Borneo Literary

Kadazan Penampang Death Customs and Rites

Synopsis

The Kadazan Penampang people are an indigenous community within the larger Kadazandusun ethnic group, speakers of Dusunic languages. Their identity is shaped by their geographical location and ancestral residence in the Penampang District of Sabah, Malaysia.

Traditionally, these communities practised subsistence agriculture, cultivating wet rice paddies alongside fruit trees and vegetables, and raising livestock including water buffalo, pigs and chickens. The Kadazan Penampang further divide themselves by topographical features: Potiang (highlanders), Tangaah (middle inhabitants), and Kadazan (lowlanders or coastal plains people).

What distinguishes the Kadazan Penampang people is their unique funerary tradition featuring the dunsai gong music ensemble. This distinctive musical form uses only 6 hanging gongs without drums, played during wakes and on the sixth day following burial. The dunsai serves dual purposes: announcing death to both the physical world and the spirit realm, and preparing the community for the transition of the deceased to the afterlife.

This document examines the traditional funerary observances of the Kadazan people from Kampung Kituau, Penampang, based on their ancestral animistic beliefs. These funerary rites continue to function as cultural symbols of Kadazan Penampang identity, bridging past animistic traditions and present religious affiliations, as many community members now practise Christianity.

Cultural background and worldview

Origins and terminology

The etymology of 'Kadazan' remains subject to scholarly discussion. The most credible explanation derives from sacred texts termed inait, recited by the bobohizan (ritual specialist). According to the inait of the Potiang, Tangaah and Kadazan communities, the term Kadazan originates from text references to tulun or tuhun, meaning people of the plains. Despite minor differences arising from their topographical distribution, these subdivided groups maintain shared characteristics, belief systems, myths and language.

Creation narrative

Kadazandusun origin mythology centres on Nunuk Ragang in Tampias, near Telupid. The Penampang version describes a massive rock beneath a nunuk tree (banyan tree) near a riverbank in Tampias. The tree appeared red from a distance, hence the name Nunuk Ragang (ragang meaning red).

When the enormous rock split open, 2 divine beings emerged: Kinoingan and Sumindu. In contemporary Kadazandusun language, Kinoingan signifies God. Suminundu also possessed divinity and osundu (supernatural powers). Their firstborn child was Huminodun. Additional children followed, becoming the ancestors of today's Kadazandusun people.

As they multiplied and dispersed across the land, inhabiting river valleys, they gradually adopted identities linked to their settlement locations. The Kadazandusun of Penampang and Papar districts called themselves Tangaah, signifying middle earth people or people of the middle, while simultaneously maintaining their original designation as Kadazan.

Spiritual cosmology

Like many Sabah indigenous worldviews, the traditional Kadazan cosmology perceives existence as equilibrium between spiritual and physical dimensions. The Kadazan universe encompasses 2 worlds—the spiritual and material realms—comprising 3 spheres:

The spiritual world structure (pogun do hozob) is understood as highly complex, with spirit beings and human beings inhabiting separate parallel worlds, both possessing families and descendants. A fundamental principle of this belief maintains that community misconduct creates imbalances and environmental disruption, causing the earth to become ahasu or 'hot'—a condition requiring avoidance.

This heat supposedly produces calamities including sickness and other causes rendering the land unproductive. When this occurs, the bobohizan receives summons for her ritual services to restore equilibrium and normality. Beyond these corrective services, the bobohizan also fulfils an essential role helping the community satisfy its spiritual requirements and maintain its moral obligations.

Death and mourning

The significance of death

Death or kapatazon represents an extremely solemn occasion for traditional Kadazan people as it constitutes one of the most significant rites of passage, during which numerous taboos require observance. Death occurrence also creates imbalance and disorder in the deceased family's social existence. Consequently, the affected family must rectify the social disorder through performing various rituals and observing required taboos.

They must prepare themselves, mentally and physically, to eliminate the impurities affecting their family. The deceased's living spouse especially must undergo a purification process and observe a series of taboos, as during this stage they are considered vulnerable to all forms of ritual pollution which can also affect immediate family members.

