Today we arrived at the town of Kudat and took a bus to meet the Rungus people – a sub-group of the Kadazan-Dusun people who live in northern Borneo. Traditionally they lived in longhouses; literally long communal houses built on stilts that up to 100 families could call home. We visited a reconstructed one at Bavanggazo; the roof is made of palm leaves and the floor is stalks of bamboo – each family had a room and a communal area runs the length of the longhouse.
The Rungus people are also known for their beadwork – originally they were made of seeds but now they use plastic beads to create intricate straps and belts. We were treated to some traditional music – an elderly lady played a nose-flute and then a rather relaxed gentleman started playing a sitar-type instrument, but seemed to drift off in a trance and the guide had to nudge him… turns out he was playing the music that they listen to when they chew betel nuts! Me thinks he might have been chowing down on some for breakfast.
Orion were keen for us to see a non-touristy longhouse, so we were taken to a nearby Rungus village called Tinagol where people still live in traditional-style housing (albeit one with an iron roof and MDF sides). I wandered through the two-storey longhouse and saw some doors were decorated with Wayne Rooney posters and Merry Christmas signs - inside some sections we could see TVs and all the family’s bits and bobs. We went on to Sumanggkap, the ‘gong making village’ to see the instruments being hammered out of metal.
Originally I misunderstood the itinerary and thought the Malaysian name of the village was Gong Making (pronounced Gon Mak-in), before I found out it was where they made the gongs, ahem. It’s a good job we get nightly briefings from our lovely expedition team to explain all of this.
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