Showcasing Dusun culture in Ranau
Published on: Tuesday, March 03, 2020
By: Clarence Dol
Silistinah (centre), Julinus (far right) and others pose in front of the Liwan Cultural Home.
RANAU: In ensuring the local culture inherited from her ancestors from ages ago would not be erased by the test of time, one Dusun Liwan woman, Silistinah Kondilong (pic), 46 decided to create a place where people can witness the essence of the ethnic today and for years to come.A longing for the memories of her childhood moved her to build the Liwan Cultural Home located at Kg Kokob Ranau, which is now a place where scenes from the past comes to life with the reenactment of what life would have been in days gone by.ADVERTISEMENT
“The Liwan’s Cultural Home was built in order to showcase the cultural house of the village community of Ranau many years ago, especially ethnic group of Dusun Liwan.
“We want people to be able to relive a glimpse of moment in the olden days when they step inside the houses which are set against a scenic view of paddy fields located in Tasik Kuno area under Sabah Geopark,” she said.
There are four houses in the Liwan Cultural Home, which were constructed using bamboo and rumbia leaves where inside each house it showcase traditional interior of a Dusun Liwan traditional house which comes with daily utility equipment including traditional kitchen.ADVERTISEMENT
In addition, there is also a mini museum that showcase traditional clothing, musical instruments such as gongs and tajau (jar) that are over 100 years old which were used by villagers to store dry or preserved food one time ago.
According to Silistinah the Liwan Cultural Home, which is located about 10 kilometres from Ranau Town was opened to the public on Jan 18.
ADVERTISEMENT
The four houses within Liwan Cultural Home premise.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the Liwan Cultural Home received a visit from Senior Product Manager of Sabah Tourism Board, Julinus Jeffery Jimit who conducted a briefing on Rural Tourism and Community-Based Tourism.
Speaking after the briefing, he said “For me the area where Liwan’s Cultural Home is built is really beautiful because it has some tourism potential that just needed to be enhanced.
“For example, they have a rice field that can be turned into an agro tourism and based on the area’s concept, it can infuse culture tourism too. In addition, there is also river tourism potential as there is a river not far from here. The Dompurung Hill has a potential in adventure tourism.
“Another activity is village tour on bicycle and at the Liwan Cultural Home you can do food tourism too. In this area alone, there is the potential for six types of tourism, which is enough for visitors to experience and the are value-for-money activities,” he said.
The interior in one of the traditional houses.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
Julinus said the location of Liwan Cultural Home is very conducive to tourism because it is easily accessibly via a paved road.
“There are several factors that can be improved such as the signboards on the highway to make it easier for visitors to find this place. But I believe with technologies like Google Apps it would provide more assistance who intend to drive by themselves to the location,” he said.