Revisiting the Dusunic Boat Lutes of Sabah: Disappearing Musical Traditions

The Kadazan Dusun sundatang from Tambunan, the Rungus sundatang, and the Lotud gagayan are three kinds of boat lutes from Sabah. Each is carved from a single log of jackfruit wood, but vary structurally. Resembling somewhat Philippine boat lutes, they differ from the sape-types of Sarawak and Kalimantan. They are played solo in non-ritual contexts. The gagayan, however, was played in pairs (batangkung) and the Tambunan sundatang was sometimes accompanied by a hand-held gong when accompanying the slow, sedate magarang sundatang dance. Today, there are very few musicians playing the unique Tambu... Mehr ...