Akar Nusa
At first light on the summit plateau, the granite turns pink. Climbers are quiet. Down in the valley a Kadazandusun family looks up at the same peak, which they know by another name.
The story
Mount Kinabalu in Ranau, Sabah, is the highest mountain in Malaysia and in maritime Southeast Asia. A satellite survey in 1997 put its top, Low's Peak, at 4,095 metres. The rock is granite that cooled about 10 million years ago, and the mountain is still rising, by roughly 5 millimetres a year.
The name "Kinabalu" is probably a short form of Aki Nabalu, a guardian spirit of the mountain. The Kadazandusun call it Gayo Ngaran, and their yearly pilgrimages to it are called Kakakapan id Gayo Ngaran. A popular story that the name comes from a "Chinese widow" is disputed.
Many local people regard the mountain as sacred. This matters for visitors. The mountain is a living place in the beliefs of the Kadazandusun, who are the largest native people of Sabah, about one million strong. Their harvest festival Kaamatan, held in May, honours the rice spirit Bambaazon. Priestesses called bobohizan carry the old ritual knowledge.
In 2015 an earthquake and landslide on 5 June killed 18 people. Some locals felt that a group of tourists who had behaved badly on the summit days earlier had offended the mountain. Wikipedia reports this as a local belief. We include it only to show how seriously the mountain is held.
Science tells its own story. Kinabalu has an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 plant species, 326 bird species and over 100 mammal species, and the richest collection of pitcher plants in the world. The park was set up in 1964 and became a World Heritage Site in 2000. Hugh Low made the first recorded ascent of the plateau in 1851.
Where you can still see it today
- Kinabalu Park in Ranau, with its famous pitcher plants and orchids.
- The climb, which needs a licensed guide. Only 130 summit climbers are allowed per day, staying overnight in huts.
- Kaamatan in May, at Kadazandusun halls across Sabah.
- The view of the mountain from Kundasang and Ranau on clear days.
Please be quiet and respectful on the mountain. Many people hold it sacred.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
DNA cannot tell the story of a mountain. A mountain is a place, a belief and a memory. This page has no mother-line or father-line tie, and we have not made one up.
What DNA can say is something else. Malaysians we have tested may see a region estimate that points to Borneo and the islands. That says where some ancestors may have lived. It says nothing about which people you belong to, what you believe or any legal status.
