By: MOHD JEFRI RADIUS
ENGULFED by a chain of prominent topographical features, notably the Gunung Rara mountain range, the Serudong River, which flows almost parallel and just a stone’s throw from the Indonesian border of Kalimantan, is one of the major watercourses navigable by boats or small vessels.
This remote settlement yet to be fully touched by modern civilisation has been predominantly inhabited by a Murutic tribe in their thousands since the last century.
Daniel Sipon Tunjaing, 50, a Pentecost Murut of the Alpha and Omega Christian Fellowship, Sabah Branch was quoted in an interview as saying;
“Although we have a lot in common with our counterparts, be they in Pensiangan, Keningau Plain or Sibuku, Kalimantan, we preferred to be called. The Serudong Muruts adopting the name of the majestic river.” .
Unlike the older generations of the Tagals, Timoggons, the Baukans or the Paluans Muruts in the Interior Residency, the Serudong Muruts were believed to have been spared from the exploitation and manipulation of the Chartered Company Administration.
The Muruts in Serudong, a village geographically located within the Tawau Residency still maintain, conserve or upkeep the legacy of their forefathers’ precious cultural heritage until the present time.
The thanksgiving ceremony performed to enlighten the spirit of the padi, widely known by their own dialectical word as ‘Basunggak’, is an exceptional case in point.
Several panoramic undulating land slopes which were once thick forests have economically been turned into subsistence agricultural cultivation of Hill Padi (Orizia Sativia) by the local communities including the Muruts.
The planting of hill padi is simply a version of the nomadic practice of what is generally known as the ‘shifting cultivation’, the tradition means of living that are also adopted by most hill tribes found in remote rural areas of South East Asian Regions.
Indeed, the hill tribes called ‘Meo, Yao, Akha and Lisu’ in Thailand, the ‘Raglai, Chams, Hmongs and Mien’ in Vietnam, the ‘Intha, Palaung, Shan and Karen’ in Myanmar, the ‘Saoch, Brao and Kuy’ in Cambodia, the ‘Khamu, Lamet and Lao Theung’ in Laos and the ‘Tasaday, Ifuago and Igorot’ in the Philippines; all practise the ‘Slash and Burnt’ agriculture.
In pre-independent North Borneo (now Sabah) nomadic natives particularly the Muruts , plundered the pristine rainforest in the Interior Residency at will and caused substantial wastage.
Carried out sporadically, but at an extremely rampant rate beyond the control of the governments of those days, there was no form of stringent legislation to prevent or deter the natives from stripping the forest unlike today,whereby cases of villagers being charged in the lower court in the Interior Residency for trespassing and cultivating in the forest reserve recently proved the existence of such regulation.
The nature of physical work involved in the cultivation of hill padi is not as burdensome, compared to wet padi, whereby the top soil must be thoroughly ploughed to make it more soggy and muddy before young rice plants could be transferred from the nurseries.
Assuming, the area meant for hill padi cultivation is left with few vegetations including creepers and protruding under growth plants need to be weeded out, then the quantum of works to be done would not be so complicated. Otherwise, more manpower would be required to chop down the standing trees of varying sizes, before the new land could be fully developed for this form of subsistence agriculture.
The bulky remnants of flora, would then be exposed for a certain period of time under the sun to make them totally dried and readily combustible in the burning process, thus making the first stage of the planting work possible.
Only when or if the land had been smoothly cleared of its vegetative obstructions, obstacles or barriers etc, would cultivation process be made easier. There arose certain significant terminology associated with the cultivation or harvesting of hill padi.
In the ‘Amunod‘ ritual, a replica or depiction of a hill padi storage granary made from the bark of jungle trees is partly laden with a set of traditional belts, created from numerous pieces of colourful beads of various sizes and assembled with other non–corrosive metallic materials.
These decorative set of traditional Murut belts, as worn by their maidens, symbolise decency and purity. This object would then be firmly fixed and placed on the pointing top end of a wooden pole, before being raised in a perpendicular position to a certain height above the ground.
This simple ritual ceremony was performed as a way of appeasing or inviting the spirit of the padi to site of the newly cleared area before planting is carried out with the ‘blessing of the spiritual padi medium.’
The Muruts in Serudong too, traditionally created a non–ritual culture, which is more of a merriment to soften the fatigue of those participating, in the ‘Aporogop’ which resembles to what the Murutic Baukan found within the Trans Pegalan Valley, termed as ‘Dugub’.
While planting works are about to commence, Gold ring is concealed within the site of the garden hill. The object would be traced, unlocked or discovered by the fortunate member, while performing the ‘Angasok’, the act of creating or poking holes by using a piece of sharp pointed wood, normally a Belian wood (Eusideroxyllon Zwageri) and to be filled with grains punctually.
When the hill padi have reached maturity but not ready yet to be harvested, the garden hill’s owner would bind to form a knot, using the rice plants stalks and leaves of a selected padi plants growing from one of the grains as a symbolic belief of preventing the invited padi spirit from transferring to another places.
In most cases, the owner of the garden hill would suspend disposed old clothing depicting the images or figures of ‘human beings’ and kept at all strategic positions or corners to scare away predators.
Once the hill padi is sufficiently ripe to be harvested, a verbal invitation would be extended to the neighbouring villagers to perform the ‘Pintari’, another form of traditional cooperation practised by this Murutic tribe.
Anyone, who attends the ‘Pintari’, would be presented with a priceless set of handout called ‘Sebubudui’, a basket made of rattan as a token of appreciation from the organising host, for the hard work being rendered by the volunteers during the day, to be followed by an evening of festivity.
This form of thanksgiving or ‘Basunggak’ is also held to signify the ‘miraculous happening’ upon a villager, or those who have just recuperating from a very serious illness . Traditionally, this is performed more to mark the post harvesting season.
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