A Sacred Dance to the Great Warriors
Float Like A Bird
Mongigol Sumayau is a traditional ritual dance associated with the Lotud people. Traditionally, the dance was performed during the “Rumaha” and “Mangahau” ceremonies.
The Lotuds are an indigenous ethnic group residing in the Tuaran District on the northern part of the Borneo island. They are a sub-ethnic group of the Dusunic people, now also known as Kadazandusun.
The Rumaha is a ceremony that pays homage to the spirits of ancestors by ways of the skulls; families that possess such skull collections are considered to be the descendants of the Great Warriors. The ceremony will last for seven days and nights.
Marching Swings
Spread over five days, Mangahau is another ceremony that honours the spirits of the families’ heirloom jars.
Both ceremonies are now put on on public occassions for the purposes of tourism. They can be considered to be one of the dying cultures that slowly vanishes from the face of the Earth.
Free As A Bird
The music that accompanies the dance is quite unusual and gives one a sorrow feeling in that the tune seems to repeat over and over again. It goes like this:
Dong… Thud….. Dong… Thud….. Dong…Thud ……………………….
Thud.. Thud… Thud… Thud………………………………
That kind of gives it a solemn feel to it.
A Romantic Dallying
The dance movements comprise the bird flying motions and marching hand -swings. The dancers will raise their arms up like a bird floating in the sky while moving laterally. Then, all of a sundden they will stop dead (still) in their tracks with a fallen silence. A moment later, the dance movements will strike up again. Weird!
Marching Parade
I particular like the dance sequence where the dancers seem to be doing a marching formation with their hands swinging back and forth as if they were at the school assembly
Leader of the Pack
The dance ends with a hand-on-heart salutation from the male dancers. I felt greatly honoured after witnessing such great performances and they still sent me friendly greetings after that.
Humbly Yours