Beliefs about the soul's journey

When death occurs, the Kadazan believe the deceased's soul will travel from the physical world to the land of the dead or pogun do hozob where they will reside eternally with their ancestors. Thus, the transition—the mourning phase or modpuod—becomes an extremely important period in the traditional religious and social life cycle of the Kadazan. The bereaved family invariably takes it very seriously, respectfully fulfilling ritual traditions and obligations including observing required taboos.

Contemporary religious context

Most Kadazan of Penampang are Roman Catholic, resulting from successful missionary efforts by the mission established in Penampang in 1896. Although many Kadazan have professed Christianity for decades, a substantial number still observe their traditional rituals and practices connected with their ancestral beliefs in their funerary rites. Many have adopted Christian burial practices and services but still maintain traditional accompanying rituals and practices as components of cultural customs and traditions.

Initial funerary preparations

According to community understanding, the funeral constitutes the third important ceremony in Kadazan community life. Historically, when a Tangaah Kadazan died, the initial ceremony of funerary rites involved covering the body with cloth called bahu—a finely woven cloth approximately 12 feet by 7 feet in size. The bahu was positioned over the body in a manner resembling a mountain shape. In Tangaah Kadazan language, bahu literally signifies a place of the dead. Thus, Kinabahu or Kinabalu, to the Tangaah Kadazan, represents the mountain possessing spirits and serving as a place for the dead.

The practice of covering the body with bahu no longer occurs. Instead, an encoffining ceremony now represents the norm, with the deceased positioned in the coffin almost immediately after death. However, the lying-in-state and vigil for 3 days and nights before burial, and mourning for 7 days and nights after death, continue to receive observance.

Body positioning and vigil

Custom dictates that the body be laid in a position facing the doorway, facing east or toward Mount Kinabalu, the customary destination and eternal residence of the dead's spirits. For 3 days and nights, family, relatives and friends gather and maintain vigil throughout before burial. For 7 days following death, the space occupied by the body is considered sacred ritual space. Immediately after the body receives removal from the house for burial, a special cleansing ritual receives performance in the vacated area.

In this ritual space, family, relatives and friends offer prayers for the deceased individually or in groups, particularly among those who have embraced Christianity.

Items placed with the deceased

During the wake before burial, some personal effects of the deceased receive placement next to the body. A candle remains lit during the 7 days of mourning. These items symbolise the journey the deceased will undertake in the afterlife to another world.

Traditional practitioners of their ancestral religion offer food and drink on a small table positioned at the deceased's head as offerings. Professed Christians place a picture of the deceased and crucifix on a small table at the deceased's head. All photographs and pictures in the body's vicinity receive turning to face the wall to prevent malevolent spirits from identifying and harming the people in the pictures and photographs. Living individuals face vulnerability when exposed to menacing spirits as they believe all malevolent and benevolent spirits watch for the deceased during this period.

Taboo observances based on rank

Funerary taboo observances depend on the rank of the family or household member who has died. When the father or household head dies, the deceased's spouse faces requirements to observe certain strict taboos. Custom dictated that the wife sit and maintain vigil next to the deceased. She could neither depart the house nor visit anyone before burial.

However, some families have relaxed and dispensed with some taboos, allowing some freedom of movement for the spouse and family. Some prefer adhering as closely as possible and maintaining traditional customs and practices handed down to them.

Changes in traditional practices

Nevertheless, most traditional practices have diminished, generally abandoned by Christian villagers, some of whom continue maintaining some taboos for cultural reasons. Christian teaching prohibits participation in rituals invoking spirits, and those who have embraced Christianity have received discouragement from doing so. The gong beating before and during the Christian burial process, however, has received permission to occur.

Traditionalists, especially those residing in villages, may still adhere to syncretic practices combining Christian beliefs and their ancestral traditions.

Chinese cultural influences

The Kadazan of Penampang have adopted certain Chinese funeral traditions including mourning cloth or arm bands. These reflect the frequent intermarriage occurring for more than a century between Chinese and indigenous people and assimilation of Chinese customs into local Kadazan culture.

A small piece of cotton cloth in black, blue or other dark colours pinned to arms called tuaha remain widely used during funerals among the Kadazan of Penampang. The tuaha colours worn indicate the relationship and rank of mourners and family members to the deceased:

Custom also dictates that the family wear black clothes throughout the bereavement before and during burial.

