Like I've said in my post entitled Momisok, I was born in a Dusun Catholic family. Though we, the new generation of the native Dusun nation are no longer practicing our ancestors ancient rituals, it is good to learn about our ancestors almost-forgotten rituals. Because you'll get the chance to know your nations origin and feel proud of it.
In this post, I will share with you one of the oldest ritual that was once practiced by my ancestors, the ritual that is called Mogondi. In a village of my father's origin, Bundu Tuhan Ranau, Mogondi is a chanting ritual that was performed to break the death agreement between the angel of death *which I'll call the grim-reaper for this post* and the Bobolian *Kadazan pronounced Bobohizan, English calls it shaman* on behalf of the individual who was suppose to die very soon.
Mogondi takes place on random but very well planned day. When a day for Mogondi has been chosen, villagers will slaughter a pig to make feasts out of it. The whole villagers will enjoy this fancy feast together without taking any alcohol or tapai *rice-wine*. All villagers participated in Mogondi must be in a complete sober state to avoid any sort of physical interference during the Mogondi ritual. When night comes, everyone will sleep altogether at one place, except for two old women who are the Bobolians *shamans* who will perform the Mogondi ritual.
Pictures of Parang, jingle sticks and chimes.
The Bobolians will have parang *machete* tied onto their waist while holding a gonding *some kind of a jingle stick or chimes* in their hand. At midnight, when everybody's asleep, the Bobolians will start jingling the gonding on the sleeping people one by one. These Bobolians do not perform the jingling activity together on the same sleeping villager, instead they will perform it separately onto different sleeping villagers at the same time. The moment those Bobolians start jingling, it is said that they will summon the true spirit of the Bobolian from the other world and absorb it into their body. At this time, those Bobolians will mumble things only they would understand while jingling the gonding on those sleeping villagers.
This gonding jingling activity is perform to find out which one of the sleeping villagers will die very soon. Say if the Bobolian is jingling on a villager that isn't gonna die very soon, they will walk past him/her and perform the same jingling activity again to the next sleeping villager. This jingling activity continues until one of the Bobolians find the 1 unlucky villager. When the 1 unlucky villager is found, the Bobolian will scream out loud and get very jumpy as if she's very excited. At this point, the Bobolian will possess a very strong power that will make her behave very aggressively, and run into the thick and dark forest in the dark night.
When this happens, the men of the villagers will follow her from behind just to make sure that she is safe. The screaming Bobolian will run to a random destination and when she's there, she will take out the parang *machete* from her waist and wham it onto the ground as if she was chopping something. In this situation, the Bobolian is said to be digging out the future graveyard of the unlucky villager to claim back the soul to prevent him/her from dying very soon. By claiming the soul, it is said that the agreement between the soul of the unlucky villager and the grim-reaper has been broken and the life of the unlucky villager has been prolonged. That's the end of the ritual and everyone goes home and continue their farming and hunting life on the following day.
The important item that triggered the spiritual and paranormal thing during the whole ritual are the gonding *jingle sticks or chimes*. These gonding were made of very fine piece of stick that has many things like the boar's canines, bones, little hand made bells, beads and many other things tied strongly onto the stick, that will be able to make it jingle when it shakes. This gonding acts like a cellphone between human and the spirit of the Bobolian and must be taken care of very carefully. Gonding cannot be jingle or placed carelessly in a place people usually walk pass by. It has to be kept at a safe place away from anyone but the Bobolian herself.
About the deal between the soul and the grim-reaper... our ancestors used to believe that before the death of someone, the grim-reaper has already approached and made an agreement with the soul. The agreement was that the grim-reaper will "invite" them on a chosen day, and the soul will have to find themselves a burial ground for their body and stay there until the day of the "invitation". What's left in the living body are just remnants of the souls that will dry out at any time.
This ritual is no longer practiced by nowadays KadazanDusun nation due to the existence of religious beliefs.
Err.. wow.. this post is getting longer and I guess what I know about Mogondi ends here as well. I hope those who are KadazanDusun were able to learn about this ancient ritual of our ancestors, and don't forget to pass on this story to your children and grandchildren ya. They have to know our nations origin and history. By the way, this ritual was told by my father, who was told by my grandmother who is now 104 years old and witnessed the whole ritual during her teenage time.
