HANDICRAFT

Sabah is rich in traditional handicraft, from baskets over hats, to beaded necklaces, musical instruments, textiles and woven boxes. The local people still produce many of them, touching each piece with a bit of their culture, their traditions, their lives.

Baskets are still used by the natives in their everyday lives. Anything, from fruits to firewood and padi stalks is transported in the various baskets, strapped onto their backs, leaving their hands free to carry even more. Made from bamboo, rattan and bark, these baskets have now been adapted for a more commercial demand and model baskets make original souvenirs, pen and pencil holders, as well as vases for dried flowers.

The Rungus, the natives of the Kudat area, have long been known to produce beautiful  beaded necklaces; they wear long, broad multi-stranded pinakol (right in picture) crossed over their shoulders over their traditional black costumes interwoven with gold thread. Patterns on the strands tell of ancient fables, and human figures are picked out in bright hues in the beadwork. Ever-enterprising, the Rungus today produce bangles, earrings and even brooches to go with the necklaces.

The parang is still crafted in traditional ways by the Bajau from Kota Belud. The ones made by them these days are usually from scrap iron, which goes though a process of melting, pounding, shaping and finally polishing. The blades are straight and tapered, from a sharp tip widening up towards the hilt. Some may have patterns etched into the metal along the topside. The hilt and sheath are carved from of wood, and occasionally one can come across an antique parang with a wonderfully carved hilt of horn. In days gone by, the parang was used as a weapon as well as a work tool, but these days it is mainly a decorative item for display. 

Tudung Duang is the local name for a food cover: in the tropics, like in Sabah, food on the table has to be protected from insects and dust. One is instantly attracted to them because of their bright colours, especially when they are laid out on pandan (screw pine leaf) mats in high piles, like at the Kota Belud Tamu grounds on the weekly Sunday Market (tamu).

By the shape of a  native hat, and its patterns, one can immediately identify the wearer to which ethnic entity he or she belongs. Most hats here are steeply conical and have nature-derived designs on them. Murut hats woven from the strips of  sombituon bamboo are hexagonal in shape with a three-bands patterned weaving. Hats from Penampang and Tuaran have wider, circular bases with geometrical designs. All these hats are crafted from bamboo and rattan strips, and the red and black colours used to be natural dyes - red from the mengkudu root or Dragon blood.