Wake activities

Other Chinese influences continuing to this day include gambling and alcohol drinking during the wake. This received adoption as a cultural practice by the Kadazan to encourage people to remain awake and maintain vigil. The practice of gambling during mourning and the wake has received recognition and acknowledgement by the native court as an accepted component of Kadazan customs and traditions. However, these practices remain confined only to Kadazan people residing in the Penampang and Papar districts.

Sitting with the deceased

Throughout the 3 days of mourning before burial, if the family are practising animists, the spouse, elder daughters and sons also sit next to the coffin. Those paying respect to the deceased also sit next to the deceased and recollect their past life. They relate the deceased's accomplishments during life. There are also those who would wail and cry over the deceased, calling their name and murmuring sentiments that sometimes make others also cry with them.

During the body's house presence, the family faces requirements to provide food for mourners and visitors paying respect to the deceased. However, only certain food types receive cooking and serving. Traditional practitioners would adhere strictly to required food codes while Christians would demonstrate more flexibility in food offerings.

Christians would usually conduct special nightly prayers for 7 days from the time of death. The final prayers would conclude with a ceremony called mogukas. Numerous activities seen as syncretic fusion of traditional beliefs and Christian ritual and practices occur. Special prayers also receive holding by Christians on the 40th day and sometimes 100th day following death.

The burial

Financial demands of funerals

Funeral practices can be financially demanding among the Kadazandusun as they entail days of communal feeding and drinking among those who attend the wake and follow through until interment. Kadazandusun funerals are expensive as they involve providing food and drinks for the many people who participate in the wake. In many cases, the wake receives attendance by many people, especially amongst close relatives and friends, sometimes exceeding between 100 to 200 people. Water buffalo, goats, chickens and pigs normally receive slaughtering during funeral ceremony observance.

Expressions of grief

Wailing remains common especially amongst elderly people who can routinely cry loudly and openly to demonstrate their grief and respect to the deceased. Such practices reportedly received adoption from the Chinese. Close relatives commonly arrive and display their grief when the body lies in state and cry openly and loudly.

Encoffining and transport decisions

On the third day, the body receives placement in the coffin. The family must determine if it should receive direct transport to the graveyard for burial or to the church. Although the family may be Christian followers, they may not necessarily bring the deceased to church for funeral mass. They may decide to have brief prayer at the house or graveyard attended by a catechist, and perhaps a priest.

Spouse restrictions (mamahakoi)

Irrespective of the faith of the spouse—Christian or animist—they face prohibition from attending the graveside burial as this is considered a major taboo. The spouse must depart the house before the body receives removal from the house, and must receive accompaniment by another widow or widower to a relative's or neighbouring house where a spouse had recently passed away. The widower must visit a house of a recently deceased female and vice versa for the widow. This practice is called mamahakoi, a visit to someone's house with recent bereavement.

The spouse can only return to the house after the body has received removal. The vacated space, where the body had lain, must receive quick purification. Using cloth and water, those who remained in house would ritually remove the 'dirt' (referring to impurities that can be easily identified and discovered by malignant spirits which could cause illness and death).

The space where the deceased lay is considered 'hot', implying menace to the living. The recently widowed cannot receive exposure to such places, and thus, it is essential that the place receive purification and cleansing before they can return to the house.

Burial rite variations

Burial rites vary from one family to another according to family requirements. For church funeral services for Christians, the coffin remains open during the service. Before the final blessing by the priest, family, relatives and friends pay their respects and perform the final viewing before the coffin receives sealing.

For animists, the coffin receives sealing after family, friends and relatives pay their last respects before it receives carrying to the graveyard for burial. After the coffin receives bringing outside the house, custom dictated burning some firecrackers or sometimes firing a few gunshots in the air to signify the send-off and farewell. The procession proceeding to the grave receives accompaniment by gong beating playing dunsai music.

Payment of sogit

A custom still practised by the community in funerals is the payment of sogit. The term monogit means "to pay compensation" or "to atone for", "to neutralise" the natural environment disruption. It derives from the word sogit, which means "atonement". With the epenthetic vowel, sogit comes from the word osogit meaning 'cold'.

