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's 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 ancestral reverence in the traditional beliefs of the Kadazan-Dusun community.
Kinoingan (also referred as Kinorohingan in different sources), the creator deity of the animistic Kadazan, and his wife Suminundu (also referred as Sumundu in different sources) lived happily together in Pomogunan (mankind's world), and they were divine. Suminundu created the earth, including the Kadazan-Dusun sacred mountain of Mount Kinabalu, (Gayo Ngaran or Nulu Nabalu), 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 Hibabou to his own creation of Kolungkud (equivalent to the underworld) that resulted from his own deeds, and the mankind world where his followers are located was cursed, which subsequently created the worst famine among the Kadazan-Dusun community, and 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 was kind-hearted, thoughtful and wise was then named Huminodun (lit.''transferred sacrifice'') following her pure compassion to request herself to be made a sacrifice. Her father Kinoingan learned that the only way to end the famine was by sacrificing innocent blood, and his daughter Huminodun offered herself willingly. She willingly accepted her father's demand as she was determined to save her people from the famine. She told her father:
My body will give rise to all sorts of edible plants to feed the people. My flesh will give rise to rice, my head—the coconut, my bones—tapioca, my toes—ginger, my teeth—maize and my knees—yams. Our people will never go hungry again.
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 he heard her voice coming from the plants, asking him to stop hurting her further.
The voice comforted the father by telling him that he would be able to see her again when the rice 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 into seven jars, and the jar tops must be covered with tarap (artocarpus odoratissimus) leaves. Her father followed everything as 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 largest jar, and 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 Bambazon (referred to as Bambarayon across Sabah) that spiritually rose from the paddy, the life of the entire Nunuk Ragang community, as it was then known, began to improve as there was an abundant supply of food.
The legend is believed to be the origin of Momolianism, a type of indigenous animist-pagan religion. It goes on to narrate that the spirit of Huminodun founded the bobohizan as she taught them the art of incantantion, rituals, taboos, law of sogit and customs, including the art of bamboo-beating and the sumazau dance.
The Penampang variant of the Nunuk Ragang story
A variation of the main Nunuk Ragang story exists, it has been recognised by the Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA). According to the story, from among the Tangara (Kadazan) of Penampang, Nunuk Ragang, as pointed out by the late Herman Luping, begins with two children, a male and a female, who came out from a rock underneath a big tree called Nunuk Ragang. The rock split open at the banks of the Tompios River. The two children's names were Kinoingan and Suminundu, and they were human beings who possessed supernatural powers, who were semi-divine. God the Creator among the Kadazan-Dusun community is known as 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, and Sinakagon, directed by Timothy Stephen.
In the 2025 edition of the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition that was organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) under the patronage of King Charles III, an essay on Huminodun won first place through the submission by Ferdiana Osmund, a native Sabahan and first-year automotive technology student at the Keningau Vocational College (KVC) at the time.
See also
Ceres (mythology), ancient Roman goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility, and motherly relationships
↑The worship of Kinoingan is deeply entrenched among the animistic Kadazan-Dusun community that when the Christian missionaries first came to evangelise them in North Borneo, they borrowed the term "Kinoingan" to denote the Christian God in the translation of the Bible into the Kadazan language.
↑Momolianism is the agama asal (animist-pagan religion) of the Kadazan-Dusun community before embracing Christianity or Islam.
↑The Tangara of Penampang and Papar is a Kadazan-Dusun tribe who resists the term "Dusun" once coined by early Chinese and Brunei overlords due to a previous dark history related to the Tagahas Dusun for betrayals during a conflict with Mat Salleh in Tambunan. Similarly, the Lotud Dusun of Tuaran were also against the term of "Kadazan" to referring the Tangaah of Penampang and Papar until the problem of the "Kadazan" and "Dusun" term were settled with the recognition of each other.
↑Herman Luping was a deputy chief minister of Sabah, lawyer and politician. He died on 11 December 2020.
↑"JADUAL HARI KELEPASAN AM PERSEKUTUAN 2025"[FEDERAL GENERAL HOLIDAY SCHEDULE 2025](PDF). Cabinet, Constitutional and Intergovernmental Relations Division, Prime Minister's Department, Malaysia (in Malay). 2025. Archived(PDF) from the original on 27 April 2025. Retrieved 27 April 2025.
↑Martin, Maryanah (23 September 2015). "Legenda Huminodun"[Huminodun Legend]. Berita Harian (in Malay). Archived from the original on 25 April 2025. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
12Luping, Herman (8 June 2013). "Looking at origins of the Bobohizan". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 26 April 2025. Retrieved 26 April 2025. But the legend of the Bobohizan or religious group started with the first Kadazandusun Murut "mother" known as Suminundu. She was the wife of Kingaan the first ancestor. Kingaan and Suminundu came out from a boulder that had rolled down from Nabahu and settled at Tompios – known as Nunuk Ragang. They were semi-divine and had supernatural powers.
Marinsah, Syamsul Azizul; Sintang, Suraya; Beddu Asis, Abdul Hair; Abg Muis, Abg Mohd Razif; Ramli, Mohd Anuar (2020). "INCANTATION IN SOGIT RITUAL: A PRELIMINARY STUDY"(PDF). Palarch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology. 17 (7). Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
