Bamboo Music Festival

THE music played and resounded to the rafters, the sounds were strangely distinctive even though the melodies were familiar classical like 'Getaran Jiwa' and 'Jambatan Tamparuli'.The audience in the hall watched the source of music with fascination even as they enjoyed the well-known melodies.The event occurred at Tun Hamdan Community Hall at Tamparuli and the occasion was the "Bamboo Festival." The stage performance was a bamboo orchestra presented by members of the Kinabalu Bamboo Orchestra, abbreviated Ombak. Ombak is made up of Tenghilan Bamboo Sound, Rinukut Bambaoo Sound from Tamparuli, Kinabalu Merdu Sound from Ranau and Kinasaraban Bamboo Sound from Kundasang.

The recent Bamboo Festival was organized as a festival for Tamparuli and is enable the younger generation to appreciate bamboo and its usage among the Kadazandusun people of Sabah. The Assistant Minister of Tourism Culture and Environment Datuk Karim Bujang launched the recent event where he urged the people of Tamparuli to adopt the Bamboo Festival as a folk festival for this district. As we all know most major districts in Sabah has their own festival. This include the Sago in Kuala Penyu, the Maize Festtval in Kota Marudu. The Coconut Festival in Kudat and the recent Cabbage Festival Kundasang."

Tamparuli could adopt this festival as its festival and celebrate it annually with several interesting activities. Through this festival you can promote your area as a tourism destination to augment what is already available here, in fact you could do more by building a live-museum THE music played and resounded to the rafters, the sounds were strangely distinctive even though the melodies were familiar classical like Getaran Jiwa' and 'Jambatan Tarn-paruli'.The audience in the hall watched the source of music with fascination even as they enjoyed the well-known melodies.The event occurred at Tun Hamdan Community Hall at Tamparuli and the occasion was the "Bamboo Festival." The stage performance was a bamboo orchestra presented by members of the Kinabalu Bamboo Orchestra, abbreviated Ombak. Ombak is made up of Tenghilan Bamboo Sound, Rinukut Bambaoo Sound from Tamparuli, Kinabalu Merdu Sound from Ranau and Kinasaraban Bamboo Sound from Kundasang.
here. This museum can show our visitors and tourists the utilization of bamboo. Bamboo as we all know is used to make almost everything in the past. We built houses and household utensils with it. In fact it is also one of our food sources. The live museum can show all these aspect of bamboo and it can function as a place for our youth to recognize bamboos and its function as well as implication of our daily life (in the past),"

Karim went on to say that the art of making houses with bamboos might have been lost to some of us. If that is so, they can be sent to the neighbouring countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia to relearn the art of making houses with bamboo. He said that with the implementation of the live museum and active participation from the people of Tamparuli, this district could be one of the tourism attractions in this region. "Tamparuli has an advantage as a tourism destination as well as the "Malaysia My Second Home' programme, in that it has the mountain before it and the sea is just the other side. If you are in Tamparuli you don't have to go too far to enjoy the mountains or the sea."

Touching on the festival, he said Ombak had done a good job with the programme and he stressed his belief that it could go a long way in promoting the festival and the orchestra.The Minister later plaved on a bamboo musical instrument to launch the event. He went on to enjoy the orchestra where renowned singers like veteran singers Maliana Ugau and singer/actor Raphael Pinus belted out familiar numbers. Also present during the event were Tamparuli State Assemblyman Jahid Jahim and former State Assemblyman Datuk Wilfred Bumburing as well as several community leaders.

by Anna Viviene New Sabah Times