In general, monogit refers to a ritual or ceremony performed to "cool" the spiritual "heat" caused by illicit human actions and relationships. Actions deemed to be ahasu or "hot" and which anger the supernatural world are those that violate the adat or customary norms of human behaviour prescribed in the inait, such as adultery, fornication and incest (which also includes marriage between distant cognates). Ignoring ceremonial requirements and violating ritual taboos in daily life, either inadvertently or deliberately, also receive regard as being ahasu.

Buffalo slaughter and meat distribution

The family faces obligation to slaughter a water buffalo as a form of sogit to pay respect to the dead. The meat receives distribution to villagers and visitors who come to pay respect to the deceased. Those families who slaughter a water buffalo are also believed to be those who can afford to do so and also receive high respect by the community.

The deceased's family also faces compulsion to utilise all the meat on the particular day either for cooking such as making soup, barbecue and frying without mixing with any green vegetable. Historically, after buffalo slaughtering, the meat required cooking by barbecuing, and a piece of roasted meat received placement on a ceramic plate as an offering to the deceased and the spirits of family members who have died.

Grave digging and offerings

The water buffalo receives slaughtering before grave digging. The grave diggers then bring cooked food with them to have their meal at the grave. A small portion of raw meat also receives bringing over for grave diggers to barbecue. Part of the barbecued meat receives offering to the spirits of the dead buried in the graveyard. The grave diggers also receive expectation to consume all the food they have brought with them to the cemetery. Otherwise, they might evoke and attract the spirits residing in the vicinity.

Graveside procedures

Upon graveyard arrival, the grave diggers receive the coffin and rest it on 2 wooden poles placed widthways on top of the grave, and lay the deceased's belongings beside the coffin. When the deceased is Christian, they usually receive burial with the head pointing toward the sun. For traditional practitioners, the belongings receive burial together with the deceased for use in the afterworld.

Occasionally a Christian family may decide against bringing the deceased to church for funeral service, and instead request only catechist or priest services to conduct the funeral ceremony at the graveyard, which is usually very brief. A common practice is gong beating, which usually occurs before and after funerary services receive performance by the priest or catechist.

Lowering the coffin

In a more traditional burial, the coffin receives moving from its wooden pole perch and lowering into the hole with long ropes held by family and friends. When it reaches the ground, close family members step on the coffin and begin the ritual of throwing earth onto the coffin. This receives following by relatives and friends doing the same. This ritual symbolises the farewell and permanent separation from the physical world.

Some accompanying personal effects receive burial with the deceased, with the remainder positioned on top of the grave. Before leaving the grave, the gongs receive beating producing several music repertoires including dunsai as a form of final respect and farewell to the deceased. Several lit candles also receive placement on top of the grave. When the deceased is Christian, a crucifix receives placement on top as grave marker. When the deceased is animist, a stone or wooden pole receives use as grave marker.

Grave protection and departure

Sometimes a small hut receives immediate building to cover the grave with the deceased's personal belongings positioned in the rafters to prevent their removal by animals as well as vandals. After burial service completion, the family, relatives and friends go home. However, as they leave the grave they face prohibition from turning and looking back as people believe the deceased's spirit may try to return home with them.

Rituals of the dead

In Kadazan Penampang society, various funerary rites commonly receive observance and performance. Among these burial-related ceremonies may include momisok, papaakan, mogukas and humontok.

Momisok and papaakan

Momisok is a ritual in which all house lights receive switching off so the house receives plunging into darkness, and this occurs on the eve of the seventh day following death. In this ritual, the invitation called papaakan receives offering as inducement to recall the deceased's spirit to eat or feast on the offering.

The momisok's purpose is establishing contact with the deceased's spirit for the last time by invoking them to have the last meal at home and bring all belongings to the other world. During this ritual, the family gathers and prepares food for the final feast for the dead by offering the deceased's favourite food positioned on a small table functioning as an altar. The offering on this table usually includes rice wine and a burning candle.

A ritual specialist or bobohizan receives calling to conduct the momisok ritual and also to usher the deceased's spirit, showing the way to the spirit world to the land for the dead. She would perform a short ritual and chant the inait. For traditional practitioners, wood ash would receive placement in a winnowing tray on the floor to see if the deceased's spirit has returned and left footprints on the ash when the light receives switching off.

