Dance and music

In Semporna, southeast of Sabah, the sound of drums and gongs usually heralds a Bajau Laut wedding or healing ritual in progress.

Kulintangan:
The lowest-sounding gong is on the left, and the highest-sounding gong is on the right end of the kulintangan.

LEPA festival is a tourism product in a class of its own. The festival showcased characteristics of the Bajau culture.
Dance performances, traditional costume fashion shows and traditional Bajau delicacies helped to preserve the culture of the community, and also introduce the culture to other communities.

Malaysian Government Wants Arts to continue forming Modern Society. The simultaneity of the kulintangan ensembles of the more than hundreds boats partaking added up to an impressive soundscape of gong music, which also incorporated quotidian sounds such as the shrieking voices of ice-cream vendors, laughter of passersby, loudspeaker music and announcements, and bits and pieces of conversation drifting by.

Music and dance were not staged performances here; they’re a natural part of life, as essential, natural, remarkable, and, at the same time, unremarkable, as conversation or gestures.

It is a form of communication and a matter of course when Bajau Laut are congregating: wherever people come together for an occasion or an event, there is music.

Music and dance evoke a shared cultural history that bonds and weaves the present into it.
The dances and the gongs' sounds evoke the spirits and ancestors, involve the elders and adults, and are a natural part of the environment in which the young children grow up.

Indeed, intergenerational engagement can be observed everywhere. On every boat are usually members of at least three generations, and it goes without saying that the children observe and pick up their emerging performance skills from their elders.
Tradition these gong instruments to be dwelling places of spirits; accordingly, their use may bear a spiritual connotation.

The Bajau Laut are traditionally a nomadic seafaring group. Like their land-settled cousins, the Bajau Kubang and West Coast Bajau who are settled mostly in Kota Belud, they are rapidly losing touch with their traditions such as the tarirai, other dance forms — like the limbaian and tabawan — and their unique craft and pottery.

IGAL LIMBAYAN
This dance will only be presented by the ladies, which mean the smooth mannered and courteous of Bajau ladies. Usually it will be performed during wedding or welcoming the return of warrior.

IGAL TABAWAN
It will be performed during the wedding ceremony, Al-Quran performance ceremony, and welcoming leader and quest. This kind of dance will be performing by men and ladies.

IGAL TARIRAI
Tarirai is a best-past dance choreographed following one's reaction that evolves around a story of one Bajau Semporna men. While walking on the sandy shore looking for some cockles, he became terrifying upon seeing 'taliaga' (a slimy snake like creature) and jumping around hysterically. He then ran home in the same ticklish feeling. As it will be seen, the following foot works on this dance are symbolism of one's feet during jumping.

IGAL SAYAU
It can be defined as an amok dance. So, it will only performed by the Bajau men. The purpose of this dance is to generate the spiritual of Bajau warrior before going to battle.

IGAL PANANSANG
The dance is usually presented by the witch for the purpose of quickly recovering when medicate sickness. It is also a dance that tries to encourage the sick person to strengthen himself to fight against the illness.

The Bajau were known as the sea-gypsies whose used to live their entire life on Lipa-lipa boats. They were true nomads skilled in navigating the seas with no compass on their boats.

The Bajau only came to land to collect fire wood, to get water, and to bury their dead. However, over the past few hundred years some Bajau have settled on the main land along the west coast of Sabah. And while the sea Bajau families tend to be small, the land Bajau have enlarged their families.

A Bajau house tends to be large and spacious. They are still mainly fishermen, and often build their houses on stilts into the sea or rivers, such as the Bajau of Kg Mengkabong. Having had long contact with Chinese traders, but also with European merchants, the Bajau have evolved particularly colourful costumes, with elaborate accessories.

A Bajau lady in her full ceremonial dress move extremely graceful!
The Bajau have been Moslems for a long time, and through intermarriage with the ruling Bruneis the settled Bajau have adopted many of their cultural aspects in dance and music.

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ANIMALS

Wildlife and Environmental Protection in Sabah

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Environment of Tawau

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Tawau Cultural Festival

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