Kota Belud: The Tamu ... and Looking for the Bajau Horsemen

Kota Belud Tamu* (traditional open market) is held every Sunday and is one of the main weekly tamu in Sabah. An integral part of rural economic life here, as usual for me, markets are a pull factor, so Husin & Penel took us to Kota Belud on Sunday morning. The tamu is usually held from as early as 6 am till midday, so we set out from Kota Kinabalu heading north around 8.30 am. It was a journey of nearly an hour and a half, passing by the town of Tuaran which also has a Sunday tamu.

Archway into the Kota Belud tamu (MB 2013)

At the tamu Penel tells me that more and more, the women here are abandoning their native head wrap styles for the ubiquitous tudung (head-wear). We did spot three older ladies in traditional headgear, two selling dried shrimps and one selling tobacco and sireh. Tobacco at the tamu is rolled into packs or in loose heaps. It is usually smoked in cigarette form, the wrapper a long dried leaf (lopian). Similar to rokok daun that my grandfather used to smoke. The tobacco lady offered me betel nut and lime wrapped in sireh leaf to chew. I obliged but found it to be very pedas (spicy hot). So she offered me a quid of tobacco to hold in the upper lip to soothe my mouth. Yikes! This is reminiscent of my grandmother and her sentil (tobacco quid)!

Tobacco seller at the KB Tamu. Note 3 different headgears
on the ladies here (CNB 2013)

The tamu is fairly busy with all kinds of foodstuff and other items being sold. At the dried food section there were all kinds of fish and seafood. We bought tampoi and pisang rastali at the fresh fruit and vegetable section.

Dried fish at the Tamu (MB 2013)

'Pekasam' fish stalls (CNB 2013)

The crafts section was most  interesting with colourful basketry and woven textiles. I bought a small tudung saji and two trinket boxes as souvenirs.

Rainbow hued basketry (CNB 2013)

In the 50s the roof of these tamu stalls would have been atap
but now corrugated iron is used (MB 2013)

At Kota Belud, I was also hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous Bajau horsemen there, deemed 'Cowboys of the East'. But I only saw their horses tethered near some houses. I guess I may have to return during the annual tamu besar which is said to bring out the best of the culture and heritage of the Kota Belud indigenous community. The Tamu Besar Kota Belud is usually held in October or Novermber.

* Tamu is from the Malay word 'temu' - to meet.
24 March 2013