Akar Nusa
Early March in Tenom. A drum of gongs starts up, and a group of young people in bright beaded headdresses step into a line of bamboo poles that open and close at their ankles. Everyone in the crowd knows the steps. This is the Magunatip, and it belongs to the Murut.
The story
The Murut live mainly in the interior of Sabah, around Tenom, Keningau, Nabawan, Sipitang and Beaufort. Smaller communities live in Tongod, Kinabatangan and Tawau. Others live across the border in Lawas in Sarawak, in Brunei's Temburong district and in North Kalimantan. In 2010 about 112,900 Murut were counted in Malaysia.
"Murut" is a name for a family of related peoples, not one tribe. Some sources list about ten to fourteen sub-groups in Sabah, and one lists 29. Lowland groups include the Timugon and Nabai. Highland groups include the Tagal, Paluan and Sapulut. Scholars place their languages in the Murutic family, one of five language-based groups in Sabah. The Timugon language is a common tongue in the lowlands, and the Tagal language serves the highlands.
Traditional life followed the river and the hill farm. Families cleared hillsides for paddy and tapioca, fished the rivers and hunted with the blowpipe (sumpit). Many lived in communal longhouses near the water. Headhunting was once part of the old order. It ended under colonial rule, and the Murut were among the last in North Borneo to put it down.
Where did the Murut come from? A 2022 review by Malaysian and Chinese geneticists says the native peoples of Sabah are close to the native peoples of Taiwan and the Philippines. It links them to the wide spread of Austronesian-speaking farmers and sailors, roughly 5,000 years ago.
Where you can still see it today
- Murut Cultural Centre in Pulong Village, Tenom.
- Kalimaran, the harvest festival, held in March.
- Lansaran, a bamboo game like a trampoline. Players bounce high on a springy floor.
- Agung gongs and kelarai mats, both made and played today.
- Sabah Museum in Kota Kinabalu, which shows Murut baskets.
- Mari Mari Cultural Village in Inanam, near Kota Kinabalu, which has a Murut house.
- Schools: in 2024 about ten primary schools in Tenom began teaching the Timugon Murut language.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
Sabah's native peoples share old Austronesian roots, and the mother line B4 is common across them. In one study of 48 Kedayan people from Sabah and Sarawak, the line B4a1a was the most common at 25 percent. That is a different people from the Murut, so treat it as a hint of the wider regional picture only.
If a Malaysian we have tested carries a B4 mother line, it can point to this deep Southeast Asian and Pacific past. It cannot say whether a person is Murut. We found no mother-line or father-line study of the Murut alone, so a region estimate here is broad.
DNA does not decide which people you belong to, your religion or any legal status. Those come from family, community and law.