In darkness, everyone present receives expectation to maintain silence for a few minutes. This is said to be the last chance for the departed spirit to communicate with those left behind so they will enter the spirit world in peace. In this ritual, the spirit is said to finally enter the spirit world, and therefore will not revisit and disturb living family members. The house lights also receive switching off for the few minutes, providing darkness to enable the spirit to enjoy the meal. The momisok ritual normally receives performance twice between 6.00-6.30pm and repetition at around midnight.

For those who have embraced Christianity, they sometimes symbolically perform the momisok ritual without offerings on the small table, but instead place a picture of deceased together with other religious items such as a crucifix, rosary and a burning candle. This observance appears to be a syncretic form of ancestral old traditions and is a common practice among many Kadazan people today. The Catholic Church has not opposed it as it usually receives performance as a cultural tradition which provides a form of respect for the deceased without invoking the spirit.

Mogukas

The mogukas ritual receives carrying out the next day after the momisok. This is a short ritual performed by bobohizan to cleanse and drive away all 'dirt' and all 'hotness' (malevolent spirits) that can cause sickness and calamities to the family, and spirits believed to still linger around the house.

The priestesses first gather all tools used during burial for ritual cleansing and offer a special prayer for the deceased's spirit on its journey. The Kadazan believe the seventh day is the final day for the spirit to remain on earth. A lunch feast receives holding as symbolic farewell to the deceased to which close relatives and friends receive invitation.

For the feast, the deceased's family slaughters a goat which receives cooking and eating by those who attend the ceremonies. This is a customary practice. Both animals receive slaughtering to serve as the deceased's companions to the other world. Part of this ritual involves burning the deceased's personal belongings such as the mattress and old clothing to equip the deceased for bringing them to use in the other world.

Without accompanying goods, people believe the spirit world will assume the new member comes from a very poor family and will thus receive ridiculing by other inhabitant spirits of the dead. Thus, the animals—the water buffalo slaughtered before the funeral and the goat during the mogukas ritual—symbolise the deceased's wealth, with the water buffalo also serving as a vehicle to ride in the journey to the next world.

Humontok

Humontok is a ritual to send for the deceased's spirit for final farewell and communication with family members before leaving the material world and entering the spirit world. It usually receives performance several weeks after burial by those who still maintain their traditional belief system. But this performance would depend on the family and also ritual specialist availability to perform the humontok ceremony.

Historically, this was a compulsory ritual to communicate with the dead's spirit for fear that it might still be wandering around on earth instead of residing in its final resting place for the dead. These days, this ritual is optional and rarely receives observance as most Kadazan have already embraced Christianity.

Traditionally, 2 bobohizan, usually a senior priestess and apprentice, would receive requirement to conduct the ritual. Each priestess has a specific role to perform inait recitation and in offering or household cleansing tasks. For example, the bobohizan divides the ritual prayer into 2 parts. The senior priestess summons the dead's spirit and the apprentice visits the graveyard and invokes the hozob, the evil spirit of death, to release all spirits or souls of people who attended funeral services and restore them to their body.

People believe there is a possibility that people who attended the funeral would eventually fall ill if this ritual receives omission. During this ritual, all implements used for funeral service would receive cleansing from exposure to the 'dirt'. A special prayer receives recitation and the deceased's spirit receives summoning by the bobohizan as medium and through whom the dead's spirit would speak to the living.

Through the medium, the spirit would communicate with family members, giving final words of advice or instructions. Sometimes family secrets receive disclosure by the deceased, while reminding family members to carry out tasks which the deceased forgot or was unable to perform during life. As practice contravenes Catholic Church teachings, it is rarely observed and performed. Besides, the number of bobohizan who can perform this ritual has also diminished, with decreasingly few demands for such services.

Taboos during bereavement

Death rituals continue receiving observance till today as very solemn affairs by the Kadazan Penampang who pay special attention to preparation, respecting and complying with necessary customary taboos as well. These taboos must receive observance as soon as death occurs in the family. During the mourning phase called mopuod, various rituals must receive observance before and after burial. The spouse would be most deeply affected and so must observe taboos more carefully. This mourning phase may last any time between 40 and 100 days and sometimes up to a year, depending on family ancestral traditions.

