BALIK PULAU, PENANG

Balik Pulau is located in Penang and it is called as the Balik Pulau as in Malay, Balik Pulau means "the other side of the island". According to the Chinese, they call Balik Pulau as "the island behind the hills". The Balik Pulau is bordered by a long coastline on the western side and protected by high hills on three other sides. The Balik Pulau is a self-sufficient agricultural district situated in the Southwest of Penang Island. Balik Pulau is famous with durian, nutmeg, clove, coconut, and fruit orchard. Same as other district and state, Balik Pulau also have its early settlers. There are stories telling that during the early political, refugees from Thailand, the northern Malay states, and Indonesia emigrated to Balik Pulau in the 1800s and settled down in scattered villages on hillsides and river mouths. 

 

During that time, they fished, farmed the land and planted paddy, fruit, sugarcane, and coffee. The earlier settlers to Balik Pulau are thought to be the refugees that are escaping from the protracted wars involving Siam on 1786 and 1821. There are also refugees including Hakka, Chinese, and Phuket, Malays from the southern Thai provimces and Kedah are said to have fled southwards to Penang Island, some of them landing on the shores of Balik Pulau. In the early 1800s, the Chinese and Tamil labor was brought in to work on the rubber and coconut plantations and they stayed behind and took up residency in Balik Pulau. 

 

A later wave of migration to Balik Pulau occurred when the Japanese advanced into Georgetown in 1941 where Chinese residents from Georgetown fled to Balik Pulau in fear of the impending war and in fear of being branded communist by the Japanese. Balik Pulau is a traditional village that has a harmony and calm environment. Balik Pulau is famous with its Durian as it is known as the best fruit sources in Penang. Take a round at Balik Pulau might be very fun by using bike where you are able to feel the calm environment and view the paddy field and fruit plantation and seeing the old traditional houses at Balik Pulau.

LINANGKIT CULTURAL VILLAGE

Linangkit Cultural Village is located in Kampung Selupoh, Tuaran, Sabah. This is a place for the Lotud people which is one of 32 diverse ethnic groups in Sabah that also have their own traditions and cultures that was brought from the late great grandmother of Lotud. To reach Linangkit Cultural Village, it takes about one hour from the capital city of Kota Kinabalu. There are many activities provided at Linangkit Cultural Village that you can enjoy. There, the Linangkit Cultural Village provides guided tour around the village, traditional costume try-on, handicrafts making demonstrations, traditional food preparation demonstrations, traditional fish netting, tapioca plucking, cultural show, and also river cruise and firefly watching.

For those who are cultural lovers, visiting to the Linangkit Cultural Village will give you satisfying experiences because the Lotud people are very friendly and they are very pleased to receive you. If you are willing to know more about their tribe and culture or learning every single thing about their culture, you will absolutely get the information as they are very happy to introduce their cultures to other people. Besides giving information about their culture, the Lotud people also will give the opportunity to try and live and their lifestyle.

In the village also, you will be able to observe clearly the building structure of the houses in the village and thereon, you will know the traditional building skills of the Lotud people. Since the Lotud have traditional skills, therefore they are also able to make their traditional attires and here you will be able to witness and learn on how they make their arts and crafts and you are able to try them on and if you like it, you can purchase it directly and bring back to your home as souvenirs. Through the arts and crafts, you will know how creative the Lotud people are as well as other ethnic groups in Sabah. Besides experiencing their handicrafts making, you will also have the opportunity to learn on cooking the traditional food of the Lotud people.The Lotud people also lives in Longhouse. However, the difference between the Lotud Longhouse and other longhouses such as the Rungus Longhouse is the Lotud Longhouse only hosts one family. This means that each family lives in a longhouse. The Linangikit Cultural Village is in fact known as "treasure house" as there are many unique items of Lotud people.

Engagement Ceremony for Kadazan

Before marriage of two people, there must be a engagement ceremony. Same goes to the Kadazan culture where engagement is a must before two person getting married. Before that, let me introduce some information about Kadazan culture before proceeding to the Kadazan engagement ceremony. Kadazan culture is originate mostly in Penampang, Sabah and most of Kadazan are christian (Roman Catholic) and some of it are mix of Chinese which called Sino-Kadazan. However, in engagement ceremony for the Kadazan, there are lots of taboos to be followed. Before setting the date for engagement, both family from the woman side and the man side will meet at the woman house and discuss about the date, the price, and getting to know each other. This is called the "merisik" in Malay and "monohuku" in Kadazan language. After "merisik", the date of the engagement is fixed and before the date, the man side must prepare gifts for the woman and lending or "berian" in Malay. The gifts or also known as "hantaran" in Malay can be cloths, hand bag, make up set, perfume, high heel, bouquet of flower, and including the gold rings and the lending. 

The price that are discussed by both the women and man's side family are the lending, "pitas", a buffalo, and "belanja dapur". The "pitas" is more like "sogit" for the villagers where it should be done one month or before the marriage. The buffalo is a must in Kadazan culture and it can be change with money for the total of RM2,000. The price for "belanja dapur" is upon discuss by both the woman and man's side family and it is used for the expenses during marriage such as the foods. The wedding can be done whether at the hall, at the house, hotel, ballroom, or any place that the spouse wanted. 

Lets proceed to the engagement ceremony. The engagement ceremony should begin between 10 am to 11 am and after finished the ceremony, there will be lunch. For the roman catholic Kadazan, before the changing rings between man and woman is begin, there should be blessing for the rings. It is important to have the head of the village to be at the engagement ceremony because the head of the village need to sign and chop the engagement form to affirm the engagement and need to witness the spouse of the engagement to pledge. The gifts to the woman must be passed by the parents of the man's side to the parents of the woman's side. The man's side must go home before the sun falls which is before 2 pm. After going home, the man and the woman should not meet and only be able to meet the day after the engagement. According to the Kadazan tradition, there are lots of taboos which if there is incident and violate the Kadazan taboos, the man and woman can be separated. 

For example, before the man's side is leaving to the woman's house, on their way, if they bumped with weird animals such as lizard, snake, and other animals that are rarely seen, the engagement should not be continued and the man and woman can be separated. Besides that, before and during the engagement ceremony, there should not be any glasses broken. If there are glasses broken, the man and woman can be separated and the engagement ceremony should not be continued. During the lunch, after the engagement, nobody is allowed to used toothpicks, and the spouse that engaged, they cannot finished their food until the plate is clean. There must be some rice or food left in the plate.