Qualla: Nunuk Ragang

Nunuk Ragang: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0. The tree was enormous. According to Kadazan-Dusun elders, the banyan at the confluence of the two branches of the Liwagu River was six fathoms around, its canopy broad enough to shade a longhouse sheltering ten families, its leaves sufficient cover for seven Kadazan huts measuring 240 square feet each. The settlement that grew beneath it was called Nunuk Ragang -- the "red banyan" -- and oral tradition holds that it was the original homeland of the Kadazan, Dusun, and Rungus peoples who today inhabit most of northern Borneo. For 328 years, from 1415 to 1743, the community lived here at the intersection of the Liwagu Kogibangan and Liwagu Kowananan rivers, east of what is now the Ranau and Tambunan districts of Sabah. Then, according to legend, something called the Minorits drove them away forever.

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Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Nunuk Ragang: The Red Banyan

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kvinder, CC BY-SA 4.0. The name itself is a puzzle, as the Kadazan-Dusun intended. "Nunuk" means banyan tree. "Ragang" might mean "newborn baby" or might be a contraction of "aragang" -- red-colored. Botanists have identified the species as Ficus racemosa, a fig tree with large, bright red ripe fruit t...

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Image: Kvinder | CC BY-SA 4.0

Nunuk Ragang: Between the Seen and the Unseen

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JKT-c, CC BY 3.0. The Kadazan-Dusun had no word for "religion." What they practiced was a system of relationships between the visible and invisible worlds, centered on maintaining balance and harmony with their environment to ensure bountiful harvests and the survival of their people. At Nunuk Rag...

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Image: JKT-c | CC BY 3.0

Nunuk Ragang: Smoke, Salt, and Survival

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit johnjodeery, CC BY 2.0. Life at Nunuk Ragang revolved around the forest and the river. The settlers were hunter-gatherers who became rice farmers, lighting fires with dried bark scraped from the Polod palm tree and forging short machetes called dangol and carving knives called pais from metal obtained t...

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Image: johnjodeery | CC BY 2.0

Nunuk Ragang: The Minorit Push

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Negaraku, CC BY 3.0. The exodus, when it came, was total. Oral tradition attributes it to the "Minorits" -- legendary tiny spiritual beings that emerged from the ground, enforcing a practice of infanticide that made continued habitation impossible. But the Kadazan-Dusun love of metaphor suggests a mo...

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Image: Negaraku | CC BY 3.0