Spouse restrictions

The deceased's spouse must maintain vigil besides the deceased until burial and receives expectation to remain at home and faces prohibition from performing certain tasks as well. During the bereavement period, social gatherings such as weddings and merry-making activities receive suspension until a lapse of 100 days or more up to a year depending on family tradition and family consensus on how long they wish to observe the taboo.

They believe during this period family members face vulnerability to any calamities and can suffer misfortune. To avoid adversity they must observe taboos. Members of the family in mourning also receive expectation to look serious and sorrowful.

A serious offence and breach of death taboos include speaking loudly and laughing by family members. The family, the spouse in particular, also faces prohibition from holding the broom and visiting others' homes, outside prescribed visits, during the first 7 days of mourning.

The widowed spouse can only eat certain food types and must abstain from eating food which is considered 'itchy'. These are regarded as 'hot' food that may cause the spouse to forget the deceased and promptly remarry while still in mourning. For example, taboo foods include bamboo shoots, yam and vegetables, seafood such as prawns and many others which receive classification as 'itchy'.

Agricultural and grooming restrictions

There is also no paddy planting or visits to the paddy field or even trespassing paddy fields of neighbours. Should this occur they must pay a sogit, the ritual compensation. Neither can the family cut or trim their hair nor fingernails until the last cleansing ritual receives performance to signify the mopuod's end, which also means the taboo period is over.

Post-burial purification

After burial, the deceased's family members must return to the house immediately to bathe, and they must wash their feet before entering the house. They face prohibition from visiting other people's houses before doing this. Should there be a breach of this custom, they face liability to pay sogit to the house owner.

They believe those in mourning exist in ritual state of pollution and are considered 'hot' or ahasu. The 'dirt' they carry can cause imbalances in their social realm and cause all kinds of calamities to occur.

The dunsai music of the Kadazan Penampang

Communication through gongs

A continuing tradition of announcement and communication when death occurs in the village is the distinct gong beating. The particular sombre gong music played is known as dunsai, which means tagung talaat—when someone has just passed away, it signifies mourning time for the dead has arrived.

Dunsai music plays an important role in Kadazan Penampang funerary rites. The gongs receive beating playing the dunsai music repertoire to announce a death in the village to both the physical world and the spiritual world. The music serves as an instrument to convey the message and in its dual communication functions links the visible and invisible worlds.

Cultural significance of gongs

For traditional Kadazan, the gong is not only an important ritual implement but also a wealth asset. Gongs provide the accompanying music required in religious ceremonies associated with different rites of passage from birth to death and other aspects of traditional social life. As cultural property they also symbolise family social status and wealth.

Aside from their use in communication in village life to announce important family, social and religious events, gongs when played also become a conduit to communicate with spiritual realms during rituals.

Unique dunsai performance style

Dunsai gong music ensemble receives playing differently from the conventional way. Of particular significance is that no drum receives use. The drum is usually considered as the head of the traditional gong music ensemble, but during mourning the drum receives deliberate exclusion in the gong music for dunsai.

Traditional belief holds that each material object has its kindred spirit, which can easily drift away or receive removal if it has received undue exposure or improper handling. In announcing death, the dunsai receives playing incompletely to signify the gap caused by the person's death.

The gong beating technique is also different. Instead of hanging the gongs on a stand, each gong receives hand-holding by each player. Neither are the gongs arranged in sequence. Likewise, the gongs receive beating randomly starting with either gong No 1 or No 6, and other gong beating following through.

Beating patterns and meanings

Dunsai gong music also comprises different beating styles which serve to inform the village community whether an elderly or young person had died. When the gongs receive beating 3 times, it indicates the deceased is an adult, and if only twice then the deceased is either a young girl or boy.

Upon hearing the gong beating, villagers in the vicinity know someone has died and start visiting the deceased's house to enquire about the death circumstances. The news by word of mouth receives quick passing around and more people who would know the family will visit and pay their respects to the grieving family.

The variation in gong beating sequences for dunsai music depends on player skills during the wake while the deceased lays in-state in the house before burial. It also receives playing in the funeral's final stage with continuous gong beating sequence to inform people of the bereavement. At the same time the continuous beating informs the dead's spiritual realm and the deceased's pending journey after burial to the spirit world and to remind them to prepare the welcome.

