Rungus Traditional Arts and Craft
The Rungus are renownes in Sabah as highly skilled artisans who traditionally make colorful beaded necklaces made from local plant seeds and clay. Rungus beadwork come in all sizes and the most significant are the pinakol or shoulder bands which are long and broad with multi strands ans worn diagonally across the chest. The beadwork motifs are from ancient design and usually tell old fables and legends.

Rungus Women are highly skilled in the art of weaving colth and basketry. Their traditional attire is made from home grown, hand spun cotton which is woven on back strap loom. Their black cotton sarong are decorated by an intricate colourful border of linangkit, a form of needle weaving. Again, traditional motifs and designs are maintained. All this requires painstaking hours of time ans attention.

Rungus Men can be easily distinguished by their richly embroidered traditional headgear called the sigal tinohian. IT is worn as part of their daily attire. The sigal plays an important part of their social life, at festivals and celebrations.
As with most ethnic communities in Sabah, the traditional colour of the Rungus is black. Aside from the different patters, design, beads and headgear, Rungus women used to adorn their necks, arms ans legs with heavy brass coils. This tradition is still being maintained but may disappear as the skills for making these coils are dying out and many young grils today opt not to wear them as part of their daily lives.

Rungus trays, baskets and cointant are called rinago and are made from coils of the lias plant and are bound together with a kind of wild grass called lingkong. Winnowing trays are called nyiru and the Rungus make them from thin strips of the bemban stem.

Beliefs, Rites and Rituals
The Rungus have Islam and Christianity while some have remained animists. However, regardless of their religious creed, the Rungus like many other ethnic groups in Sabah, have maintained their cultural and traditional beliefs. This is seen with the continual acceptance and practice of traditional Rungus rites and rituals among the present generation. Today, the Rungus still call upon the services of their ritual specialists known as Bobolizan. There are male and female Bobolizan and they perform specific rites rituals accordingly.

In selecting the suitability of a new site for their longhouse, the Rungus will invite the service of the male Bobolizanwho will initiate a ritual, know as the mamabat. Prayers know as moguhok are chanted a four-string puzzle know as mongumbang is used to ascertain the health and safety of the longhouse residents from evil spirits and beings. Other rituals involve the use of paddy grains, clam shells and prayers in ancient Rungus.

When conducting rituals with the ‘spiritual world’, the female Bobolizan must wear the sombre black attire consisting of a cotton top known as banat, a sarong and hood known as tapi and kuluvu respectively, and a sash or sandang. To contact spiritual beings, the kamagi, a special beaded necklace is worn and the Bobolizan shakes a rattle called gonding at the start of the ‘good’ spirits. These rituals may last up to a day while some take at least a week.

Part of their task is healing the ill and one female Bobolizan at Kampung Tinanggol is known to perform a ritual where her ancestors’ spirits, sambavan divato are summoned to ‘enter’ her body and called upon to help the ill person fight off the ‘angry’ spirits. Certain ceremonies also include traditional ritualistic dances such as the monigigol samundai. As in the old days, the Rungus also perform the dance at the other special festivities without he religious ceremonies which normally accompany it.

The ritual specialists can also take the role of the local ‘doctor’ and their intimate knowledge of medicinal herbs and remedies ensure that very much sought after. Indeed the Bobolizan has many roles, and depending on the need, they can be a faith healer, spirit medium, or advisor. In today’s age of modern and hi-tech advances, the Bobolizan is part of a vanishing breed especially as the younger generation pursue more lucrative careers.

Source: SABAH, “SABAH TOURISM PROMOTION COPORATION”