Sabah Folklore ~ The Creation of the World

Imagine yourself surrounded by blackness. Above you is darknessis darkness below you is darkness. On both your right and left exist the same-complete darkness. You are floating, but there is no land, no sea, no mountain, and no people. There, right in front of you, was a rice tray sitting comfortably on an overturned shield. As you watched, both items floated down. Then, they separated.

The tray became the azure sky we now see and the shield the earth.
           
            The dusun, a tribal people from Borneo, believed that their God, Kinoringan, and his wife, Yumun created our world out of loneliness.

            One day, with a flash of inspiration, Kinoringan suggested to his wife, “let us make the world and extend the beauty of heaven’s magnificence onto our earthy creation”.

            Yumun agreed enthusiastically to Kinoringan’s suggestion and helped him mould the shape of the earth out of the soil from her heavenly garden. They then hung the earth carefully in the sky and looked satisfaction at their creative handiwork.

            Mission accomplished, the couple visited earth and was perturbed to see only a flat, barren plain.

            “Let’s make the mountains and seas reflect the beauty of heaven?” asked Yumun in apprehension to her husband.

            “My dear, all creation is beautiful and will be a reflection of the heaven’s wonder,” replied Kinoringan.

            Agreeing with the wisdom of Kinoringan’s words, Yumun helped her husband to pick up one of the huge stones that were whizzing around in the vast expanse of space that made up the skies of heaven, and dropped in the centre of the earth. This enormous boulder became known as Mount Kinabalu.

Next, the couple dug a hole and filled it with water to become the ocean. They also picked out more stones from heaven’s sky and places them in the earth to make islands. As they moved around, busy with creations, their heavy footsteps sank into the ground and made big bowl-like dents. These became the valleys of earth.

            Then, the two Gods turned to creating people to live on the land that they had made so beautiful. Hence, they carved a man and a woman out of stone but these human beings could neither talk nor walk and had no life in them.

            So they decided to try to make another couple out of the wood of the trees from Lumun’s  garden. These two could talk but could not walk. Kinoringan then sighed in frustration and the strength of his breath turned into fire, thus causing the wooden couple to burst into flames. Lumun’s sighs of disappointment at their foiled attempts then cause their scattered ashes to become the sands of the desserts.

            The Gods did not give up but persevered in their effort. They decided to take the essence of human life from their earthy creation. The two gods roamed the earth and finally came upon an ant’s nest.

            They were impressed with the virtue the ants displayed and thus made a third human couple from these ants. This time, the human beings could talk and walk. Extremely pleased that their creations attempts were a success, Kinoringan and Lumun ascended back up to heaven and left their earthly creations to make their own lives out on earth.

And this is the story of how human beings come to live on Earth.

Adapted from: Myths and Legends, Malaysia
(By Pugalenthi) Page: 72 - 76
           

(Courtesy from: www.sabah.edu.my)