#momolianism

[ishiplove]

I want to know more about my ancestors animism beliefs. What other culture could you send the dead with the sound of gongs?

[tananansad]

guys im gonna come clean i am now a saint cultist and a momolian. thoughts

[tananansad]

someone please convince me to fix the wikipedia article on momolianism (bad name btw)

[tananansad]

Tompuan

Variously spelt ompuan, ompuvan or tompuvan, this is a spirit which is a part of the Kadazandusun spiritual pantheon.

Ree John (2014), in his Malay–Dusun–English dictionary, matches the Malay "bidadari" and "bunian" to Central Dusun tompuan (both entries were glossed as "fairy" in English). Another dictionary, the Tobilung Webonary, states that the tompuan "dipercayai menjadi penunggu pokok" (is believed to be a tree guardian).

Herman (2012), in an opinion piece titled Nunuk Ragang legend and Huguan Siou, opines that the tompuvan is a fairy, a "female person who has been cast away or who has become an outcast of the community or society in which she belonged" for her beauty by a vengeful witch.

The vengeful witch, using the power of the occult put a curse on the poor beautiful person and reduced her to become a "stray", a zombie-like person who by day, became hideous in looks and by night, beautiful. But she is made to wander in the jungle or forests and lived in the Nunuk tree or bayan tree or fig trees, whose fruits are the favourites of Orang Utan, birds and other forest dwellers. The Tompuvan—meaning cursed outcast beings—also prefer to live under the canopy of the Nunuk tree. The Kadazandusun opinion of the Tompuvan is that she is not evil, but cursed, but that this curse could one day be erased and she could return to her original being again. But she is seen as a person with long hair, down to her waist, flowing behind her as she runs in the forest to avoid the humans. The "Tompuvan" was either dressed in long black gown or white, and never wore any veil to cover the head.

Razalee (1986) has the following to say about tompuan:

22. Tompuan – Roh bahan gunaan hidup manusia sehari-hari, kadangkala menjadi mimpi berkelamin antara lelaki dan perempuan. Tempat tinggalnya di bumi dan di kayangan. 22. Tompuan – Spirit of materials of daily use, sometimes causes dreams of male-and-female copulation [i.e. wet dreams]. Lives on Earth and in the heavens.

Referencing this, the Glosari Leksikal Bahasa Sukuan (2012; available online) glosses tompuan as "sejenis roh jahat" (a type of evil spirit).

Hanafi seems to agree with this view of the ompuvan as a malevolent spirit in his 2005 and 2007 articles and has elaborated extensively on its role in Kadazan rituals and their worldview (both articles are in Malay).

Rosliah (2016), too, notes that the tompuan is an evil and fearsome spirit. In her dissertation, one of the talaala or poems uses a sailing tompuan looking for a place to dock as a metaphor for someone who is looking for a partner to settle with.

Isai ma lo kosondoton (Who is that who approaches land?) Mudu-rudu sinigaran (Their sigar is visible) Tanak tompuan no ka lo (Perhaps that is the child of a tompuan) Mogihum do tindalon (Looking for a place to dock)

Finally, Evans (1953), being one of the earliest to mention the tompuan (called ompuan at Kadamaian), describes them as follows:

[tananansad]

the momolian–christian crossover fringe theological theories always get me tbh

[tananansad]

the way i treat my beloved 5gb folder of north bornean history as borderline sacred scripture is so funny but also kind of sad, how i'm so distant from ancestral land most of the time but i also want to learn about pre-colonial religion so i read and interpret scholarly texts lol

[tananansad]

honestly if kadazandusun priestesses stopped seeing written chants as a bad thing because they fear the chants might lose its sinundu (spiritual power) maybe the chants won't be lost to time. it reminds me a lot of when evans tried to take a photo of native dusuns and they worried the photo might take away something from themselves (idr what he actually said but it was smth to that effect) but when they realized photographing an image of themselves wouldn't be detrimental they were okay with it. think that should apply to writing too

also ik a good chunk of rinait have been recorded but the fact that initiating priestesses still aren't allowed to use reading aids for the purpose of rote memorization is kinda. ech

[tananansad]

i remember reading somewhere about how when some white priest put a cross next to a bobohizan, she couldn't summon a spirit to appear and this somehow proved the power of jesus to be stronger or whatever. like, this dude doesn't get it… an indigenous spirit knows damn well when god's essence is near so if they see a cross inhabited by the lord jesus christ just like how a sacred stone is inhabited by part of minamangun's essence they'd know not to come near it. a spirit does not simply trespass inhabited items of reverence for no reason… mevemdgdndbdnhddk

[tananansad]

hi i think i have at least (or at most lol) one kdmr mutual so i think this might be relevant (and it fits the theme of my blog anyway) so

reconnecting kdmrs religion wise probably have it tough since most kdmrs are christian today. and i get that you're spiritually hungry but please do not learn from random blogsites or facebook posts, i strongly advise against it. learn to be at least be a little reconstructionist. gather information from academic journals, articles, published books, observations that have scholarly roots. i want and need you to understand that academic analysis of ethnic religion doesn't make their observations “less authentic”.

anyway from there you can interpret religious structure and apply it to yourself and your surroundings. it would be nice if you could ask an actual practicing elder (especially a priest(ess)) but i know not all of us are lucky, so you gotta get creative with what you have and learn to synthesize and take what you've understood to heart (or not, like me, lol. i'm not a literalist). otherwise you might risk getting into pseudo-religion or just downright new age beliefs not faithful to what was really believed in if you're not critically thinking of the ideas you're consuming, especially from unverifiable sources.

with that, no matter what conclusion you come to, it's fine if the faith is not strong or if it somewhat contradicts real-life practice. records by g. n. appell and i. h. n. evans have pretty much shown that even pre-christian beliefs can be internally diverse. a layman and a priestess can have different answers to a certain spiritual/metaphysical question. so take your time on your spiritual path, do not rush or be greedy and you'll be fine. bless <3

[tananansad]

bambarayon translates as 祭稻神 in chinese… inch resting

[tananansad]

i like to imagine that someone out there died professing ethnic kadazandusun religion and buried themselves with their books so now they're spreading literacy on top of the mountain lol

[tananansad]

starting to realize i have an adequate amount of layman knowledge on momolianism but i think i'll pass on being a priestess, sounds tough lmao i just want to be a adherent and not really part of priestesshood

[tananansad]

i very loosely follow a generic north bornean indigenous belief system but only as a cultural adherent, just to understand the pre-christian framework descriptively and honestly? if it were up to me, if you're even a little bit interested in sabahan stuff, i say you should absolutely on a (properly-sourced and credible) deep dive down the research rabbit hole with me. just… don't be a white person level kind of creep about indigeneity, that's all i ask for lol. otherwise yeah i personally believe anyone can take on momolianism as a neopagan belief system and interpret huminodun's sacrifice however they want to

[tananansad]

momolianism is not one system of belief btw it's a general term that encompasses non-abrahamic beliefs among various indigenous groups of sabah. idk if i've mentioned this but if it is really one coherent faith as in the narrative kdmr nationalists push then we're going to go into sectarian wars on how many deities we have in the "religion"… not all groups believe in the kinorohingan-suminundu dualism