Tapadong -700 Years of Cave History in Sabah
The Tapadong Caves are on the middle reaches of the Segama River north of Lahad Datu and have been frequented by man since the early times. From a small rock shelter under 6 inches of pure guano came Sabah’s first Bronze tool, a socketed axe of a type known from Java and the Celebes. People found Stone adzes and earthenware pots of the late stone age. The age of the artefacts cannot be determined, but they date before the 12th century.
Tapadong cave shelters hold ancient burial grounds of the Orang Sungei, the ancestors of the present Kadazan population. However, the people call themselves Sungeis but were classified as Dusun by the government in the 1960 census. The government then reclassified them as Kadazan.
The Orang Sungei sealed their dead into hardwood coffins and deposited them in caves and rock shelters with gifts and offerings placed alongside. The old graves have been looted and destroyed by latecomers.
A Sungei Legend
A very long ago, when the riverbanks had not yet formed, and there were only high stone walls and water (which was named Tapadong), there lived a massive crocodile by the name of Tarongari. He had a crocodile body that had no scales but a tough, smooth skin with stripes of yellow, white, green and in some places, black. Tarongari lived under the main cliff in the water, not allowing anyone to pass. Whoever dared was caught and eaten by him. On top of a cliff over the water lived a Garuda bird. It brooded there on two eggs and helped the crocodile in his watch over Tapadong. If the crocodile slept while people or boats approached, Garuda struck down on them, tore them to pieces and ate them.
The people of the Kampong near the caves decided on a ruse. Their idea was first to catch and then kill the Garuda bird. They made a large raft and approached the caves. They tied bait onto the centre of the raft surrounding it with numerous spears of sharpened bamboo. As the bird struck down on the bait, it was pierced by bamboo spears. It was badly wounded, it took off and flew to its nest on the cliff, but it was too sick to settle down. It took to the air again with a tremendous effort to fly away into another land. But as it flew off, the whole top of the mountain came crashing down into the water below, crushing the crocodile Tarongari. For three months, the water was foul with the decaying body of the crocodile that people could not drink from it. But since that time, they can go about unharmed in the caves and used the caves as burial grounds.”
The large rocks which crashed down as Garuda flew off can be seen at the bottom of the main cliff at Tapadong. In local opinion, it is quite unsafe to go into the water because it is haunted by crocodiles.
The Orang Sungei
The Orang Sungei settled in a large area between Kinabatang to the north and the Klalabakan to the south. They farmed hill rice, fruits and vegetables, living in small family houses on stilts with leaf atap (Nipa palm leaves used for thatching roofs) roofs and bark walls.
The Sungei’s made their own clay pots and cloth bark. They spun cotton, which they decorated with patterns. They had their salt springs, hunted with blowpipes and poisoned darts which they made themselves. They did not know how to forge parangs, spears, hoes and knives, which they traded for with the outside world.
The earliest traders remember trading with the Bruneis (people from Brunei) who came from the coast bringing brass, bronze cannons, gongs, trays, iron tools and weapons, and ceramics and textiles. They exchanged for jungle produce such as rattan, jelutong(fine-textured wood), camphor wood and damar(a substance used as calk between the floorboards of ships). The Bruneis were honest traders exchanging value for value, unlike the Suluks who came after them. The Sungeis did not know bird nests of the Tapadong caves were valuable or edible. They simply used the caves as burial grounds.
The Suluks (an ethnic group from the Philippines, aka the Sulu Kingdom) came from the north into the Segama river about 15 generations ago. (from 1961 about 1660)They came primarily for trade but were vigorous and aggressive; they took what they wanted by force. When they saw the caves, they insisted on buying them for cloth. The Sugeis yielded, afraid of raids and reprisals.
The Suluks, who knew the value of bird nests through their own trade connections, came into possession of the Tapadong caves. The Suluks, afraid of evil spirits, required the Sungei’s to bury their dead elsewhere. The Sungeis lost the valuable trade in bird nets and their ancestral burial grounds.
Great hardship followed the Tapadong Cave abandonment by the Sungeis. Suluk raiders and Kayan head-hunters brought death and destruction and caused many Sungei to wander into other districts. In 1932 cholera decimated the population. Yet they continued their custom of cave burial downriver from Tapadong in a small cave called Batu Balas.
Sungei Burial Rites
The Coffins: in the old times, it was necessary for all persons of standing to be buried in belian hardwood coffins. As the making of such a coffin took a long time, reputable people saw to it that their caskets were ready well before they died. Usually, children and grandchildren of a person got together to make it — and they did not need to wait until their parent was sick or very old.
They shaped the coffin in accordance with custom. An oblong box with a curved or polygonal lid and trough slightly narrower at the end. Both upper and lower parts had to be fitted with head and foot pieces. They were regarded as the individual markings of the owner, made to his specification, by two basic types: for males shaped in the form of animal heads (ox, civet, flying fox, snake, crocodile, others); for females, a superficial outline of a forked fishtail. Other surface ornamentations and carvings were left to taste. Scales, incised or painted, were famous for the main body. The coffin was put into a suitable place where it must stay until it was put into use.
