Chapter 5: The Lady from Lumpoho

My grandmother's maiden name is Lotimboi Binte Gumpai. She was a petite woman, typical of the small built rural Dusun women in those days. It is speculated that she married my grandfather  in 1927 when she was 14 years old. By then, my grandfather was in his mid-forties. In those days, it was fairly common for indigenous maidens to marry at such young age!

13.8.1913 - 28.1.1981

After marriage, they lived in a traditional bamboo house in Kampong Pulutan, Menggatal. She had two children with my grandfather. My mother was born a year after marriage in 1928 and my uncle two years later.

In 1950 when she was 37, her husband (my grandfather) passed away at the age of 68. Unlike many Kadazan women who remarried after the spouses passed away, she did not marry again and remained a widow for the next 31 years. She passed away at the age of 68 in 1981 in the same place where she had spent all her life after her marriage.

Though married to a Chinese, she was in all respects a typical rural Dusun woman. She preferred to walk barefoot in the farm. She chewed the betel and smoked the leaf-wrapped local cigar. On the other hand, she assimilated a lot of the Chinese culture and she could speak fluently in Hakka. She also learnt to cook many Hakka dishes.

These are photo's of my grandmother at her younger days. Though a Dusun, I had never seen her dressed in any other way than in the traditional Chinese blouse.

I remember the time when she smoked her cigar in the company of her grandchildren, some of us would find the strong cigar smell unbearable. She told us that one of the reasons she smoked the cigar was to keep away the mosquito when she worked in the field and the orchard.

Ingredients & tools for betel chewing.

She was very enterprising. In her own small piece of land, she planted many kinds of fruit trees - durian, rambutan, langsat, tarap and bambangan trees. During fruiting season, she would gather some of the produce from her orchard and brought them to sell in the local tamu in Menggatal town. Sometimes, to maximise profit, she would approach the nearby durian orchard owners to buy their durians and cart them in two large baskets suspended on a long pole to sell in Jesselton (later renamed Kota Kinabalau after the formation of Malaysia). In Jesselton, the produce could fetch much better price than in Menggatal. During the non-fruiting season, she tapped rubber to supplement the family income.

Her interest to market local produce never ceased even after her two children had grown up, married and started their own families.

When my then GF first visited KK back in 1978, she was taken to a tamu in Menggatal where my grandmother used to market her produce. She is seen at the left. The tamu has not changed much in 1978!

Once every two months, she would drop by to our house in Harrington Road (renamed Jalan Istana) to spend an afternoon with her daughter and her grandchildren. The grandchildren had always enjoyed her visits because of the fruits and goodies which she brought along. One of the things I remember vividly was that her "presence" lingered on for a couple of days even after she left. This is because of the spots of red colour spits left on some patches of the compound. Sometimes for the fun of it, the grandchildren also chewed the betel to see whose spit was redder!

To sum up about my impression of my grandmother: she was a gentle and patient woman who kept much of her thoughts to herself. Of all the occasions we met, I had never seen her raised her voice in anger or raised her hand on her grandchildren even when they were naughty! 

Sometimes, I still missed her. I wished I had known her more....

Bambangan

Langsat

Tarap

P.S. Natives who resided to the north of Kota Kinabalu (Inanam, Menggatal, Kiulu) called themselves Dusuns. The Dusuns usually settle near to the jungle fringes. The Kadazans reside mostly in Penampang and Tambunan. After the formation of Malaysia, the term KadazanDusun was adopted to refer to both Dusuns and Kadazans.

Phrase of the Month: When I Speak, You Listen

Malaysia is never short of  morons. Some even believe that O-level pre-degree holder must listen to the degree holder. Are they more mature or more superior? Well, sometimes even baby has more maturity than degree holder.

Fortunately, we also do have plenty of talents to make us laugh, really laugh.

So Listen.

Chapter 4: The Pulutan Connection - 2

As a young boy, the greatest attraction in going to my grandmother's farm house in the 50's and 60's was the stream next to the house.

Those days, making a trip from my old house at Harrington Road (now renamed Jalan Istana) to Pulutan was just as time consuming as flying from KK to KL these days. A couple of days before the trip, my mother needed to do some purchases in the town looking for goodies for the cousins, some dry food stuff and may be pieces of fabric for my grandmother and or aunt for making garments.

On the day just before leaving the house, my mother had to make sure all items to be brought along were accounted for: gift items, clothing for change daily, toiletries like tooth brushes and combs. Another very important item my mother needed to bring along was the sling or baby wrap carrier to carry my one year plus younger brother along the trip. Unlike what the countless varieties of baby wrap carrier for modern day mothers to choose from, the carrier then was just a simple sarong  A stroller was out of question as the cost was just beyond our means.

Sarong as baby carrier wrap.

The trip normally started at 10 in the morning. We first had to walk about 2Km from our house to reach the bus station in the town with each carrying the designated items. Then at the bus station, we would board a bus bound for Menggatal or Tuaran. As usual, the bus stopped at a road junction a short distance before reaching Menggatal. We then walked the 2.7Km graveled road to arrive at our final destination. More often than not, we had to walk. At very rare time, we might take the pirate taxi that plied the route. During dry weather, we had to endure the tons of dust generated by moving traffic. Somehow, in those days, such challenges never diminished our desire to go and enjoy ourselves at my grandmother's house.

