Kadazan's struggle to survive - as recorded by Regina Lim

Bobohizan – what it really means.

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The root word that forms the term ‘bobohizan’ is ‘bohi’. It means an ‘exchange’, like ‘momohi’ or that which had been ‘purchased or traded off’. It is something similar to the Jewish concept of “korban -sacrifice" or an ‘atonement’

In the Kadazan concept of justice, peace and order, existing in harmony with their neighbors, the environments both physical and spiritual, at peace with their creator Kinoingan or Kinorohingan whom they were trying to commune with but were unsuccessful, until some of them by the Grace of God  discovered the Holy Spirit, because of the inability of their traditional ‘divato’ (guiding spirit) to ascend to the 8^th realm (Hibabou) where His Throne is, it was a common practice to offer ‘sacrifice, korban, atonement’ either to appease the evil spirits that they have knowingly or unknowingly offended or ‘buy off’ their freedom from the evil spirits or demons they have ‘wronged’ by not continuing the ‘covenants’ that their ancestors had made with them. This ‘bohi’ could be the blood of ‘human, animals or birds’ or their vital parts like, the heart, skull, or the whole body, depending on the seriousness or nature of their requests.

The requests may vary from good harvests, protection from tormenting spirits or attack from their enemies, from floods, draughts, earthquakes to the possession of supernatural power like ‘gimat, extra-human strength, power to heal or kill, or even a charm or win an election or strike a lottery’.

The rituals in preparing, slaughtering, offering and blessing involving days and nights of gong beating, chanting and dancing are termed ‘momohizan’. The person, a male or female, who performed this task is known as the “Bobohizan”[1] or “Bobolian – Sokid dialect”

The last of the Bobohizan and the possible demise of the Kadazan Language.

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[1] Bro Phelan’s article on the Kadazan priesthood documented the various variations of belief systems from tribe to tribe and except for their belief in the self sacrificing loving Kinoingan, their ritualistic practices seem to evolve and focus on the belief of spirits dwelling in stones, mountains, padi and valleys so much so that he concluded it is based more on an animistic, rather than a monotheistic , belief system. Thanks to his superb skill in researching and documenting this dying practices and his contribution in enriching the Kadazan Culture and supplementing the works of pioneers like the late Datuk Fred Sinidol and his team like Gun Wilfred Mojilis, Stephen Sipaun, James Mudi, Justin Stimol and others but REGRETABLY most of their works were ‘unofficially’ destroyed by the verbal directive of the Director of the Broadcasting RTM who was from West Malaysia, another conspiracy to bury the Kadazan people and their legacy forever.

Further development brought along following the Spiritual Revival in the Evangelical, Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches, that also involved the Roman Catholic Church to a lesser degree, had led the serious study of the Word of God, not just the New Testament but also the Old Testament, that had revealed that evil spirits do occupy inanimate objects and animals if not successful in their preference which is the body of human, dead or alive! One third of Jesus Christ’s ministry while He was physically on Earth dealt with demons, evil spirits and fallen angels and the demonized system of Government.

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Kadazan – what it really means? – part 3

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The origin of the term Kadazan (z-dialect) or kadayan (y-dialect e.g. Lotud):

Many foreigners, especially those whose purpose and interest, politically and economically, is to see the Kadazans divided and weak to rule their own God given land, had gone to such length to inject and propogate lies and deception and, by awarding "PHD or Tunship" recruit 'intellectuals' from within the very communities they are bend to destroy to achieve their evil plots of "divide and rule, terrorize or destroy!"[1]

The genesis story of the Kadazan people speaks of  man (tuhun) having three attributes - i.e. Spirit(Kadazan), Soul (Koduduvo) and Kimaragang(Body/tinan)and a Creator God (Kinoingan Minamangun) who sacrificed His only offspring (Huminundun/Huminodun) to provide for salvation for His dying children (Kadazan -  spiritual being that came from Him).

