As among the most traditional ethnic groups in Sabah, the Rungus are renowned for their rich
cultural heritage, where they engage in traditional practices with traditional ceremonies,
music, language, and
medicinal knowledge,
agricultural activities, and former communal living in longhouses. The Rungus are well known for their intricate
bead art of
pinakol, traditional
black clothing with brass ornaments, rice farming culture that also resulted in traditional beliefs with three classes of supernatural beings: the
Osunduw (
God),
Rogon (
spirit), and
Odu-odu (rice spirit), coconut and banana groves as well as
bee-rearing in Gombizau Village of
Matunggong and their
gong-making in Sumangkap Village that is commonly paired with their traditional dances with unique music. Their cultural performances with a blending of traditional culture and recent time are shown in places such as Bavanggazo longhouse and Tinangol Village.
Cuisine Rungus cuisine is mainly prepared using cooking methods like
braising,
grilling and
baking. Being a community of fishermen and farmers, the
staple foods of the Rungus people usually consists of rice and cassava, supplemented with
green vegetables and
fish.
Tinunuvan soguntung is the Rungus term for a preparation of grilled or roasted
eggplant. Akin to the Latin American
corn beer,
Tinonggilan is a Rungus speciality and is usually served during festive occasions, or as refreshments for guests during the performance of a ritual dance called
Mongigol Sumundai. The Rungus also prepare simple sweet foods for breakfast or as daily snacks such as
flatbread made from sweetened grated cassava (
tinopis runti) and
bintanok dalai (mashed corn
kuih), or mashed corn wrapped and steamed in corn husks as well as
bintanok runti (mashed cassava
kuih), and
bintanok punti (mashed banana
kuih).
Festival in the Rungus house at the Mari Mari Cultural Village in
Kota Kinabalu District Magahau is the main and largest festival of the Rungus ethnic group, which is associated with the celebration of the new year according to the traditional calendar of Rungus. Like the Kadazan-Dusuns, Rungus people also celebrate
Kaamatan, which became part of
Magahau Rungus festival, with the festive, is one of the many festive entities during the month celebrated on 31 May every year. Even though there are many similarities in the way these festivities are celebrated between the two indigenous races, there are also differences between them. Among the original purposes of the
Magahau festival are
mamapak/mamasi palad/mangaraha palad (ceremonies related to sustenance),
mintutun (introducing oneself),
monudung (to find a partner),
gimpuhut (the most beautiful girl),
bunjal (barter system/selling activities),
gontira (sports),
posikib dot konsapatan sid keluarga om kinoruhangan (sharing sustenance with family and friends),
mongodim dot kovorisan (inviting relatives), and
humigak (partying). The celebration during the festival includes
mogunum (arrival of crowd),
mangantag (traditional festive dance),
mangatod (land clearing),
mogontong (marriage),
lumuvas (clearing away ritual ceremony),
mongolosod (traditional ritual),
mabbaris (an ethnic dance similar to Kadazan-Dusun
sumazau), and
manaradan (a sacred Rungus dance). Many of the original traditional practices of
Magahau have shifted following the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 19th century throughout the administration of the
North Borneo Chartered Company (NBCC). With the successful improvement of the economy, education, and health of the Rungus ethnic group in North Borneo by the British, many of the original
Magahau ritual practices were abandoned since the practices contradicted the current religious teachings of the major religion of either Christianity or Islam, despite a majority of the ethnic group being well known for their traditional lifestyle.
Dress, traditional crafts and beadwork '' beadwork The traditional Rungus dress is
black in colour, often with hundreds or even thousands of dollars' worth of antique
beads. Traditionally all of the Rungus women wore heavy
brass coils around their arms, legs and necks with their brass arm coils are often accompanied by white and
coral shell bracelets. The
sisingal is a narrow beaded band worn around the head. The
rampai is made of cotton, flowers, and beads worked into the hair. The
orot, which is a little brass ring and antique bead looped through thin strands of stripped bark (
togung), becomes a wide and colourful hipband. To wear this, it is slowly and carefully coiled around the hip, with the
orot specially handmade by the Rungus men, as the technique is known only to them. A last string of beads called
Llobokon is hung loosely from the coil. There are also ''sad'ang
, earrings that sometimes have beads attached. Many of the beads used by the Rungus are plastic and glass imitations of older heirloom beads. Materials such as plastic spoons were heated over a flame, and the hot plastic was then wound onto a metal rod to make yellow beads. The ethnic also known for their antique traditional writing which is one of the forms of writing hieroglyphs or called surip'' in the indigenous Rungus language. The use of the Rungus language among the native speakers faces a decline due to the emphasisation of the Malay language by the
Malaysian federal government within national schools and the lack of support from the latter. The
government of Sabah has initiated several policies to prevent the continuous decline, which is also happening to other groups of indigenous languages of Sabah. Among the steps that are being undertaken include the use of Rungus language in product advertising and public services, such as road signs. Other efforts were also made to include the Rungus language, such as the one being taken by the United Rungus Association of Sabah, which has designed various programmes, such as the establishment of Rungus language education schools with cultural arts training centres.
Religion church within the coast of Rungus town Traditionally, Rungus ethnic practiced an
indigenous belief system known as
labus, although some writers referring to it as a type of
animism, with priests or shamans called
rampahan and the highest female priestesses called
bobolizan. The Rungus
bobolizan is an
intermediary connector with
spirit worlds. Through their traditional beliefs, the Rungus are also known for their
sacred grove, which served various functions in the preservation of
biodiversity in their
ancestral lands before it was reformed into a new form of
land tenure following the introduction of Christianity. In the present days, most Rungus are now
Christians belonging to the
Protestant Church in Sabah (PCS) in the
Lutheran tradition of
Protestantism and although being an ethnic-based church, it consists mostly of
Malaysian language-speaking congregations throughout Sabah as well as in
West Malaysia with a mission church in the Federal Territory of
Labuan, neighbouring
Singapore and developed relationships with sister churches in
Kalimantan of Indonesian Borneo. A smaller minorities of this tribe also adhere to other Christian denominations such as
Roman Catholicism,
Borneo Evangelical Church,
Anglicanism,
True Jesus Church and
Seventh-day Adventism as well as a number of
Muslim minority.
Traditional house of
Borneo. A longhouse can be seen in the background, with distinct outward-sloped walls Considered as one of the most traditional ethnic groups in Sabah, many ethnic Rungus once lived in longhouses, with each family having its own separate quarters off a common hall. At the edge of the communal hall, a well-ventilated platform of split
bamboo with outward sloping walls provides a place for socialising and communal work where the longhouse is different from the types of
Murut longhouse. The houses are not perched on high stilts, with only three to five feet above the ground. The longhouse roof is low, with the walls outward sloped. Among the older Rungus generation, longhouses of over 75 doors are common, while the current modern longhouse are rare to exceed 10 doors. Some modern two-story versions of the longhouse also exist, and single-family houses are sometimes built near the longhouse. The Rungus traditional house of Bavanggazo in Matunggong features the traditional life of the Rungus community, constructed with locally sourced materials, such as
rumbia (
metroxylon sagu) leaves and bamboo stems. == Notable people ==