Thank you for reading. :)
Ps: I was also told that it wasn't the Komburungoh that possessed the Bobolian. Komburungoh ia a spirit that was own by every KadazanDusun family that rely on it for safety, or give them answers on spiritual things, but if you have different info, do share it with me. Tq in advance.
In this post, I will share with you one of the oldest ritual that was once practiced by my ancestors, the ritual that is called Mogondi. In a village of my father's origin, Bundu Tuhan Ranau, Mogondi is a chanting ritual that was performed to break the death agreement between the angel of death *which I'll call the grim-reaper for this post* and the Bobolian *Kadazan pronounced Bobohizan, English calls it shaman* on behalf of the individual who was suppose to die very soon.Mogondi takes place on random but very well planned day. When a day for Mogondi has been chosen, villagers will slaughter a pig to make feasts out of it. The whole villagers will enjoy this fancy feast together without taking any alcohol or tapai *rice-wine*. All villagers participated in Mogondi must be in a complete sober state to avoid any sort of physical interference during the Mogondi ritual. When night comes, everyone will sleep altogether at one place, except for two old women who are the Bobolians *shamans* who will perform the Mogondi ritual.
Pictures of Parang, jingle sticks and chimes.
The Bobolians will have parang *machete* tied onto their waist while holding a gonding *some kind of a jingle stick or chimes* in their hand. At midnight, when everybody's asleep, the Bobolians will start jingling the gonding on the sleeping people one by one. These Bobolians do not perform the jingling activity together on the same sleeping villager, instead they will perform it separately onto different sleeping villagers at the same time. The moment those Bobolians start jingling, it is said that they will summon the true spirit of the Bobolian from the other world and absorb it into their body. At this time, those Bobolians will mumble things only they would understand while jingling the gonding on those sleeping villagers.
This gonding jingling activity is perform to find out which one of the sleeping villagers will die very soon. Say if the Bobolian is jingling on a villager that isn't gonna die very soon, they will walk past him/her and perform the same jingling activity again to the next sleeping villager. This jingling activity continues until one of the Bobolians find the 1 unlucky villager. When the 1 unlucky villager is found, the Bobolian will scream out loud and get very jumpy as if she's very excited. At this point, the Bobolian will possess a very strong power that will make her behave very aggressively, and run into the thick and dark forest in the dark night.When this happens, the men of the villagers will follow her from behind just to make sure that she is safe. The screaming Bobolian will run to a random destination and when she's there, she will take out the parang *machete* from her waist and wham it onto the ground as if she was chopping something. In this situation, the Bobolian is said to be digging out the future graveyard of the unlucky villager to claim back the soul to prevent him/her from dying very soon. By claiming the soul, it is said that the agreement between the soul of the unlucky villager and the grim-reaper has been broken and the life of the unlucky villager has been prolonged. That's the end of the ritual and everyone goes home and continue their farming and hunting life on the following day.
The important item that triggered the spiritual and paranormal thing during the whole ritual are the gonding *jingle sticks or chimes*. These gonding were made of very fine piece of stick that has many things like the boar's canines, bones, little hand made bells, beads and many other things tied strongly onto the stick, that will be able to make it jingle when it shakes. This gonding acts like a cellphone between human and the spirit of the Bobolian and must be taken care of very carefully. Gonding cannot be jingle or placed carelessly in a place people usually walk pass by. It has to be kept at a safe place away from anyone but the Bobolian herself.About the deal between the soul and the grim-reaper... our ancestors used to believe that before the death of someone, the grim-reaper has already approached and made an agreement with the soul. The agreement was that the grim-reaper will "invite" them on a chosen day, and the soul will have to find themselves a burial ground for their body and stay there until the day of the "invitation". What's left in the living body are just remnants of the souls that will dry out at any time.This ritual is no longer practiced by nowadays KadazanDusun nation due to the existence of religious beliefs.
Err.. wow.. this post is getting longer and I guess what I know about Mogondi ends here as well. I hope those who are KadazanDusun were able to learn about this ancient ritual of our ancestors, and don't forget to pass on this story to your children and grandchildren ya. They have to know our nations origin and history. By the way, this ritual was told by my father, who was told by my grandmother who is now 104 years old and witnessed the whole ritual during her teenage time.
Thank you for reading. :)
Ps: I was also told that it wasn't the Komburungoh that possessed the Bobolian. Komburungoh ia a spirit that was own by every KadazanDusun family that rely on it for safety, or give them answers on spiritual things, but if you have different info, do share it with me. Tq in advance.
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