Odu Ginayam narrated that the Kadazan Bobohizan’s primary objective is to seek Kinoingan’s audience for His divine blessings and intervention in any catastrophes, which in most cases are caused by evil spirits, but they are unable to ascend to His throne. There are seven steps to Hibabou (Heaven) and the best Bobohizan can only ascend to the 4^th steps, because their divato (guiding spirit) cannot go further than that. Beyond the seventh steps is the Seat of Kinoingan and it is so bright, brighter than 1,000 suns put together, that their guiding spirits just can’t move higher.

In her version, the Bobohizan had to appease the evil spirits and other demons so that they will not continue to bring sufferings, diseases, poor harvests and natural disasters like floods, draught, typhoon and unknown diseases until they can successfully get access to the throne of Kinoingan.

A person has a physical body but  in it dwelt his or her ‘husod ngaavi’, which are the soul and spirit, and in the case of the Bobohizans their guiding spirits; sometimes wicked spirits, that caused madness, sickness and emotional instabilities, can possess or take resident in the person’s body. Wicked spirits can dwell in human body, animals or non-animate things like padi, banyan tree, rock or rivers. The spirits that dwell in the padi are called ‘bambayazon’, those in the rivers are ‘tambaig’, those in banyan trees (nunuk) are fairies – tompuvan – and those in rocks are ‘tutumohong’ and so on. Angels are divided into two classes – the good ones are the ‘tasab’ and evil ones are the ‘logon’. The spirit of a dead person is called ‘tombiivo’ as opposed to the spirit of a living person – Kadazan. So basically, the person (tuhun/uhun/lun) is comprised of 3 attributes, a trinity, – the physical body which was made from ‘hagit ta’agang’ or Kimaragang, the soul, or ‘koduduvo’ and the spirit or ‘kadazan’.[2]

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gen 2:7

Summary:

In summary, it can be concluded from this simple understanding passed through the word of mouth from generation to generation, and having so many versions that diluted or defiled its true meaning, by God’s grace, had been preserved until such time for the truth to be revealed that Kadazan is not a recent invention of Donald Stephens and his colleagues for political convenience and neither it is a description of the ‘people’ who are staying around the towns or “kedai” just because some influential authors were paid to lie and their associates who had erred by wrongly swallowing the ‘lies’ of the devil and his human allies without realizing that their real intention is to reduce the Kadazan to a non-human because that is what the devil is teaching them. KA – the breath of God; DAZA (Dagai) : Ours (God is speaking) N – suffix that converts the two terms into a noun. Kadazan – the spirit (breath) that comes from God in other words, Sakag do Kinoingan, child of God, the good Spirited people.

Genesis 1:26 (KJV) And God said; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

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[1] The author, upon his return from College, was one of those instrumental in re-organizing the  Kadazan Cultural Association together with  others. One of the issues they were struggling was the D.D.T.  strategy – deceive and divide, dilute and dominate, terrorize and or termination by the ruling Muslim dominated BN central and state government whose primary task was to demolish the initial success of Donald Stephen aka Tun Fuad and the elders of the Kadazan communities at the time to be united under one name, i.e. Kadazan. The visible impact of their mission, which involves the injection of billion of oil and other revenues from the Sabah to make Islam as the National, and if possible the only, religion not only in the State of Sabah but also in Malaysia and Asia. This had resulted in the Christian based UNKO, and later on PBS, being dismantled or weakened, the Christian Indigenous being 'forced' to convert to Islam or left marginalized or left out from any promotion or appointment in the key  or critical posts in the Civil, foreign, government linked companies or awarded any lucrative business licence or timber logging concession. One very obvious example is the violation of the mutual understanding among the founding members of Malaysia that there will be no OFFICIAL RELIGION in Sabah even though Islam is the National Religion of Malaysia and if the Chief Minister is a Christian, the TYT should be a Muslim and vice -versa.

[2] It is interesting to note that root word of the term “koduduvo” is ‘duduvo’ meaning both. When YHWH made the clay statute of Adam, He breathed into its nostril, and the man became a living soul.