Preserving traditions - a family venture

AST: Sabah is about to launch two more tours: the Peoples of Sabah and the Arts & Crafts Tour. It's always a lot of fun researching these, partly because of the wonderful people you meet and partly because of what you learn - and there is so much to learn here in Sabah!

I had been talking to someone about the possibility of having a mock traditional wedding as part of the Peoples Tour and she rang me to suggest that we visit Linangkit Cultural Village. This is an exciting new family-run project and it was fascinating to see what a professional, quality project it is. We really enjoyed meeting the friendly people there who are committed to preserving their culture and traditions - tourism being one way of doing this - as well as using this project as a way of motivating young people to value their heritage.

Most of the photos that I am using here have been kindly provided by Linangkit Cultural Village and were taken by Ceaser Jilan and Elvin Jilan, sons of the Managing Director, Alice Tee Jilan. Others were taken by me.

Linangkit Cultural Village is in a kampong (village) near Tuaran, about 30 minutes north of Kota Kinabalu. The ethnic group is Lotud, a branch of the Kadazandusun, but with a strong sense of their own uniqueness.

As I said above, what we found at Linangkit was a family who are passionate about their cultural traditions and heritage and willing to put their funds together to create this village. They are recording their culture in photos and videos and will use this material in the museum that is currently being built. So, for example, they are keeping photographic notes of all the rituals performed by their customary priestesses, from the preparations to the ceremonies themselves.
There is a concerted and conscious effort at Linangkit Cultural Village to not only preserve the culture and traditions of the Lotud, but also to pass them on to the next generation. So the children were practising playing the traditional instruments when we were there and they practise regularly! It was great to see them playing the gongs and drums.

The name 'Linangkit' comes from the traditional knotted embroidery the Lotud do - as well as other groups in Sabah, such as the Rungus. It joins together the black sarong (skirt) that is part of the women's traditional costume. The piece being held here took Julita one and a half years to complete - working every day! When it was 3 and a half metres long, it went into the Malaysian Book of Records and she is working towards making it 20 metres long so that they can attempt to get it into the Guiness Book of Records.

And as for being able to include a mock traditional wedding in our Peoples tour, the answer is yes, we can! With a minimum number of 9 people in a group. Hmmm, I have local friends who would be interested in joining us as well...

If you have any comments, please email me at: jude@astsabah.com. And if you have any questions about Sabah or travelling here, I would love to hear from you!