![]() Nunuk Ragang monument entrance | |
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Location | Ranau District, West Coast Division |
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Coordinates | 5°42′50.409″N 116°51′18.561″E / 5.71400250°N 116.85515583°E |
Opening date | 2004 |
Dedicated to | The location of the original home of the ancestors of the Kadazan-Dusun natives who inhabit most of northern Borneo in Sabah, Malaysia |
Nunuk Ragang is a site traditionally considered as the location of the original home of the ancestors of the Kadazan-Dusun natives who inhabit most of northern Borneo in Sabah, Malaysia.[1] The site, nearby a village named Tampias,[2] is located at the intersection of the left (Liwagu Kogibangan) and right (Liwagu Kowananan) branches of the Liwagu River to the east of Ranau and Tambunan districts where various Dusun sub-groups of Liwan Dusun, Tinagas Dusun, Bundu Dusun, Talantang Dusun, Tagahas Dusun, Orang Sungai and Tambanuo are living.[3][4]
The two river branches joined up to flow into the Labuk River and drain out into the Sulu Sea. At the site, and under a giant banyan tree, a settlement referred to as Nunuk Ragang was founded where the giant tree was said to be able to give shade to a longhouse sheltering 10 families in it. According to the stories of the elders of the Kadazan-Dusun tribe, the tree was six fathoms in size and its lush leaves could shelter seven Kadazan huts measuring 240 square feet.[3] The legend about Nunuk Ragang had been passed down via oral traditions to the younger generations despite there is still no archaeological excavation ever been carried out to establish the veracity of the legend.[3][5]
In 2004, the quasi-government group of the Kadazan-Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA) set up a monument near Tampias at the site of what they believed to be the original village.[5] The word "tampias" means "sprinkled" or "dispersed". The monument was built in the form of a huge fig tree. The association conducts annual pilgrimages to the site, timed to coincide with the inauguration of its paramount chief, the "Huguon Siou".[6]
Etymology
[edit]The name Nunuk Ragang is derived from two Kadazan-Dusun words "nunuk" which refers to the banyan tree and "ragang" which could mean "newborn baby" or is a shortened form of the word "aragang" which means "red coloured".[3] The two words together therefore possibly refer to either a "newborn baby banyan tree" or a "red coloured banyan tree".[3] Botanically, the red-fruit of the species Ficus racemosa have been linked with the tree.[7][8] The Kadazan-Dusun has a fondness for riddling, giving names to places, things and actions in terms other than the actual.[9]
Religious and cultural life
[edit]
At the Nunuk Ragang settlement began the belief system and culture of the Kadazan-Dusun. There was no word for "religion" among the ancient Kadazan-Dusun and to them it was just a sort of relationship between the seen and the unseen. Some people would equate this to Animism.[10] This belief system centres largely on their livelihood and rituals so as to maintain the balance, order and harmony between themselves and between them and their environment, which consequently provide conditions for bountiful cultivation and harvests and continued existence of the race.[11][12] At the settlement also began Momolianism, a philosophical system, which when coupled with the belief system, had guided the life of the Kadazan-Dusun people up to the present age.[13] Surrounded by thick primary forest teeming in wildlife, nature and nurture became the foundation for the birth and growth of the belief system and cultural heritage of the Kadazan-Dusun.[14]
Food and material needs
[edit]The Dusunic-speaking peoples, descendants of the pioneers at Nunuk Ragang, are today agriculturalists and paddy planting is the common occupation among them.[14][15] But according to oral traditions passed down from elders, the Nunuk Ragang people were practising vegeculture. Vegeculture is the cultivation and propagation of plant food by utilising the suckers of plants such as the yam, the sweet potato and cassava, eliminating the needs for seeds and permanent storage thus facilitating rapid migrations. Bamboo, palm trees and rattan were the primary materials used for all forms of activities connected to home construction and storage.