THE CULTURE AND CUSTOM OF THE KADAZANDUSUN ETHNIC THE DUSUN LOTUD TRIBE: THE MARRIAGE CUSTOM
INTRODUCTION
The Lotud tribe that lives mostly in the Tuaran
district has various arts and cultures that are still practiced. Among them are
traditional dances, traditional costumes, and rituals. They are famous for the
dance of appeasing the spirit entitled Sumayau or Mongigol, performed during
the rumaha (appeasing the skull) ceremony and magahau (appeasing
the spirit of jars) ceremony.
Their traditional costume is believed to
originate from kinohoringan(God) attire while for the ladies is called umunsumundu.
This is depicted in the lyrics of rinait molukas (incantation) as
commendations for the attire when moving to a new house, adapted visually.
THE MARRIAGE CUSTOM
There are five levels in a marriage ceremony and they are suruhan (enquiring), monunui (engagement), popiodop (staying overnight), matod (getting married), and mirapou (the custom).
ENQUIRING
A representative from the man family who is an
expert in customs, called suruhan, functions mainly as a middleman to
the girl's family to fix a suitable time to enquire and discuss. He visits the
girl's house for the job. During the enquiring, the girl's family wants to know
about the man's background like his ancestry, behavior, and ability to
interpret dreams in the girl's family. If the dream is bad then sogit mimpi
(a fine for the dream) is imposed as a means of peace and harmony. According
to custom, if the man family has no middleman then they can be imposed adat
malu (a fine for avoiding the custom) by the girl family.
TO BE ENGAGED
The monunui (to be engaged) custom is
to be held by fixing the date beforehand if the enquiring is successful and
both parties agree on the fixed terms. Normally, this custom is implemented on
the 14th day of a monthly cycle, called tawang kopiah or on the 15th day
called tolokud. This custom can only be held in the morning and the man
family must leave the girl's house before 4 p.m. on the same day. A gold ring is
given to the girl to signify engagement of which the duration is normally a
year.
During the engagement ceremony, the village head and middleman sit on the front line. The future bride is not allowed to leave the house while the future groom is forbidden to be around the house until the ceremony ends. The main items discussed are tinunui (marriage dowry), expenses for reception, engagement dowry, and sogit (fine).
THE MARRIAGE DOWRY
The marriage dowry and reception expenses are part of the main elements in a wedding ceremonial function, and these are discussed together by the village head and both the man and girl sides. The cuisine for this discussion is normally a simple one with tobacco leaves and dried tobacco to be made into cigars.
The marriage dowry requested by the girl's family is RM1,000, reception expenses estimated as RM5,000 and above, and a caribou. It is compulsory to give pinolusadan do aluwid (land dowry) together with paid quit rent. This dowry is for building a house when the couple has children. If the groom does not own a land then a dowry of four binukul (valuable antiques) valued at RM1,000, called the dowry custom, is deemed as fulfilling the requirement.
