SABAH’S TRADITION & CULTURE

Sabah's Tradition & Culture

Sabah, Malaysian Borneo is renowned for its friendly, warm and culturally diverse traditional communities as well as fascinating landscapes and world-class quality of wildlife and nature. Therefore, “Village-Stay” or “Home-Stay” have been developed in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo to showcase the uniqueness and richness of Sabah’s traditional cultural heritage to the world.

Village-Stay is a variant of Home-Stay concept; both are categorised as ‘Rural Tourism’ development, where strategic rural areas are identified and developed for the purpose of maximising tourism economic benefits for the interior communities.

Village-Stay is defined as a generic name to describe a form of holiday that is affordable, has a structured itinerary and involves a high degree of educational and experiential elements. The Village-Stay concept in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo is unique as visitors do not only experience the hospitality and traditions of the local communities in village lifestyle, but they also have an opportunity to visit a wide range of unexplored or ‘less popular’ nature-adventure destinations which are hidden from the destructive nature of mass tourism.

The Village-Stay concept has a great potential to be developed in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo for various reasons. Firstly, there has been an increasing demand from ‘alternative tourists’ for “Alternative Tourism” products; rural tourism (a form of alternative tourism) provides the tool for branding local, organic and traditional products. This encourages further development in ‘Alternative Tourism’ variants such as Cultural Tourism, Adventure Tourism, Green Tourism, Responsible Tourism, Traditional-Health Tourism, Conservation Tourism, Eco Tourism, Volunteer Tourism, Agro Tourism, etc, offering different travel experiences for different market segments.

Secondly, there has also been an increasing demand from corporate-incentive organisers for new destinations/sites; such organisers are looking for facilities located in remote (or new) areas; they want to combine under-commercialised nature adventure destinations with educational activities such as motivational, team building, group work, corporate games, training, orientation, experiential, etc.

Thirdly, the concept of village-Stay supports the diversification of tourism product in order to meet new demands in the market, creating business and employment opportunities for the interior community members hence, provides the means to promote sustainable development of rural tourism. Village-Stay can be viewed as a catalyst for generating other variants such as Urban Stay, Beach Stay, Jungle Stay, Agro Village Stay, Fishing Village Stay, Cultural Village Stay, Long House Stay, Health Farm Stay, etc.

Finally, the cultural elements in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo is very authentic; not only the ethnic communities in Sabah have strong connections with their cultural and traditional values, but they are also culturally-diverse with more than 30 ethic groups such as Bajau, Murut, Dusun, Rungus, Orang Sungei, etc.

Sabah’s Cultural Mixing Pot At Hawkers’ Haven

Food is a tourist draw. And hawker food, as varied as Malaysia’s multi-racial people, has always been a hit not just with foreigners but the local people. Swede Peter Magnusson, 51, was amazed by what he found in Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah. He testified to tourism, culture and environment minister Masidi Manjun’s statement that Sabahans are the best Malaysians, giving force to prime minister Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia unity policy.
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Christmas: Sabah’s Sytle

The traditional message of peace, love and goodwill rang out loud and clear at the open house of deputy chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan on Christmas Day. The hall of the Kadazandusun Cultural Association in Kota Kinabalu was packed with thousands of people – Kadazandusuns, Muruts, Malays, ethnic Chinese and Indians – who joined head of state Ahmadshah Abdullah and his successor Juhar Mahiruddin in the warmth and gaiety of the Christian celebration that resonated with prime minister Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia unity policy.
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Japanese Sisters Live On Borneo Jungle Art

Hikari and Midori Fujita, two elderly Japanese artists (they won’t reveal their age), came to Sabah 10 years ago as tourists. They went to Danum Valley and fell in love with the flora and fauna of the Borneo rainforest. Three years later they returned to paint pictures of wild flowers and plants and sell them back home. They have been doing this for the last seven years, making a decent living from their jungle art on their 90-day tourist visa. “The Japanese who live in the city will buy paintings of nature,” says Midori, the younger sister.
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Sandakan To Revitalise Heritage Trails

Sandakan: A well known tourist attraction here has been given a new lease of life. The Sandakan Heritage Trails (SHT) took visitors to some of the oldest landmarks around the town dating back to nearly a century including a mosque, a few temples and a church. The unveiling of a new giant SHT billboard at the open space next to CIMB Bank in the heart of town by Sandakan Municipal Council president Datuk James Wong marked the beginning of upgrading works on trail to be implemented in stages.

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Sheds For KPD Tamu Ground In Sabah

Kota Kinabalu: Local authorities have been urged to look into the Kota Kinabalu KPD Tamu Ground sheds in Tanjung Lipat here as many of the roofs need repairing.

Sabah DAP Vice Chairman, Edward Ewol Mujie, made the call after inspecting the place with Member of Parliament Dr Hiew King Cheu on Jan 1.

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Umbrella Concept For More Police Presence

Sandakan: Sabah police would be using the "umbrella" concept to increase their presence in public places in the state, said its Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib.

He said under the concept, three police personnel would be on duty each time, with two of them on patrol and one seated under a large umbrella.

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