Performance schedule

The tagung talaat or momodunsai music beating receives playing 3 times immediately after a person receives pronouncing dead and as soon as the dead body receives laying on the mattress after completing ritual bathing and cleansing. This repertoire receives repetitive playing at around 6pm just before dusk, at or just before midnight, and again just before 6am before sunrise the next morning.

According to village elders, each time they beat the tagung talaat or dunsai music, the dead's spiritual realms will carefully listen to the music. Once it receives confirmation that tagung talaat receives playing, they would rejoice and celebrate that another newcomer will soon be joining them.

In the secular world, dunsai music means death and receives equation with sorrow and sadness. However, the opposite is said to occur in the spirit world where the spirits would dance and rejoice to dunsai music. They would celebrate a triumph in acquiring a new dead to enter their domain.

Sixth night ritual

On the sixth night after burial, on the eve of the 7-day mourning period's conclusion, the deceased's family performs the mogukas cleansing ritual. The tagung talaat or dunsai music receives once again playing as the final tribute to the deceased and to indicate the death ritual closing. The deceased's spirit receives belief to be hovering on the periphery before entering its eternal abode or the nabahu.

After the gong beating for the tagung talaat or dunsai music, a musical ensemble of the tagung tavasi or sumazau repertoire receives playing as a form of final respect and farewell to the deceased's spirit on its journey to its eternal resting place.

Dunsai music ensemble

Composition and instruments

The tagung talaat or dunsai gong ensemble consists of 6 hanging gongs without the drum (gandang) and thus receives consideration as incomplete. The 6 gongs are the same as in sompogogungan ensemble, comprising:

For the Kadazan, gongs are capital assets, with material and ritual functions and use. Older or antique gongs receive treatment with care and respect, especially when they receive use in rituals imbued with taboos, especially those connected with death. How the gongs receive keeping and placing are also important. In traditional beliefs, each gong has its sunduvan or kindred spirit and so must receive treatment with utmost respect.

Spiritual care of gongs

When treated carelessly, the spirit may leave the gong, causing the gong to be tuneless or sound unpleasant when beaten. During the mourning period, the gongs especially must receive careful handling. Rough handling may offend the gongs' spirits.

After beating the gongs before burial, the gongs receive careful placement face down near the deceased. These gongs will receive strict use for beating the dunsai repertoires while the deceased is still at home. After burial at the cemetery, only then would the gongs receive use to play the other musical repertoires called tagung tavasi as additional to the tagung talaat (dunsai) as the final respect for the deceased at the cemetery.

Ritual cleansing of instruments

On the seventh day during the mogukas, a special ritual conducted by the bobohizan receives holding to cleanse and recall the departed spirits of the gong ensemble and also all tools and implements used during burial. A very short ritual usually receives conducting by a most ritual senior specialist outside the house over the assembled equipment. She would dip a bundle of 7 species of ritual plants, collected for the purpose, into a pail of water and sprinkle the water on the tools and implements while simultaneously chanting short prayers.

Playing patterns

The gong beating for dunsai involves particular playing patterns. It usually begins with beating either the sasalakan (gong Number 1) or tatavag (Number 6) depending on the gong beaters' leader. When the music begins with sasalakan or Number 1, then it requires following by tatavag (Number 6), and vice-versa—if number 6 begins, it would receive following by sasalakan (Number 1), with the rest of the gongs, No 2 till 5, following.

The gong beating alternates between beating Number 1 and Number 6 leading the repertoire for 3 times. The gong beating session ends with the third round.

Spiritual beliefs about the music

People believe that once the dunsai gong music receives playing, the deceased's soul would leave the body as an unseen spirit hovering in the physical world. The spirit would watch and observe family, relatives and friends, sometimes attempting to communicate with them.

The tagung talaat receives playing again when the body leaves the house in a procession to herald its departure for burial in the cemetery. During this phase, there is crying and family members speaking loudly to convey their last respect and final words or pason to the deceased.

