Day 92, October 17 We decide to stay in KK another
day and head over to the museum again—this time it proves quite
interesting. I am particularly interested in the indigenous groups of
Sabah. While our guidebook includes a lot on the people of Sarawak and a
number of books have been written on the problems they face (namely
logging), there seems to be a lack of information on the people here. Do
they lead similar lives? Have development projects and logging had the
same effect on them? Are there organizations of local people to fight
against such problems? While I feel I have a pretty good handle on
Sarawak now, it feels like I know nothing about Sabah; it also seems
like we might have less of a chance to meet people from the various
indigenous groups here. We enter the museum and
immediately off to our left is a mannequin of a Land Bajau (one of the
groups) atop his trusty steed. The Land Bajau are famous horsemen:
both the rider and mount are covered in ornately-patterned, black and red
cloth. Upstairs, we pass through a display on the different groups of
Sabah and their ceremonial dress. Most of the outfits are colored in
black and red, with many of them featuring a turban-like head covering for
the men and a silver headdress for the women that is thin and stands
straight up. All in all the outfits look more like something that should
be found at the courts of rajahs and sultans than the dress of the
people of Sabah. But like their brethren to the
west, the 30 or so groups of Sabah have festivals revolving around the
cycle of rice harvesting. They believe that all rice has a spirit, or
bambarayon, in it, and that rituals must take place to guard against the
threat of insects and pests and human carelessness. At the main festival
in May, Olympics-like games are held throughout the region and a “Miss
Harvest” is crowned. She is chosen both for her honesty and her
beauty. There is no swimsuit competition. In this same display are some
random human skulls, but no explanation is given for their presence.
Hey, you can’t visit a museum in Borneo without seeing some human heads. On the next floor, there is a
display on Islam. Leading up to the Renaissance, Islamic countries were
quite more advanced than Europe in scientific matters, such as mathematics
and astronomy. It’s ironic that Islamic science was once ahead of the
West, but now Westerners often view Islamic culture as a hindrance to
modernity and progress. Nearby is an exhibit on ceramic
jars. Such jars are of immense importance to the people of both Sarawak
and Sabah. In addition to being used to store rice wine and food for
ceremonies, they are obtained by men to enhance their social status and
are used as bridewealth. In the past, the jars were purchased from
Chinese traders; one particularly impressive jar from the Qing Dynasty
(1700s) was used as recently as 1960 for bridewealth by a Murut. Outside the museum, there are
full-size models of Sabah’s longhouses. We learned that the Murut and
Kadazan hunted heads, but unlike their Sarawak neighbors kept their
trophies (and apparently still do) in separate skull houses. In the
Murut residential house, we bounced on a lansaron, a kind of trampoline
formed from rattan and springy logs that occupies a hole in the floor. The
Murut use the contraption for ceremonies and entertainment. After the museum, we head over to
a café to get lunch and discuss our trip. We decide that we will have
to skip Sulawesi so we are not rushed in Thailand and the like. Before
we departed the States I thought we would have loads of time and
complete freedom to wander. It’s funny how short a year actually is. |
