Background Story

The Murut people is known as a subgroup of the Kadazan-Dusun and their dressing is also similar with the Kadazan-Dusun. They are actually an ethnic group of Sabah, which is located at the northern corner of Borneo. In Sabah, the Murut people live close to the northern inland region. Majority of the Murut communities are actually located in the southwest interior of Sabah, specifically in the districts of Keningau, Tenom, Nabawan, Pensiangan, along the Sapulut and Padas Rivers. The name “Murut” is also known as 'the hill people' and the language that they used to speak in is called the Tagol Murut. Besides that, the Murut people are also known as a native ethnic group, which undertakes 29 sub-ethnic groups. As we know that, The Murut population are all located in Sabah and it is their largest community there, but there are also some who inhabit the rural areas in Limbang Division, which is located in Sarawak, and in Brunei, the Murut population can also be found in the Temburong district, which is one of their more populated places but due to some issues, their population was reduced in recent years.

As we can see from the Murut population in Sabah, there are almost around 140,000 of them, while in Brunei, there is almost around 1,500. The Murut people once supplied military might, not as a normal army but as a special army to the Sultans of Brunei and they were also determined as one of the seven aboriginal groups that are considered to be bumiputera in Brunei.

Besides that, most of the people describe the Murut people as a 'Pangait', also known as a silent headhunter, who were also known as 'hook' and they were the last of Sabah's ethnic groups to abdicate as headhunting in the late 60's. They usually collect the heads of foe and did beheading as it traditionally brings pride and the highest honor to a person in Murut heroism, which also serves as a very indispensable role in the Murut spiritual belief. For them, taking the heads of their foes actually served a very exact function in the Murut society. For example, a man of Murut can get married after he has presents at least one head that has been hunted to the family of the girl that he want.

Based on the Murut people who were born in both Brunei and Sabah, they are characterized as being Christian and Murut people who call themselves Christian are nominal believers. Among all the church member, there is a muddle of Protestant and Roman Catholic combinations. Based on the Brunei statistic expose, the Murut community has 30% of “tribal religionists”, which are known as animists, 58% of Muslims and the others rest are Christian. Unfortunately, all of these numbers can bewildering since they are all counted as a household as having the same belief as the head of the household rather than individually.