[16] To light a fire the settlers used dried cottony bark scraped from the Polod palm tree. Metal, used for making dangol (short machete) and pais (carving knives) was already available, most probably through barter trading with coastal peoples. The Nunuk Ragang settlers also adapted to their environment by becoming hunter-gatherers and trappers. Salt, an important food enhancer and preservative was only intermittently available from the distant coastal region, prompting the Nunuk Ragang settlers to search out for sosopon (natural salt lick) frequented by wild animals. This persistent shortage of salt also gave rise to two important techniques, "memangi" and "manalau", for the preservation of meat and fish. Memangi produces "pinongian" or "bosou" (meat or fish preserved using the fleshy kernels from seeds of the Pangium edule tree),[17] and manalau, a smoked meat called "sinalau".[18]
Leadership and social hierarchy
[edit]The Huguan Siou leadership, a unique position to defend the culture, rights, identity and dignity of the Kadazan-Dusun was non existent at Nunuk Ragang. This leadership position, which had its roots at Guunsing (also spelled Gunsing), Penampang was only institutionalised after the formation of Malaysia in 1963.[19] Although the Nunuk Ragang society was egalitarian, at times of challenge or crisis they were led by warriors, who in turn were guided by the words of bobohizan (also referred as bobolians), as revealed by divine revelation from spirits.[20][21] These bobolians were mostly women who play their role as priestesses with female play an important function in the early Nunuk Ragang society.[20][21]
Exodus and dispersal
[edit]
After a number of years, a major crisis, called the "Minorit Push", caused the Kadazan-Dusun to completely moved out of the site. The driving force behind the movement out and dispersal of the Kadazan-Dusun from Nunuk Ragang was said to be the "Minorits", legendary tiny spiritual beings, emerging out of the ground to enforce their practice of infanticide. This exodus and dispersal led to the peopling of each territory in North Borneo.[2][22] Each territory peopled had its own particular attraction or pull for peopling such as for example the "Minkokook Pull" for the Tambunan Plain and the "Gomala Pull" for the Kundasang/Bundu Tuhan Highland. It is not known why the ancestors were unable to fend off the minorits, but in light of the Kadazan-Dusun love of the practice of riddling,[23] and couching of taboo terms in alternative words and phrases, the legend of the Minorits is most likely a composite narratives of several natural phenomena and man-made activities, which evolved over time into this reason for moving out of Nunuk Ragang. The most likely candidates are the smallpox and collapse of the soil fertility resulting from the advent of invasive lalang grasses. In this connection, the word "minorit" merit explanation. According to research conducted by Ivor Hugh Norman Evans, the word minorit is used by Dusun in two phrases i.e. "minorit O' paka" referring to the vast sea of lalang (imperata cylindrica) invasively growing at newly cleared forest, as visible in Tempasuk and Matunggong.[24]

Another use of the word is in the phrase "minorit O' lasu" referring to skin disease with spots of the same size spread all over the body. The Minorit push can therefore be attributed to either the degradation of the land at Nunuk Ragang due to fertility loss as the grass species, lalang grass invades the land after forest clearing or the advent of smallpox epidemic among the people. The Smallpox pandemic which began in the 16th century in Europe, which was common.[25] The population at Nunuk Ragang in that year was just about hundred individuals. The Kadazan-Dusun race would not have emerged to become a people if the ancestors had not moved out and dispersed. The people of Nunuk Ragang never had the opportunity to avail of the practice of variolation (also known as inoculation) even though this method of prevention of the smallpox was first invented in the Ming dynasty of China around 1500.[26][27] Nunuk Ragang, an ideal site at the confluence of the Liwagu Kogibangan and Liwagu Kawanan and draining out into the Sulu Sea via the Labuk River had most of the ingredients for the emergence of a Kadazan-Dusun River Civilisation.[14] Unfortunately the dispersal of the Kadazan-Dusun contributed towards the failure of the race to rise above culture to achieve the status of a civilisation. The word Liwagu derives from the Kadazan-Dusun phrase "muli wagu" meaning "return home again". The male ancestors was never able to return to their homeland. Cut off from their heritage, the descendants made the best use of the environment to which they were born into, thus giving birth to the unique Kadazan-Dusun culture. Present day Kadazan-Dusun leaders suggest that representatives of each sub-ethnic tribes under the Kadazan-Dusun race conduct an annual "muli wagu" (homecoming) to Nunuk Ragang as added tourism product to develop their common home.[28][29]
