Borneo’s Bamboo Huts

Kota Kinabalu’s Heritage Village gives visitors the chance to wander through bamboo huts which are replicas of actual tribal housing.

Gwenda told us Borneo is home to 47 different ethnic groups, so there were similarities and differences.

The first house pictured here is an example from the Rungus people. They are a farming tribe who live together in longhouses. There’s a long hallway off and share area with separate rooms for each family. They build these longhouses near water, and they farm tapioca, maize, and “hill paddy,” (although I’m not sure what that is.)

To get in and out, there are stairs made by carving notches into a single tree trunk. They were easier to use than I expected, even in the slippery rain.

Do you see the house with the tree house? That’s where unmarried daughters of the Bonggi tribe sleep. Like the Rungus, they do some farming, but they also fish.

The Kadazandusun also have a separate sleeping area for unmarried daughters. Rather than a treehouse, however, they have a loft inside. After going to bed, the ladder is taken away. If the girls need to get up at night, they call out for their parents to bring the ladder back.

The last replica house we visited was for the Murut tribe, who used to be headhunters. Our guide had a thick accent, so when I heard Gwenda say, “Now we go see the headhunter’s trampoline,” I was sure I’d misheard her.

But no! It’s true. To celebrate their conquests, headhunters would jump on trampolines like the one you see here.

What a surprise!Read more