Page 1
..::The Origin of Rice in Sabah::..
Each year, every Dusun or Kadazan celebrates a festival called the “Modrusung” which is the Harvest Festival. The festival is celebrated in memory of the Great Goddes of Mercy, Bambarazon. Rice is offered as a special offering once a year. The other offerings may change according to the yield for that year but rice never changes. It is always the same. This is because rice is the most important diet of the Dusun and Kadazan people. It is believed that Bambarazon gave rice to the world.
Before Bambarazon gave rice to the world, man led quite a difficult life. For food, he had to go and hunt for wild animals. This was dangerous, because wild animals often attacked man and killed quite a lot of people. Therefore man hunted for animals that were easy to catch like the rabbit or wild boar.
However, man could not just live on meat alone. He also needed to eat fruits. These fruits grew in the wild and deep parts of the forests. It could not be said for sure that fruits were good to eat because some of these fruits were poisonous. If man accidentally eat some of these poisonous fruits then he would suffer from sickness or even die.
So, every morning, man used to hunt for food and go deep into the forests to pick fruits that are edible. When the fruits in a certain place finished or the animals ran away into other parts, then man had to shift. This was very difficult.
The great Goddess of Mercy saw how difficult men’s lives were. They were always hungry and suffering. They always cried to her for help. Her compassionate heart was touched and she decided to help man. The question was ‘how?’ How was she to help man so that man would not suffer so much? She asked around. One of the gods told her, “That is a simple problem. Increase the variety of animals whose flesh could be taken for meat. Make sure they are tame animals!” Another god suggested, “Why not increase the different kinds of fruit? Man would then have an easier time.” Still yet another god said, “Why increase both?”
..::Page 1::.. ..::Page 2::..