By the time we finally reached at my grandmother's house, it would have passed lunch time around 2pm. But as soon as we arrived, we wasted no time to start doing what we had been dreaming most, i.e. to be in the stream. We would normally spend long hours in water and would reluctantly go back to the house after being yelled at repeatedly or after much threatening with caning with rotan.

As depicted by cartoonist Lat,  most kids living in the kampong by a stream or river did more or less similar things!

The stream that had given us so much good memory has changed significantly over the years. The flow now is so much reduced. This is probably the price of progress and development!

Chapter 3: The Pulutan Connection - 1

When Serene suggested I write about my childhood story, one thing that came to mind was to revisit some of the places I once spent some of my childhood periods. This is meant to refresh some of my memories and to update on the places I had been to.

Recently, with the help of my cousin Yee Sze Moi, I was able to revisit the kampong (village) where my mother grew up as a child until her marriage to my father. The place has gone through many changes. Had the trip not been led by my cousin, it was practically impossible to locate the place.

2005 view

2011 view

Coordinates: 6⁰ 00’ 36.78”N, 116⁰ 10’ 17.57”E

Vast expanse of flat land (once used for wet padi planting) to the east of the house. A stream traverses at the west of the house.

Vehicles are now able to be driven right up to the door step. In the past we had to walk an earth track to reach the house.

But once I stepped into the land on 9 January, there were obvious features in the landscape that confirmed I was undoubtedly at the right place. Stepping on the land after a lapse of 32 years evoked many memories and nostalgia. It was hard to imagine that the spot where I parked my car was once stood over by my fiance (now wife) when she proudly carried a basket full of durian plucked from my grandmother's farm. That was the first time she set foot onto Sabah in 1978!

The last time I was there was the end of January 1981 to attend the funeral of my grandmother who died alone in the old house. Before that, her family members, one after another had moved out to pursue their careers or to earn a living elsewhere. She had been asked to join the grandsons but she declined. In the end, she died alone in the land she truly loved! Her remain was discovered a few days after her death when one of her grandsons visited the old house. My mother was very much affected by this incident and I believe this had affected her emotionally for a very very long time.

The land had since been sold to the neighboring land owner. The new landowner has taken great pain to improve the surrounding area. It is now neat and well maintained. A new house is erected on the spot once occupied by the old house. The entrance of the new house has been re-oriented to face the northwest.

The new house verses a typical traditional looking house.

Bamboo was common building material used in the area as there were plenty of bamboo trees around. The old house that I was familiar with was a large bamboo house similar to the one shown in the top right. The main elevated hall however was built on 12-ft high silts. Adjoining the hall was a huge elevated balcony of 12ft x 18ft. The front door faced east.

To build a bamboo house, a lot of bamboo trees have to be first cut down, flattened into strips by hard smashing. Then, the strips are laid out to dry. Once the house main frame is completed using tree trunks, the wall and floor would be laid and nailed with flattened bamboo strips. Other than the main door which is made of timber boards, all windows are also made of bamboo strips. Roof is normally covered with attap. The problem with this type of house is that cold night air and even mosquito moves through the gaps between the bamboo strips causing much discomfort and irritation to the occupants.

For the old house, the main hall was approx. 25ft wide by 50ft long without any partition inside. There was a bed approx. the size of a king size bed at one corner. It was made of timber boards elevated 2 1/2ft above the bamboo floor and laid with mat. This bed was used by my uncle and his wife. My uncle was the only brother of my mother. The rest of the people simply slept on the floor laid with mats. The only privacy one could enjoy was the mosquito netting used to protect the people sleeping inside. The other furnishing I could remember was a small dressing table placed with a mirror for grooming and simple make-up.

When we met up with the cousins, we preferred to sleep together in the open rather than inside the mosquito nets!

The kitchen was a small bamboo hut (8ft x 8ft) similarly covered with attap roof. The bathroom was another small bamboo hut (4ft x 5ft) but without any roof covering. It had a metal tank filled up with water carried from the stream just a short walking distance from the house. As far as I could remember, I had not used the bathroom at all as practically everyone bathed in the stream nearby except the adults.

The dining area was an open area just outside the kitchen. It had a rectangular timber table surrounded by timber stools and benches. Beside dining, the table was also used by my cousins for doing homework in the afternoon after school. However, during heavy rainstorm and strong wind, it would not be possible to use this area.

The space below the main hall was used as storage for firewood, harvested fruits and padi.

A 4ft wide long timber staircase was built linking the dining area to the elevated balcony. There was no handrail along the staircase and the balcony was also not provided with any protective railing. Amazingly, with such lack of security feature, I had not heard of any major accident!

One of the things I enjoyed doing at the old house was to sit with all the kids by the edge of the balcony to enjoy the scenery and observe the many activities that were going on in the padi field which varied at different times of the day and different seasons of the year! The change in shades and colour was truly breathtaking!

The memories live on!

Everybody Loves Nathan

The Complete Picture

The complete picture was made possible during the recent Christmas 2012 season. Thank you all for making the picture complete:). This picture truly makes me the happiest man!