It was also the custom to take from this collection of coffins for emergency use in cases of sudden death. There was a friendly agreement between families. All the borrowing family had to do was produce, after bereavement, a coffin of equal quality to the lending family.
At the time of the disposal of a new coffin in the collection (or suitable individual place), a small feast had to be given by the family who made the coffin to not attract or invite evil spirits to take away a person prematurely.
Very small children or persons of low standing were buried in coffins made of softwood or wrapped in bark. Unfortunate deaths such as women in childbirth and persons with “unlucky influence” over their spouses who were lost during their lifetime or who had more than two husbands or wives were deposited in the caves near the other coffins.
It was unusual to have more than one corpse put into a coffin, with the exception of women dying in childbirth who had to be buried with their babies. But there is one coffin known from Tapadong with two people. The story goes that the two had been lovers and that the bride died before the wedding through a snake bite. The desolate bridegroom committed suicide soon after, and he and she were buried together in accordance with the stone age cemetery in the Great Cave at Niah. High, light and dry rock shelters were usually taken up by influential people to house their coffins, which must be elevated on Belian frames. Lower and smaller places were occupied by lesser people who need not elevate their coffins over the ground.
The Death Rites
Upon the death of a person, gongs are sounded. The mourners put on white headdresses and drab clothing. The main mourner’s hair is cut to about one inch. He or she can only act and speak through a medium, which must be an elderly, widowed person. If the mourner is male, his helper is male; a female mourner has a female helper, and she will make all the arrangements and speak for her charge.
The first important task is to open the walls of the room where the death occurred and where the corpse is. The idea is that the mourning family should not be reminded by the room’s shape itself of the death of the parent who died in it. Next, the coffin is brought into the house over the steps, and the corpse is laid in it, cleaned and dressed with his or her best finery. Hands are placed alongside the body, and a wad of textiles under the head. In old times, and if people had such possessions, a ceramic plate was put on the head. Silver disks or coins were put over the eyelids. Small quantities of cotton (kapas) were put into the ball of each hand if the dead person was an adult. Children or youngsters carried a wooden top in their left, an egg in their right hand. The meaning of this custom is not known.
Now the coffin and the corpse are on display for all people of the village family. Mainly material contributions for the coming death feast are made. For the first night, the coffin is left in the house, watched over by the mourners, who also attend it three times daily up to burial with food offerings.
On the second day, all people come to feast and drink alongside the open coffin in the mourner’s house. Nobody is allowed to sit behind the coffin before it is closed. Strong drink is provided with much glee. To get drunk is no offence.
A person who is good at that sort of thing (often the helper and friend of the widow or widower) has to provide the necessary words to guide the mourners away from death and send the dead person on his way to the afterworld. This is done by reciting memorable occasions from that particular person’s life as well as traditional beliefs and legends of the area. There is no set pattern for these recitals and no exact memory of how this was done in ancient times.
On the second evening after the feast, the coffin is sealed by the mourners with damar, wrapped in cloth and tied over with ornate rattan bindings. The Lid trough is secured with loops or other devices, locking the head and tailpieces together.
On the third day, the coffin is taken out of the house, not over the front steps, but to its side through a gap made into the wall of the house. Outside, a few words are addressed to the dead person’s spirit as his coffin is rested, asking him not to return to this house. The coffin is now taken to the caves by all mourners and accompanied by many others. It must travel by boat, which is gaily decorated with coloured flags and strands. An umbrella must be put high over it (and this is later placed over the coffin at its final resting place). Gifts to the dead spirit are taken alongside in a boat. Gongs and other musical instruments are sounded during the journey over the water, which is a gay and noisy affair.
The coffin is carried from the cave landing stage, up to the final rest-site, in a shelter or cave. When it is settled, the mourners pierce a hole into the bottom of the coffin, and through this, the corpse fluid will clear. Gifts and decorations are put around the coffin. A few words are spoken to the dead person’s spirit, explaining to him that this is his final home; here, he must remain and rest.
On their way back, the mourners decorate their heads with crowns of green leaves to symbolise that another kind of life is now beginning for them. They return to their village after going through a cleansing ceremony at the river; they throw away the leaf crowns.
Days later, a small feast is held in the mourner’s house after offerings are taken to the caves and placed near the coffin. From then on, the coffin is left alone. Only if a mourner dreams of the person an offering is needed the next day at his coffin. Coffins are sometimes visited on occasions of later burials to the same cave when small gifts of food or other offerings may be added.
From:
Barbra Harrisson and O.T. Bambi bin Ungap Tapadong -700 Years of Cave History in Sabah in the Sarawak Museum Journal, 1964
Borneohistory.net
Tom McLaughlin
Kuching
Tom02@aol.com