Minorit as a metaphor
[edit]The term Minorit is a metaphor of the monoculturalism emergence in the Kadazan-Dusun community, the deterioration of natural resources in Nunuk Ragang, and the extreme population there. It is related to the religion of the Kadazan-Dusun ancestors who at that time practised animism and worshipped Kinorohingan as God and Huminodun as in Bambarayon (the spirit of food sources and their saviour).[30][31] After rice cultivation was introduced in the Kadazan-Dusun community, Bambarayon was associated with rice spirits.[31] In the future, anywhere the Kadazan-Dusuns would make new settlements, monoculturalism and harvesting festival have become parts of their culture.[32]
The minorit push is indeed a metaphorical depiction of social crisis in Nunuk Ragang because it refers to a kind of unspecified creature which does not exist today. However, it became a revolution which forced the community to initiate a massive evacuation of Nunuk Ragang.[2][22]
Convergence
[edit]The possibility of further pinpointing the exact origin of the Kadazan-Dusun from before the Nunuk Ragang settlement was further enlightened during the official visit of Taiwan's minister of Council of Indigenous Peoples, Icyang Parod in early June 2017.[33] Masidi Manjun, Sabah minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, referred to the numerous similarities particularly in ethnic languages between the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and the Kadazan-Dusuns.[34][35]
References
[edit]- ^ Jolius 2023, p. 170.
- ^ a b c Zaenuddin et al. 2015, p. 25.
- ^ a b c d e Jumil 2018, p. 27.
- ^ Jolius 2023, p. 171.
- ^ a b Jolius 2023, p. 174.
- ^ Luping, Herman (14 July 2012). "Nunuk Ragang legend and Huguan Siou". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 6 June 2025. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
- ^ An Illustrated Guide to Bornean Orangutan Food Plants. WWF-Malaysia. ISBN 9789670237770.
- ^ uluulublog (15 January 2021). "Kota Kinabalu's most famous fig tree". THE FIGS OF BORNEO. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
- ^ Kok On & Yok Fee 2012, p. 92−96.
- ^ Widiyanto & Agra 2019, pp. 84.
- ^ Gottlieb 2004, p. 180−185.
- ^ Berinai 2013, p. 62−67.
- ^ Patrick, Tracy (30 May 2017). "Book on philosophy and way of life of Kadazans launched". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 5 June 2025. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
- ^ a b c "Facts about the unique Kadazan-Dusun people of Borneo". Olumes. 10 October 2020. Archived from the original on 10 April 2021. Retrieved 7 June 2025.
- ^ Gidah 2001, p. 4.
- ^ "Koisaan Cultural Village (KCV)". Kadazan-Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA). Archived from the original on 6 June 2025. Retrieved 7 June 2025.
- ^ Murphy (8 January 2021). "Nonsom / Bosou, the Pickled Food of Sabah". MySabah.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2025. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
- ^ Low 2005, p. 281.
- ^ Puyok 2010, p. 190−193.
- ^ a b Hussin 2003, p. 15.
- ^ a b Kok On & Ishak 2018, p. 180.
- ^ a b Clements 2006, p. 178.
- ^ Kok On & Yok Fee 2012, p. 71−94.
- ^ Evans 1922, p. 298 & 311.
- ^ Kelly 2010, p. 89.
- ^ Zhang 2002, p. 177–197.
- ^ Xue, Hou (8 November 2019). "The prevention and control methods of smallpox (2)". Disaster Risk Reduction Service, UNESCO. Archived from the original on 9 June 2025. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
- ^ "Nunuk Ragang Day to commemorate past and present 'Huguan Siou'". Bernama. 8 July 2012. Archived from the original on 9 June 2025. Retrieved 9 June 2025 – via The Borneo Post.
- ^ GD, Clarence (17 August 2019). "Annual KDM fest in Ranau". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 9 June 2025. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
- ^ Gimbad 2020, p. 12 & 70.
- ^ a b Kok On 2012, p. 75.
- ^ Kolig, SM. Angeles & Wong 2009, p. 15.
