‘Kaul’, the Melanau community festival, a fest for all

MUKAH: The Kaul festival, a traditional thanksgiving and pacification ceremony of the Melanau community, is now a social celebration for all.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said the Kaul, as practised today, was a showcase of Melanau culture and a platform for the community to enhance ties with other communities.

In the old days, he said, it was a religious obligation and involved the worshipping of the ipok or spirits of the land or sea.

But most of the Melanaus now are either Muslims or Christians and no longer followed the ways or beliefs of their forefathers, he said yesterday when launching the annual Kaul celebration at the Kala Dana beach here.

People, he said, should be able to differentiate between religion and culture.

Culture gave each community its distinctive identity and a community without a culture would not be able to move ahead, he added.

“There are certain positive aspects of our old culture that have helped our ancestors progress which we can still adopt now as a guide when facing life’s many challenges,” he said.

Taib expressed his gratitude to Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Leo Michael Toyad for his interest in preserving and promoting the Kaul as a cultural practice and in trying to enhance it as a tourism event.

In his speech earlier, Dr Toyad said the Kaul was now becoming increasingly popular, judging from the growing number of visitors to this town every year.

“Our aim now is to introduce it to the world at large and we will work hard on this,” he said.

On foreign tourists arrival to Sarawak, he said 705,042 foreign tourists visited Sarawak last year, compared with 54,450 in 2003.

Courtesy of Bernama