Nunuk Ragang and Happy Anniversary Blog

The high priestess

The high priest

   Once upon a time, a long time ago when people moved and drifted with the wind, a group of people left their land (known as Mongolia now) in search of food. There were many of them and they landed in many places like grains of rice scattered on the land. Some of these people found the wind carrying them very far from their homeland into hot climates and they lived as they could by trading and fishing.
    They were near a land that was known as The Land below the Wind and though it was a very dense jungle they found a river that they paddled up stream. The boats continued for many moons until they came to place where two rivers flowed into one which they named Liwogu meaning deep calmness. Towering above the jungle was a huge tree,with its huge branches overhanging the river and in the distance they could see a mountain reaching into the clouds. " This is the place that we will stay" said the bobohizan. " This tree is the Nanuk Ragang (meaning red ficas tree) and this will be our home."

  And so it was the people lived for many years under the huge branches of Nanuk Ragang. The roots of the tree produced a red latex that had medicinal healing powers and the water in the Liwogu had a reddish tinge. The huge tree was their shelter and their protection. They had fish from the river, animals from the jungle and they planted food to eat. The people's philosophy focused on the belief of maintaining the harmonious relationship of all the forces of life. The foundation of a system of a balanced life in moderation was to become the blueprint of the Kadazandusun people. The Adat is the complex beliefs of their spititual values, customs, traditions and moral guidelines.

The costume is made from the pangolin animal and bark

bark and pangolin costumes

    Eventually after many generations living under the shadow of the nunuk ragang some of the people decided to go further up the river and leave the community. The people settled in many places but every year the origin of the Khadazandusun people is remembered and celebrated.

Inside the tree performing blessings and rituals

 Today I was very fortunate to be invited along to the celebrations at Nanuk Ragang Heritage Monument, which is a huge concrete "tree" that is able to shelter many people inside and supposedly the size of the original tree! You will see from my photos that it is was an amazing experience to be amongst and Emily and I were the only fortunate tourists there. They believe that these people originally came from China or Mongolia during the 6 th century and many artefacts such as rice jars support that claim. Unfortunately much of the oral history of this ethnic group has been lost and was never written down but there is a strong belief that their common ancestral origin is from the people who settled at nunuk ragang.
PS. Much to my surprise I find that the 8 th July was when I started my blog. I find it hard to believe that a year has passed since my farewell party. Thank you all for following and your support. I have just looked at the statistics and I have had 6,230 page views since I started. Most of you are from France, UK and Malaysia but I have regular readers even in Brazil, Finland and Russia! I hope you will continue to read and enjoy my "adventures"!