- ^ "Malaysian Friendship & Trade Centre (MFTC), Taipei [Newsletter]" (PDF). Perdana Library. 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 June 2025.
- ^ "Masidi stands his ground on 'Malay stock'". Daily Express. 19 August 2014. Archived from the original on 6 June 2025. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
- ^ Japin, Nurul Azirah (18 April 2021). "Dusun Sabah and Taiwans Connection". IIUM Today. Archived from the original on 5 June 2025. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
Bibliography
[edit]- Evans, Ivor Hugh Norman (1922). Among Primitive Peoples in Borneo: A Description of the Lives, Habits & Customs of the Piratical Head-hunters of North Borneo, with an Account of Interesting Objects of Prehistoric Antiquity Discovered in the Island. Seeley, Service and Company limited.
- Gidah, Mary Ellen (2001). "Archetypes in the Cosmogenic Myths of the Australian Aboriginal People and the Kadazandusuns of Sabah". Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. ISBN 983-2188-64-4.
- Zhang, Jiafeng (2002). "Disease and Its Impact on Politics, Diplomacy, and the Military: The Case of Smallpox and the Manchus (1613-1795)". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 57 (2): 177–197. doi:10.1093/jhmas/57.2.177. PMID 11995595.
- Hussin, Hanafi (2003). "BOBOHIZAN DAN PERANANNYA DI KALANGAN MASYARAKAT KADAZAN DAERAH PENAMPANG, SABAH" [BOBOHIZAN AND ITS ROLE AMONG THE KADAZAN COMMUNITY OF PENAMPANG DISTRICT, SABAH] (PDF). Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (in Malay). 8: 15–40. Archived from the original on 12 May 2025 – via Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya.
- Gottlieb, Roger S. (2004). This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94360-4.
- Low, Kok On (2005). Membaca mitos dan legenda Kadazandusun [Reading Kadazandusun myths and legends] (in Malay). Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. ISBN 978-967-942-735-6.
- Clements, William M. (2006). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife: Southeast Asia and India, Central and East Asia, Middle East. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-32849-7.
- Shim, P.S. (2007). Inland People of Sabah: Before, During and After Nunuk Ragang. Borneo Cultural Heritage Publisher. ISBN 978-983-42395-0-3.
- Kolig, Erich; SM. Angeles, Vivienne; Wong, Sam; et al. (van der Velde, Paul; van den Haak, Martina) (2009). Identity in Crossroad Civilisations [Ethnicity, Nationalism and Globalism in Asia] (PDF). Vol. 8. Amsterdam University Press. p. 1–263. ISBN 978-90-8964-127-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 June 2025 – via OAPEN.
- Kelly, Kate (23 June 2010). The Scientific Revolution and Medicine: 1450-1700. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-2636-4.
- Puyok, Arnold (2010). Ethnicity, Culture and Indigenous Leadership in Modern Politics: The Case of the Kadazandusun in Sabah, East Malaysia.
- Kok On, Low; Yok Fee, Lee (2012). "Investigating the Relationship between Kadazandusun Beliefs about Paddy Spirits, Riddling in Harvest-time and Paddy-Related Sundait" (PDF). MALIM − SEA Journal of Studies. 13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 May 2025 – via UKM Journal Article Repository.
- Kok On, Low (2012). "BELIEF IN BAMBARAYON (PADDY SPIRITS) AMONG THE KADAZANDUSUN OF NORTH BORNEO" (PDF). Borneo Research Journal. 6. Universiti Malaysia Sabah: 78 – via University of Malaya.
- Berinai, Judy (2013). Liturgical inculturation in Anglican worship in light of the spirituality of the indigenous people of Sabah, Malaysia (PDF). Doctor of Philosophy in Middlesex University (Thesis). p. 1–346. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 May 2025 – via Middlesex University Research Repository, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies.
- Zaenuddin, Dundin; Wiratri, Amorisa; Hidayat, Anang; Nadila, Syarfina Mahya (2015). Myth, Local Wisdom, and Forest Management in Southeast Asia: A Case Study in Malaysia. PSDR LIPI. ISBN 978-602-7797-51-2.
