’s description. Could this be a case of Gigantism? Is this how we imagine our ancestors to be?
In the 1950s, they were some isolated small communities of bangkaak people living around Sugud and Kampong Maang area. At that point in time, the term bangkaakon carried a connotation of backward and primitive. It was during the tamu, some bangkaak people could be seen coming with their buffaloes to trade. The boys from villages around Donggongon poked fun at the backward bangkaak people. P.S. Shim, in “Inland People of Sabah, Before, During & After Nunuk Ragang” mentions of the enmity between the bangkaakon in Sugud and the tagahas in Labak, near Kinarut in Papar, lasted until 1923.
It was perhaps difficult for various dusun dayak factions of Putatan-Penampang to preserve their cultural uniqueness. The bangkaakon adopted the tangara and kadazan adat and customs since they lost their bobolian. The role of the bobolian is significantly important in the dusun society since they are specialists in rites and rituals as well as adept in the healing knowledge.
If not for the literary works of Tom Harrison and Shim Phyau Soon, the bangkaakon would have been completely forgotten. Folk stories are records of history and culture of people and can be preserve through oral traditions. There is a lack of documentation on styles and forms of indigenous storytelling. The emphasis on art and style of storytelling is equally important to the contents of a folk story. Some stories are conveyed and presented in song form take for example the Hibag, storytelling in the form of choral performance of the Tatana of Kuala Penyu.
In the modern households in Penampang, the bangkaakon are demonised; children are told nightmarish tales of vampirical red-eyed bangkaak people that preyed on innocent little children. The bangkaakon are liken to supernatural beings such as the tindaabi and balan-balan.
In a tragic twist of fate, the mad war monger’s life ended a slow and excruciating death. Shrouded in an imaginably sinister atmosphere, Datu Botulung was tied to a timadang (tarap) tree while prayed over by 7 bobohizans; the villagers who have turned against him, took turns in stabbing, spearing and wounding him. He bled to death. The days of Datu Botulung came to an abrupt end.
The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are – Maya Angelou
Sources
Informants: Sibius Kaahin, Dousia Moujing, Jitain Hoinsung, George Doivin and Lau Tee Loi @ Mohd. Riduan.
Books & Articles
- Harrisson, T., & Harrisson, B. V. (1971). The prehistory of Sabah. Kota Kinabalu, Sabah: Sabah Society.
- Shim, P. S. (2007). Inland People of Sabah: Before, During & After Nunuk Ragang. Kota Kinabalu, Sabah: Borneo Cultural Heritage Publisher.
- Kating, P. J. (1996). Alat-Alat Muzik Tradisional Sabah, Warisan Budaya Kita Bersama. Kota Kinabalu, Sabah: KDI Publications Sdn. Bhd.
- Kulintangon Buis Revolt by N.C. Tan Pin Hing
- Datu Damidal the Last Penghulu of Sugud by Blasius Binjua
- Aki Tovolok by anonymous
- British North Borneo Herald
under a bornean moon 