Throughout the funeral procession to the graveyard or church, the dunsai gong music receives continuous playing until the body receives burial in the cemetery, stopping only to allow the final blessing to occur. However, when the body receives bringing to Church, the gong beating would cease during the service and resume only during the funeral procession to the cemetery.

Other bereavement music repertoires

Three specific gong music repertoires receive playing during the mourning period from death announcement to cemetery burial. These musical repertoires are also said to be incomplete as they receive playing without the drum. Each music repertoire has a specific role and function in the funerary rites.

Dunsai or tagung talaat

The first repertoire is the dunsai or tagung talaat which announces the death in the village to the physical and spiritual world. This gong ensemble receives playing only for mourning. To the villager, the music is a sorrowful dirge, in contrast to the joyful anticipation of a new member's arrival among the afterworld spirits.

It receives playing to announce news of death, before sunset, sunrise and midnight, before burial while the body still receives keeping under vigil at the house. It receives playing during the deceased's encoffining, payment of final respects for the deceased before burial, and throughout the funeral procession to the graveyard.

Tagung tavasi

The tagung tavasi (sumazau beat), which means good sound, receives playing after burial at the cemetery as a form of tribute to the dead's spirits to remind them of the sounds they used to listen, play and enjoy when they were alive. It is the sign of the final farewell to the deceased and marks the funerary and burial rites' conclusion.

However, the musical ensemble used is still incomplete as it receives playing without the drum. With this music, the bridge between the living and the dead receives removal. Once the grave receives full covering with soil and the cross or stone grave marker receives placement on it, family and friends would place bouquets or wreaths of flowers as a final farewell. Usually, tagung tavasi receives playing twice, but sometimes thrice or more depending on the players' mood who would continue if they had a lot to drink.

During playing of the tagung tavasi at the grave, the mourners take the opportunity to say the final farewell. However, people believe the music would provoke the spirit world's spirits to remember their life in the physical world; the sumazau beat of the tagung tavasi would make them cry, evoking nostalgia. However, this may bring them back to the house to search and look for belongings they had left to family members.

This music marks the last physical connection between the living and the dead. Tagung tavasi is livelier and cheerful with a variety of rhythms, and sounds like sumazau music, compared to the sombre beats of tagung talaat.

Botibas

This is a special music played to accompany a martial arts performance given as tribute to the deceased as a respected warrior in the send-off to the spirit world. People believe that when the spirits listen to this music, they would know the deceased was a highly respected person in the physical world. This music also serves to remind the community of the great contribution of the deceased to the family and community during life.

Conclusion

Over the years, the Kadazan Penampang people have gone through dramatic cultural transformation, adapting and adjusting to meet needs of a changing environmental landscape and external challenges shaped by economy, politics and other forces generally outside their control.

The Penampang area is no longer the rural district it once was, located adjacent to the state capital of Kota Kinabalu. It has become an urban satellite with paddy lands and ancestral grounds increasingly giving way to modern buildings and commercial development.

Despite these physical changes, the Kadazan of Penampang remain at heart a culturally conscious group of people who still adhere to certain aspects of their ancestral customs and traditions. Their traditional dance and music in particular have also made them a culturally identifiable people. Together with their traditional performing arts, their costume and their iconic agricultural practices and ancient religious traditions, they have become an integral cultural symbol of diversity for Malaysia. This receives enhancement in the annual official celebration of the Kaamatan which fundamentally honours these people and their kindred tribes.

Likewise, the dunsai gong music has become part and parcel of Kadazan identity and cultural mosaic. Although it once was just traditional ritual music to invoke the spirits in their ancestral beliefs, it has now become culturally relevant with its contemporary meanings. The music even receives playing as a dirge in Church for funerals, and also in funeral parlours where it often receives offering as part of the funeral package.

Despite its spiritual origins and connotations, dunsai music has become a secular performance serving as an integral part of the continuing process to articulate their cultural identity. They also believe that as long as there are gongs in the community and there are players, this musical tradition will continue.

Note: This document represents the traditional death customs and rites of the Kadazan Penampang people of Sabah, Malaysia, based on research conducted in Kampung Kituau, Penampang. While many community members have embraced Christianity, these traditional practices continue to serve as important cultural markers of identity, demonstrating the syncretic fusion of ancestral beliefs and contemporary religious practices.