- Jumil, Florina (2018). Nilai dan Fungsi Tangon-Tangon Masyarakat Kadazandusun dalam Pembentukan Karakter Murid Sekolah [The Value and Function of the Tangon-Tangon of the Kadazandusun Community in Forming the Character of School Students]. Bachelor of Education Diploma (MOD Research) (Thesis) (in Malay). p. 1–42. Archived from the original on 5 June 2025 – via Faculty of Languages and Communication, Sultan Idris University.
- Kok On, Low; Ishak, Solehah (2018). "The Spiritual Significance of Komburongo in the Folk Beliefs of the Dusunic Peoples of North Borneo" (PDF). Borneo Heritage Research Unit of Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Faculty of Film, Theatre and Animation MARA, University of Technology, Malaysia. 71: 180–206. doi:10.7592/FEJF2018.71.low_solehah. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 May 2025 – via Folklore (Estonia), Estonian Literary Museum of Scholarly Press.
- Widiyanto, Nur; Agra, Emanuela (2019). "Tourism Development and the New Path of Migration in Sabah, Malaysia" (PDF). Borneo Research Journal. 13 (1). Tourism Department, Ambarrukmo Tourism Institute, Yogyakarta, Indonesia: 81–97. doi:10.22452/brj.vol13no1.5. eISSN 2600-8645 – via University of Malaya.
- Gimbad, Elizabeth (2020). "Cultivating Rice and Identity: An Ethnography of the Dusun People in Sabah, Malaysia" (PDF). Western Sydney University.
- Jolius, Johnnatan (2023). "TUGU NUNUK RAGANG, RANAU: SIMBOL BUDAYA DAN KEPERCAYAAN MASYARAKAT DUSUN" [NUNUK RAGANG MONUMENT, RANAU: THE SYMBOL OF CULTURE AND BELIEFS OF DUSUN COMMUNITY]. Jurnal Borneo Akhailogia (Warisan, Arkeologi & Sejarah) (in Malay). 8 (1): 169–188. eISSN 2600-8726. Archived from the original on 28 May 2025 – via UKM Journal Article Repository.
Further reading
[edit]- Rutter, Owen (1929). The Pagans of North Borneo (First ed.). Hutchinson & Co (Publishers) Ltd, London. pp. 227–245 – via Internet Archive.
- Evans, Ivor Hugh Norman (1953). The Religion of the Tempasuk Dusuns of North Norneo. CUP Archive.
- Glyn-Jones, Monica (1953). The Dusun of the Penampang Plains in North Borneo. For the Colonial Social Science Research Council.
- Appell, G. N. (1967). "Ethnography of Northern Borneo: Critical Review of Some Recent Publications". Oceania. 37 (3): 178–185. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1967.tb00898.x. JSTOR 40329591.
- Abdul Rashad, Rashnizahwati (2003). "LAGENDA NUNUK RAGANG: Persfektif [sic] Masyarakat" [THE LEGEND OF NUNUK RAGANG: Community Perspective]. Sabah State Information Department (in Malay). Archived from the original on 6 November 2003.
- Herman (2005). "Ka'amatan 2005 - Nunuk Ragang and the Mystical Origin of the People of Sabah". SabahTravelGuide.com. Archived from the original on 26 May 2005.
- Abidin, Shahriman Zainal; Legino, Rafeah; Noor, Harrinni Md; Vermol, Verly Veto; Anwar, Rusmadiah; Kamaruzaman, Muhamad Fairus (22 March 2016). Proceedings of the 2nd International Colloquium of Art and Design Education Research (i-CADER 2015). Springer. ISBN 978-981-10-0237-3.
- Tati, Kathirina Susanna (8 November 2018). Tales from Our Ancestors. Partridge Publishing Singapore. ISBN 978-1-5437-4866-6.
- "Ketahui Nunuk Ragang, Legenda Pokok Ara Merah Dan Asal Usul Kadazan-Dusun" [Learn about Nunuk Ragang, the Legend of the Red Fig Tree and the Origins of Kadazan-Dusun]. ILoveBorneo.my (in Malay). 25 April 2025. Archived from the original on 28 May 2025.
External links
[edit]Media related to Nunuk Ragang at Wikimedia Commons