Published on: Friday, March 18, 2005 |
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah's megalithic cultural heritage has the potential to be developed as a new culture-based tourism product, said Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat.
In the State, the megalithic culture is based on the usage of natural stones such as "menhir" stones in areas of wet rice cultivation, oath stones, guardian stones, burial stones, commemorative stones, memorial stones and living stones in the form of menhirs, dolmens and stone statutes.
Local communities, mostly village residents like the Kadazandusuns, Murut, Bajau and Brunei, have specific motives and objectives when constructing structures from hard material, using natural or artificially produced stones or wood, to use as idols or tombs.
Chong, who is also Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, is optimistic that the preservation and rehabilitation of this culture should be promoted and used to generate revenue for the State's tourism sector.
"I was made to understand that a total of 133 foundation stones have been identified through research activities in the West Coast of Sabah from Tenghilan to Papar.
"If all these traditional icons of the megalithic culture are well taken care of, I am certain it would attract local and foreign tourists to come and visit our State," he said.
Chong said this when launching a special exhibition of "The Lost and Forgotten Megalithic Culture of Sabah" at the Sabah Museum, here, Thursday.
The Ministry's political secretary, Isnin Haji Aliasnih, read his speech. The month-long exhibition is open to the public to see and appreciate the culture, until April 18. It will be open from 9am to 5pm every day, except Friday.
"The word 'mega' means huge and 'lith' stone. In the olden days, this culture reflected original local traditional customs, which is very strong and strictly followed by many of its residents.
"Those involved in a conflict or not abiding by the customs will cause the person to be imposed with a 'sogit' which requires he or she to pay up in the form of poultry animals including pigs or cows as a symbol of resolving the problem," he explained.
But now, Chong said, the modern communities are not sensitive to the significance of this megalithic culture and, in fact, it is becoming extinct and forgotten by especially the new generations.
In this respect, he said his Ministry through the assistance of the Sabah Museum Department, is currently identifying and conserving these cultural foundation stones to be gazetted as local cultural icons that possess historical value.
He also urged the local people who might possess megalithic stones or the like to preserve them.
He added that the prospect of spin-off programmes and cultural tourism programmes would also assist local communities in generating income for their respective areas that still preserve and safeguard the value of these materials of the megalithic culture.
In the modern era, Chong said all these megalithic structures have been replaced by contemporary structures to preserve and reflect a historical and heritage value such as memorial structures, tombstones and grave markers.
Among them are the Petagas Memorial Garden, Tugu Pahlawan and Double Six Memorial.
