Tuesday 19 November 2013



According to Lotud oral history, many generations ago the place (pogun) of the Suang Lotud suffered a massive drought that lasted for many years. The water dried up. Plants and animals perished; many humans died. Fires burned everywhere. It was so hot that even the soil ignited spontaneously.

The people cried and cried. One night, "Umunsumundu" appeared in a dream to Luntar, the first tantagas, who was also called Odun Jalin. She instructed her in the ritual proceedings of Mamahui Pogun or "Cleansing the Universe' and taught her the appropriate "rinait". The Mamahui Pogun was to begin with a cycle lasting seven nights and seven days, to stop the drought. In the dream, Umunsumundu told her to instruct the village to build a sacred bamboo ritual house or "turugan" with coconut fronds for roofing. The villagers were to bring offerings such as husked and unhusked rice to appease the angry spirits.

At first, Odun Jalin recited the rinait for one night and one day inside the turugan (Manawah do Turugan). On the second day when she went outside of the turugan, two sets of sacred stones called buliga ngadau (pearls of the sun) fell from the sky for Odun Jalin. One set was "male" and the other "female." These stones were to be safely tied in cloth, and only exposed and bathed in coconut oil during the manawa do turugan rituals in the Mamahui Pogun.

Since then, Mamahui Pogun has been held every five to ten years or so, whenever there has been an imbalance in the universe, causing widespread natural and human calamities.

credit : Persatuan Kebudayaan dan Warisan Sabah Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya dan Selangor

Video source : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrU0Keze1JQ

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