Bamboo Festival at Tamparuli

The iconic song of Sabah but this is not the original bridge, a flood had destroyed it. See the sign board so "cincai " , that is a prelude to subsequent events.

I have vertigo so it's very scary for me to take this picture from the suspension bridge. Traffic from the other side has to wait for their turn. You can see the single lane mini causeway down there ascends to Tamparuli town. I nervously drove up, turned left, fought through ridiculously jammed lanes to reach the community hall where the annual bamboo festival was held.

Bamboo idiophone and bamboo maracas

I first fell in love with bamboo music after listening to a band of Filipino youngsters perform angklung many years ago. They are absolutely awesome.

There was a group of Filipino musicians at this festival too - Soli Deo Gloria Adventist . They were sitting on the community hall's platform with members of the orchestra waiting for all the V.I.P's to take eternity with speeches, watching the crowd walk in and out of the hall. Everybody is cincai here, including the YBs.

Acoustic charm...This is what the Kadazans call "rek bambu".

When the minister talked, suddenly - power cut. Since there was no generator provided, the poor orchestra sweated in silence while other people like me still walked in and out.

After a while, the orchestra decided it was no good to sit idle so they played "Jambatan Tamparuli". Instantly the crowd cheered, whistled and some even danced.

The sompoton resembles a simplified version of the Chinese sheng, no wonder anthropologists think Kadazans are related to the Chinese.

Jambatan Tamparuli brought back the electricity. The minister reclaimed the stage ( sigh ) and people started wandering in and out again.

We couldn't help being hyperactive. There were too many events going on simultaneously : bamboo related competitions and exhibitions outside the hall. Two of the best musical groups were practising outside, too. Wonderful distractions.

My friend told me in China, they make tourists pay to pose in exotic looking photos like what I have here. There was a Korean tourist who asked many musicians to pose for his camcorder. All of them obliged graciously albeit many were actually camera shy. This is one reason I looooove my kampung, still lots of good-natured folks around.

Some beautiful musicians of Awi Angklung Chamber come all the way from Indonesia to perform at the event.

Taking half day off to immerse myself in this kind of cultural activity is a good reminder to me why ancient Chinese emperors were addicted to bamboo music and why in the Malay language, enchanting melody is said to come from the magic bamboo, buluh perindu.

Demonstration on how to play a bamboo buzzer.

Young members of the Kinabalu Merdu Sound. Formed in 2001, this group has performed in Indonesia, Korea and Japan. They have also won a national level contest, "Ilham Desa", and produced two albums.

B.Malaysia

Bahasa Malaysia version is an adaptation of this article into virtual classroom material which I use to teach my own students about buluh perindu and music in BM. Please take note this is a password protected page.

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