Pesta Ka'amatan - Sabah's Very Own Harvest Festival

The Pesta Ka’amatan is Sabah’s very own, joyous and exuberant rice harvest festival. Not so long ago most of Sabah’s indigenous peoples were mainly agrarian folks and subsistence rice farmers. This, they had been for times immemorial, and they have emerged as proud and valiant people with their very own social orders and religious belief systems in which the Bobohizans, the female shamans of Sabah, played a paramount role. The Pesta Ka’amatan, the rice harvest and thanksgiving festival remembers those times in an era where customs and traditions are changing much too fast. If you want a glimpse of Sabah’s many ethnic entities, and capture the true spirit of the mystical “Land Below the Wind”, this is the time to visit us!

The Importance of the Harvest Festival in Sabah

For Borneo’s rural agrarian-based population the rice harvest festival, or Pesta Ka’amatan in Sabah, is intricately connected with rice cultivation, and with the cycle of life. Rice is Sabah’s golden crop, the grain of life, and the Pesta Ka’amatan marks the end of the planting cycle. It is closely associated with religion, culture and social order. People gather in villages to thank God and the spirits for a good harvest and pray for blessings for an even better harvest the following year, very much like other harvest and thanksgiving festivals throughout the world. The life of the peoples of Borneo, not so long ago essentially that of hunters, gatherers and subsistence rice-farmers was a hard one. Preparing rice-fields, be they flooded such as the Kadazan danau, or on steep hills in the interior was an arduous task that was the responsibility of the men. The womenfolk’s’ work was not less backbreaking: clearing fields and collect firewood, weeding, looking after the seedlings, planting and finally harvesting the ripe crop. Aside from the period between harvesting and the new planting season, the work was continuous. But it wasn’t just the labour-intensive nature of rice-cultivation that caused such veneration for the cereal. Not enough rice meant famine. Over thousands of years of rice farming superstitions and taboos sprung up, and no one thanks God for rice more gratefully than the humble farmer who does not know fertilisers and herbicides.

Historical Background of the Pesta Ka’amatan in Sabah 

Since times immemorial it has been the traditional practice of the natives of Sabah (the Kadazandusuns and Muruts in particular) to hold a yearly harvest celebration. Historically and traditionally, the Ka’amatan Festival was usually held at the first sighting of the full moon immediately after the harvesting season. The appearance of the full moon was commonly referred to as the period of tawang (literally: full moon). During the tawang the natives made strict observances and would refrain from hard labour. Instead, they would rest to hold a village celebration that could last for two to three days.

In the district of Tambunan, as in many other areas, the preparations for the Pesta Ka’amatan involved everyone, young and old. The men used to organise group hunting expeditions to provide enough meat for the celebrations, while the women organised themselves to produce enough rice for making rice wine (tapai) and for cooking on the day of the Ka’amatan celebration.

At village (or kampung) level, the eve of the Ka’amatan Festival was lead mainly by the Bobohizans, the ritual specialists paying homage and offering thanksgivings to Bambaazon, the rice spirit, for the good harvest. Then, on the first day traditional sports took place, and on the second day communal reunion through feasting, drinking, music and dancing.

The Ka’amatan Festival is particularly significant as it marks not only the occasion to honour Bambaazon and to thank God for the bountiful harvest and his generosity in prolonging life on earth. It is also an occasion where the promise of friendship and brotherhood is renewed through mutual forgiveness. 

The Kadazan Ka’amatan Festival is perhaps the most indigenous and grandest Festival in Sabah. Merry celebrations are held at all levels, commencing with the kampung (village) level, then district level and climaxing with the state level celebrations on 30th and 31st May.