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.