Huminodun
Huminodun is a character in a myth of the Dusun and Kadazan people. According to legend, Huminodun was a maiden sacrificed to feed her famine-stricken people, which subsequently became the roots of the harvest festival of Kaamatan and the beauty pageant of Unduk Ngadau, celebrated annually in the month of May by the Kadazan-Dusun community in the state of Sabah and the federal territory of Labuan in Malaysia.
The sacrifice story of Huminodun is also considered neither a folklore nor a legend, but more of a religious observance of the Kadazan-Dusun of Sabah and Labuan. It forms the origin of the community earlier religion of Momolianism as well as the basis of rice planting rituals performed by the bobohizan for a continuous bountiful harvest and the significance of rice and spirit worship in the traditional cultural beliefs among the Kadazan-Dusun community.
Attributes and legends
Kinoingan, the almighty God, the creator and his wife, Suminundu lived happily together in a heaven called Libabou and the Pomogunan was pure from any sins and beautiful. His wife created the earth including the Kadazan-Dusun sacred mountain of Mount Kinabalu, while Kinoingan filled it with the sky, cloud and all above the earth. Together they had two children: a son named Ponompulan and a daughter named Ponompuan. When Ponompulan began to rebel and corrupted the mind and heart of mankind, he was banished forever from heaven to his own creation of Kolungkud that resulted from his own deeds, and the mankind world where his followers are located was cast with a suffering curse, which subsequently also created the worst famine among the Kadazan-Dusun community since the land they lived in became so infertile that it could not grow even a single plant to produce food. To end the curse, their only daughter Ponompuan who is kind hearted, thoughtful and wise which are then named "Huminodun" following her pure compassion to be made sacrifice to saved her community, with her father Kinoingan learnt that the only way to overcome the famine is through sacrificing his daughter. She willingly accepted the father's demand since she was determined to save her people from the famine. She told her father:Following her sacrifice, her community had the most bountiful harvest that year. With deep sorrow after losing his most beloved daughter, her father, Kinoingan, went berserk and went to the paddy field, slashing every one of the young plant crops but was stopped when hearing her voice from one of the plants, asking him to stop hurting her further. The voice comforts the father by telling him that he will be able to see her again when the rice has ripened. He must immediately select seven of the tallest stalks and tie them together, cut and bring each of them to their house after harvesting, with one stalk each placed inside seven jars, and the jar tops must be covered with tarap leaves. Her father followed everything as being instructed, and one day he and his wife Suminundu heard knocking inside the seven jars, and when they both began to open each of them, seven beautiful maidens, including their daughter, stood out from each jar with their beauty resembling the sun at its brightest. Huminodun had fulfilled her promise when her spirit emerged from the large jar, where her bravery, grace, strength and beauty are commemorated through the annual beauty pageant of Unduk Ngadau. It was after her further resurrection in another form called Bambaazon that raised from grains, the lifestyle of the entire Nunuk Ragang community, as they were then known, began to improve as there was an abundant supply of food.
The legend is believed to be the origin of the Momolianism, a type of the indigenous animist-pagan religion. It goes on to narrate that the spirit of Huminodun founded the bobohizan as they were taught the art of rites, ritual practices and ceremonies, taboos, law of sogit and traditional cultures including the art of gong-beating and the Sumazau dance.
Other variation of the story
A different variation of the story from the main story that has been recognised by the Dusun Cultural Association">Dusun people">Dusun Cultural Association also exists. According to another story from the "Tangaah of Penampang Nunuk Ragang Story or Legend", as pointed out by the late Herman Luping, two children, a male and a female, first came out from a rock underneath a big Nunuk Ragang tree that had split open at the banks of the Tampias River. The two children's names were Kinoingan and Suminundu, human beings with supernatural powers, which is considered semi-divine, but not God. The gods of the Kadazan-Dusun community are named Minamangun, and it was Suminundu who sacrificed the daughter, not Kinoingan.In popular culture
The legend of Huminodun inspired the films of Huminodun directed and written by Aaron Cowan, as well as directed by Timothy Stephen.During the 2025 edition of the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society under the patron of King Charles III, an essay on Huminodun folklore won 1st place through the submissions by Ferdiana Osmund, an indigenous Sabah native and first-year automotive technology student at the Keningau Vocational College.