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PENAMPANG (Sabah) – The most intriguing aspect of Pesta Kaamatan (harvest festival) of the Kadazans and Dusuns on Borneo is the mysticism hidden behind the rituals enacted during their harvest celebrations.

To this day since time immemorial, some Kadazans and Dusuns, still make it a point to conduct the Magavau ceremony in freshly harvested padi fields in the first evening of the full moon after the harvest usually in May each year.

In the past, when many Bobohizans (high priests or priestesses) were in active service, such a party would be led by the most senior among them, weaving a slow procession through the wet and often muddy fields, chanting along the way some prayers to Bambaazon.

The language used by these priests and priestesses are archaic and its true
meanings are deeply buried in time and understood only by the few remaining Bobohizans left these days.

They are known as Bobohizans in Penampang, but are addressed differently elsewhere. In Tuaran district for instance, they are called Tantagas and as Bobolian in the Tambunan district.

A male warrior, with sword in hand, would walk ahead of this group constantly waving the sword to ward off any evil forces that might disrupt the ritual. Village elders and other members of the farming community would ensure that only food and drink of the best quality is offered during such a ritual to appease the rice spirit.

Neatly laid out on banana leaves in the open fields, in the moonlit night, are items such as the choicest chicken meat, eggs, betel leaves, pinang (areca nut), kirai(“rollie”), tobacco, and not to forget, the finest tapai (rice wine).

Usually, a second offering is made on a specially built platform in the padi fields, with food items placed this time on a winnowing tray. The purpose is for the rice spirits to bring these back to the spirit world to feed creatures that would otherwise feed off the padi.

For the benefit of those unable to have such an experience, the Magavau ceremony is enacted on stage, indoors rather than in the fields, during the final day of Havest Festival conducted each year at the Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA) building in Penampang, often referred to as the Hongkod building, near Kota Kinabalu.

Explaining the deeper meaning of the Magavau ritual in the fields, Dr. Benedict Topin, Executive Secretary of KDCA, says there are seven spirits of the rice, each could be severed from the main mystical body by such elements as flood, rain, wind, the water buffalo, birds and animals of prey such as field mice.

“So, the main task of the Bobolian is to pray (through chanting) for the separated parts to reassemble and return to the main body.”