Today, the Pinakol is available in many districts across Sabah, and are even sold at shopping malls, markets and online, too. — Photos: MELODY L. GOH/The Star
The traditional beaded accessories of Sabah are currently having a moment. Hopefully, this “trend” stays on permanently, and more people learn to appreciate them.
In Sabah, one of the most popular beaded accessories is the Pinakol, a shoulder band usually worn by Rungus girls and women to adorn their traditional outfit. The Pinakol is worn in pairs, criss-cross on the shoulders, but smaller versions can be worn as a single necklace, much like the Litai (beaded necklace).
The Pinakol is part of the Rungus culture, and the skills of making these beaded necklaces are passed down from generation to generation. In the old days, only the girls in a family would learn the art of beading, as the boys were meant to go out and hunt for food or toil the land with their fathers. As the years progressed, this no longer became a tradition, although there are still more women beaders today than there are men.
If you’re visiting Sabah, ask your guide to take you to the Pusat Gubahan Manik Kampung Tinangol in Kudat, where you can see different families of Rungus beaders working together to make beautiful collections of Pinakol and other beaded accessories. Some of the older women there will tell you that learning how to make beaded accessories is kind of a rite of passage for Rungus girls. They also say that if you are not a Rungus girl but are thinking of marrying a Rungus man, you may want to consider learning how to bead to please his mother and/or grandmother. This may not be a written rule – or even true, as some of these ladies love to joke around with visitors – but this will still earn you some “plus points”!
You can watch just how fast the master beaders work at the Pusat Gubahan Manik Kampung Tinangol in Kudat. This lady has just completed beading Tiningulun, the warrior.
At the centre (it is actually more like a long house verandah, with lots of space for the beaders to work in), you can learn about the many traditional motifs found in Rungus beaded accessories. The most popular is the vinusak or flower, which symbolises life.
Perhaps the more prized Pinakol would be the ones that come with motifs which tell the story of a warrior named Tiningulun. According to legend, Tiningulun was a hunter who carried a tinompuling or spear. While on one of his hunts, he comes across a “monster” or a large, poisonous animal called the tinugarang. Tiningulun uses his tinompuling to fight the tinugarang, but while doing so, the beast bites the hunter. Tiningulun manages to kill the animal, but on his journey home, the poison started to work its way across his body, weakening him. Luckily, the hunter sees a vinusak, believed to be an antidote to the poison, and uses it to heal himself.
This story is well known not just in the Rungus community, but among the larger Kadazan and Dusun ethnic groups too, and the four motifs (tiningulun, tinugarang, tinompuling and vinusak) are depicted in many Sabahan native arts and crafts like mats and bags.
Today, the Pinakol is available in many districts across Sabah, and are even sold at shopping malls, markets and online, too. At the Api-Api Night Food Market in Kota Kinabalu, which takes place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, there are a few stalls selling native handicrafts and souvenirs, including the Pinakol.
Apart from accessories, traditional household goods are also popular with tourists at the tamu.
One of the vendors, Koronia Farinah Mugakon, proudly shows off her Pinakol collection, which she sells for between RM20 and RM150 per strand. “The large Pinakols are usually sold in pairs, but maybe because people think they are quite expensive, they would ask if I can sell them separately. I prefer not to, but sometimes I can see that the customers are sincere in their interest in the Pinakol, so I just sell them separately,” she said. Koronia, or Nia as she prefers to be known, makes all the Pinakol and the other accessories herself, with some help from her family members.
“I learned how to make them from a young age, but I am still not an expert, especially when it comes to the lower part of the Pinakol. I can’t seem to get it right.
“My mother is the expert. Whenever I do one and make a mistake, she would always scold me!” Nia said, laughing. She added that while it would take her over a week to complete a large Pinakol (which is usually a 19-string piece and around 1.5m in length), her mother can finish one within two to three days.
“Some people don’t realise that it takes a lot of skill and patience to make these things, which is why they expect us to sell them at a lower price. But nowadays, a lot of tourists are fine with the price because they have read stories or seen videos about how we make them, and know that we’ve put in a lot of effort,” she said, adding that some customers even try their luck at bargaining with her.
At the Tamu Sangadau Donggongon in Penampang, you can find a few stalls selling traditional handicrafts.
“If they ask nicely, sometimes I will give them a little trinket for free or maybe give them a RM5 discount,” said Nia, smiling.
Nia’s collection does not just include Rungus motifs, but a few Dusun patterns too. “This one is usually favoured by the Kadazan Penampang people, because their moludu (traditional outfit) has yellow gold lining,” she said, showing off a black-white-gold beaded necklace combo. She revealed that a similar necklace was bought by a “model” working in Britain, and the customer had sent her pictures of herself wearing it at an event somewhere in London.
“I’m so happy and proud that our traditional crafts are making their way abroad. Who says our local craft isn’t good enough?” she said.
Another good place to look for the Pinakol and other native handicrafts is the Tamu Sangadau Donggongon at Penampang, about 20 minutes from KK city. The main tamu, or market, here is on Thursday but these days, you can also find other vendors selling their wares at the tamu grounds on the weekend.
One vendor, who simply wished to be known as “Joe”, said that more international tourists are coming to the tamu to buy souvenirs. “I am happy that they make the effort to come here, instead of just going to the souvenir shops in the city. Of course those place are OK, too, but usually if you buy from them, the money doesn’t go directly to the makers.
The Pinakol sold at Nia’s stall in KK are all made by either her or her mother.
“Some of the vendors here also don’t make their own accessories, but at least they give a bigger cut to the makers in the kampung,” said Joe, who makes about half of the items he sells.
“I work with a centre that makes accessories, so I take their products and sell them here. I also sell private collections, where people ask me to help sell off some items that have been in their families for years. I don’t question why they want to sell them, but I do make sure that they are authentic and that they are not stolen goods,” Joe revealed.
These ancestral items are very rare, and can sometimes sell for thousands of ringgit.
Apart from accessories, you can also find traditional musical instruments, household items, bags and clothes at the tamu. The most popular items, apart from the Pinakol, are landyards and bag tags.
