The Timogun Murut, The Legend of Tampulan and The Tampulan's Stone.

The Timogun Murut, The Legend of Tampulan and The Tampulan's Stone.

The Murut comprise several people groups that are scattered in parts of Borneo Island including Brunei, Kalimantan (Indonesia), and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak.

Their largest numbers are in Sabah but some also inhabit the rural Temburong District in Brunei. They were among the last tribal groups on Borneo to renounce headhunting.

The largest Murut people groups are Tagal, Tidung, Timugon, Sembakung, Paluan, Bookan, Kalabakan, and Serundung Murut. The Sabah Murut population is around 135,000 while around 1,200 are found in Brunei.

The literal meaning for Murut is 'hill people'. The Murut were formerly shifting cultivators moving their settlements every few years. Each people group has their own dialect, but most are also conversant in Malay which is the national language in Brunei and Malaysia.

The main branch of the Timogun people lived on the plains at Tenom,which boarder the Padas and Pegalan River, hence their name "The People of the River" (Timog-River). Their district there extended roughly from the Kwala Sapi, Padas, beyond Sapong, about the 9th mile on the old road to Kemabong, to Melalap, Pegalan, at the northern end of the plain, about mile 10 on the Keningau Road.

Tampulan Stone, Melalap, Tenom

Tampulan Stone, Melalap, Tenom

Tampulan Stone, Melalap, Tenom

Batu Belanoi

Batu Belanoi

Timogun Longhouse

In one of his journals, when he was staying at the northern end of the Tenom plain, Mr. Witti wrote "At another such clearing there is a stone block on which the division of skulls is made: these Dyaks are said never to go beyond quartering a head, smaller shares being made up in kind. On that block could be seen the stains of blood. Nearby is a rude scaffolding which serves to exhibit the trophies. But the queerest feature of that spot was a young sugar plant sprinkled with blood and carefully fenced in - why not a forget me-not?"

He does not mention the name of the clearing, but it is probably a reference to Batu Tampulan -'Tampulan's Stone near Melalap. The sugar plant is no longer there , the surrounding jungle is gone and rubber trees have taken its place, but the stone is still there, though the blood stains have long since been washed away.

It is a large flat stone slab, roughly circular in shape, about three feet in diameter and apparently not more than six inches or so in thickness ; close by are two or three ordinary looking boulders, and a yard from it another stone which may be a flake from a round boulder ; it stands about two feet high; about a foot wide at ground level rising to a point which is curved over towards the flat block-it reminds one of a cobra head and is said to be a man who was turned into stone whilst squatting down with his eyes fixed on the trophies lying on the block.

A few hundred yards away is another stone, 'Batu Belanoi', a small cone two feet high with a circular depression on the tip of the cone, said to have been made by Tampulan, who used it as seat and wore away its top.

Tampulan was a Timogun hero of ancient times. One day, when he was a child and had been left alone in the house by his parents, a Spirit came and carried him off into the top of a tall Aru tree where he kept him and instructed him in the use of weapons and in all kinds of wisdom and in magic. For several months he lived in the tree top and finally was restored by the Spirit to his parents who had searched for him in vain all over the country.

Tampulan grew up a wise leader of his people and a mighty man of war. He built a great 'Longhouse' Village called Dapulan for himself and his people, and the flat stone was his hearthstone.

One day a party of Peluans from Bokan District in Ulu Sook came down to raid Kasai, a Timogun house not far from Dapulan; the news reached Tampulan who seized his weapons and with a single leap sprang from his own house to Kasai and attacked the enemy: with every stroke a Peluan fell, and in few minutes not a single raider was left alive. He collected the heads and took them home and made a great feast over them.

Not Long afterwards, he set out on a lone raid up the Sook valley and in the Bokan Country found a large party planting padi on hill side clearing; he muttered some charms and stroked his hand down his blowpipe, and transformed himself into the likeness of old Bokan with along planting stick in his hand. Thus disguised he joined the unsuspecting planters, and when in the midst of them once more stroked his staff which became again a spear tipped blowpipe, and with quick stabs right and left he slew everyone on the planting party.

As he was making off with the heads, help arrived, too late, and pursuit was vain, for Tampulan leaped to the tree top of the jungle to Dapulan, where he cleaned and prepared the skulls on his hearthstone. His fame was never forgotten, and after his death his people always assembled round the stone after a successful raid and there cleaned their trophies and divided his share to every warrior who borne a part in the attack.

G.C.W.

Edited by :

Kumis Kumis

Source :

1. The British North Borneo Herald dated 16th April 1936

2. The Timogun Murut of Sabah - GC Whoolley 1936

3. Diary of F Witti, 1882

Photos : 

The National Archives UK - circa 1920s-1930s (CO 1069/538)