Tuaran: It took a few hours before the libabow made contact with the guardians of Mount Kinabalu and it quickly dawned on the tantagas that all is not well on the mountain.
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| Traditional Ritual |
Communication was only established long after the media glare died down at the Kg Bantayan community hall in Tamparuli where the monolibabow ritual took place Saturday night to explore how the mountain spirit, who many fervently believe was disturbed after a group of Western tourists disrobed near the summit recently, could be appeased.
The idea was to offer a sogit to placate the spirit in the hope of restoring the balance on the mountain following its desecration by the tourists on May 30.
But, as the libabow found out, the naked-on-the-mountain episode was just the latest transgression by humans, much to the disappointment of the guardians of the mountain which spoke of having grown weary as a result.
"They do not want anything anymore (from the Lotud community). They are fed up. They have been promised so many times, and now they are angry. Try and think of it, they have been promised many times, but nothing.
"Now they are given something but only the Dusun gave us. The Dusun Darat (in Ranau) not yet," lamented the gimbaran of libabow Odun Lumanjar during the monolibabow ritual.
Draped in dark blue traditional costume and chains of amulets on her neck, Odun Lumanjar was one of the two libabow whose gimbaran were appointed to speak with the seven guardians of the mountain; Gunsangod, Singkarad, Rangkai, Liso, Rongko, Tanggung and their leader Raja Gugur.
In local tradition, libabow is believed to be able to send her gimbaran by having it fly off to other places to meet specific spirits. While all these are happening, the gimbaran will take possession of the libabow's body and will speak through the libabow.
It is normal that sometimes other spirits will come in and try to communicate with other people who are present during the ritual.
On Saturday night, for example, a wayward spirit possessed one of the women and started talking about its chicken which were on the loose and asked certain people to take better care of them.
Another incident happened when a woman started to shake uncontrollably and one of the libabow stood up, said something and sat down again when the spirit, believed to have possessed the poor woman, left.
"That was a bad spirit. The libabow just told it that she refused to communicate with that spirit," whispered a Lotud woman. Towards the end, only Odun Lumanjar's gimbaran was still present and Kg Bantayan's village chief Antakin Andau and district Native Chief Saniban Amphila were on hand to interview her about the demands of the guardians of the mountain.
"They are angry about one man, tall and white who came there and asked permission to climb but he had a wife who was five months' pregnant. So the wife was prohibited to make the climb.
"They went home and maybe because their desire was not fulfilled, the child was stillborn. The man was not happy.
They cremated the body and brought the ashes to the top of the mountain.
"There, they spread the ashes but they did not ask permission from the souls that reside there. The ashes fell into holes on the mountain. How can you take all the ashes out again?" said the gimbaran. (Hopefully, if it was true, the person involved can come forward an shares his story. By saying this, I'm not trying to ridicule the Libabow claim but just to clear thing out for the more critical minds. I know exactly how thing are with one's body possessed by "Gimbaran". My mum's was one of them).
The guardians also complained about the behaviours of some climbers who 'behaved like animals' and performed sexual acts while on the mountain, just like snakes, deer, pigs and squirrels.
Therefore, the mountain is getting too hot and its sickness is getting worse despite many 'doctors' trying to heal it. "How many doctors? Forty-four on the left, 44 behind, 44 on the right, 44 in front. And at the end of this is the sea where Raja Sunami, the grandchild of Raja Gugur resides," the gimbaran said, illustrating the extent of the mountain's poor health.
The guardians also bemoaned the terrible conduct of the Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) people who committed terrible sins, especially incestuous relationships between father and daughter, first cousins and siblings who marry one another.
They expressed their grief that the people are no longer able to learn to care for Kinabalu and that the only people in the position to take care of the mountain are the Dusun Darat in Ranau.
"But they do not do it. They all run away. I can see there are still some of them there but they do not do it anymore."
The ritual was the first by the KDM community to communicate with the guardians of the mountain in order to appease them and the souls they believe reside on the mountain following the May 30 incident which had raised the anger of Sabahans after photos of the ten tourists went viral on social media.
A deadly earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale claimed the lives of 18 people on June 5, stoking further anger, leading many to believe that the desecration of the mountain, deemed sacred by the natives of Sabah, had triggered the earthquake.
However, the ritual in Tuaran, as with many others that will follow, did not equate the desecration to the earthquake and was held purely to appease the spirit of the mountain.
But the gimbaran pleaded to the people not to be mean to the earth even if they have embraced other religions. "When we die, we will return to the earth because that is our source. The earth is getting old."
The people nowadays, the gimbaran said, are getting too smart for their own good and even surpassing Kinorohingan and Umunsumundu.
So the guardians are now waiting on the Dusun Darat to 'soothe' the spirit of Kinabalu by offering seven fowls and pigs as sacrifice.
"Not buffaloes because buffaloes imply different intentions. When you slaughter buffaloes, it is for merry making, weddings. But when you slaughter livestock, collect the blood and all the parts you cannot eat".
"Dig a hole on the ground and pour them all in because those are for the earth. Nowadays, people do not do this anymore," they said.
The guardians delivered a disturbing warning that if their requests for sogit from the Dusun Darat were not granted, the mountain will crumble.
"Their (Dusun Darat) way of praying is different. Here, it is different. Here, it is secondary. There, that is number one, those who live in the Kinabalu area," it said.
Immediately following the deadly earthquake, Huguan Siou Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who was clearly upset, alluded that the ten tourists had desecrated the mountain and that the earthquake was the effect of their disrespectful behaviour.
His statement was picked up by global media who did not lose a minute in sensationalising it and mocking the culture and beliefs of the natives in the State.
However, other State leaders came out in defence of Pairin and Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun explained that the demands for the group to be punished was rooted in deeply-held reverence for the mountain considered sacred to the natives.
"There have been apparent fact-twisting by certain foreign media. I don't know whether this is on purpose just to ridicule us or their failure to appreciate our local traditions and customs," said Masidi, himself a Dusun-Muslim from the foothills of Mount Kinabalu.
According to a police report by Sabah Parks staff, 10 tourists had stripped and posed naked for photos on Mount Kinabalu's peak on May 30 and rebuffed their local guide who tried to stop them, telling him to "go to hell".
Four tourists – Canadian siblings Lindsey Petersen, 23 and Danielle Petersen, 22; Briton Eleanor Hawkins, 24; and Dutch national Dylan Snel, 23 – were jailed, fined and ordered deported by the court on Friday.
The other six are still being sought by police.
My Comment : I remember one incident when I was around 7 years old. We were living in kampung's in the '70s. My brother and I sometimes wandered in the bush and eats some sweet bud from the many plants scattered around ~ Especially the bud of Gosing, because it was sweet. As you know, tidbits and delicacies are seldom during that time, especially in our household. So we eats anything that look "yummy" in our eyes.
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Family: MELASTOMATACEAE
Local Name: Senduduk (Malay) Lingangadi (Murut);
Gosing-gosing, Gagabang, Ngongodo, Gata-gata (Kadazandusun)
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As it happened, I became ill with diarrhoea and my mother was very upset and worried. One night, out of sudden, she awake from sleep and her body shaking ( We already knew the sign. It was always like that if the "Gimbaran" wanna talks through her) and she begun saying (the Gimbaran who possessed her) ~ "The kid (was me) become ills because she ate the contaminated gosing fruits!" Whoa! When my mum finally free from her "Gimbaran", she scolded us like hell.
Folks ~ this was a true story and not the only one. Many more incidents that seems illogical, sometimes far-sighted occurred when mum's "Guardian Angel" choose to appear. Its up to you whether you can "process" it with your logic and believe or laugh off.
