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Kadazan-Dusun
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Kadazan-Dusun

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Also known as Central Dusun, Central Kadazan, Dusan, Dusum, Dusun, Dusuns, Dusur, Idaan

Kadazandusun (also written as Kadazan-Dusun) are native ethnic group in Sabah, Malaysia. They are formed as an amalgamation of the closely related indigenous Kadazan and Dusun peoples. This ethnic group is the largest in the state, numbering almost a million individuals. Kadazandusun people concentrated in Sabah's Kudat Division, West Coast Division, Lower and Upper Interior Division and also found in the eastern Sandakan Division and Lahad Datu District in Tawau Division. "Kadazandusun" is an umbrella term that encompasses various sub-ethnic, tribes and sub-tribes under the Kadazan and Dusun

Key facts

Ethnic group.group
Kadazan Dusun Dusun Mamasok Momogun Pasok Momogun
Ethnic group.image
Penampang Sabah Joanna-Datuk-Kitingan-with-Bobohizan-01.jpg
Ethnic group.caption
Kadazandusun priests and priestesses attires during the opening ceremony of Kaamatan 2014 at Hongkod Koisaan, the unity hall of KDCA
Ethnic group.population
714,000 (2024)
Ethnic group.langs
Dusunic languages (especially Dusun and Kadazan), Malaysian (Sabah Malay dialect), Sabahan English
Ethnic group.rels
Christianity (Mainly Roman Catholic and Protestant) (75%), Sunni Islam (23%), Momolianism (2%)
Ethnic group.related
Dusun, Sino-Native, Rungus, Kadazan, Orang Sungai, Murut, Dusun (Brunei), Lun Bawang/Lun Dayeh
Ethnic group.footnotes
Yearbook of Statistics: Sabah, 2002 & Sabah Statistics 2020 Data

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
ethnic group
Country
Malaysia
Location
Sabah
Said to be same as
Dusun people
Show 1 more fact
ancestral home
Sabah
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~29 min read

Encyclopedic overview

22 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Origins of the term 'Kadazan'
  • Origins of the term 'Dusun'
  • Genetic relatedness
  • Origins of the Kadazandusun people
  • mtDNA studies
  • Y-DNA studies
  • Conclusion
  • Culture and society
  • Religion
  • Harvest Festival
  • Food
  • Traditional costumes
  • Traditional dance
  • Traditional music
  • Traditional handicrafts
  • Headhunting
  • Kadazandusun languages
  • Notable people
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Kadazandusun (also written as Kadazan-Dusun) are native ethnic group in Sabah, Malaysia. They are formed as an amalgamation of the closely related indigenous Kadazan and Dusun peoples. This ethnic group is the largest in the state, numbering almost a million individuals. Kadazandusun people concentrated in Sabah's Kudat Division, West Coast Division, Lower and Upper Interior Division and also found in the eastern Sandakan Division and Lahad Datu District in Tawau Division. "Kadazandusun" is an umbrella term that encompasses various sub-ethnic, tribes and sub-tribes under the Kadazan and Dusun labels. The language typically billed as Kadazandusun belongs to Dusunic languages family, an Austronesian language in the northern part of Borneo Island. Several Kadazandusun tribes speak languages belonging to other Sabahan language families. Kadazandusun tradition holds that they are descended from Nunuk Ragang people but actually not all Kadazandusun sub-ethnic and tribes came from Nunuk Ragang. Traditionally farmers, Kadazandusun celebrates annual Kaamatan festival to honour the paddy's spirit. Their paramaount leader called as Huguan Siou literally means "brave leader". Kadazandusun people had a traditional religion now known as Momolianism but recently most Kadazandusun are Christian (majority) and Muslim. In the past, Kadazandusun practiced "ngayau" or headhunting. Mamasok and Momogun, the endonyms we for Kadazandusun, means "indigenous people" and "people of the land" respectively. Sometimes the two words combined together as "Pasok Momogun" which carrying the meaning "indigenous people of the land". "The land" refers to either the Kadazandusun's homeland or the whole State of Sabah. Kadazandusun also simply known as "Dusun" or Dusunic people. They are closely related to other Dusunic peoples of Rungus and Borneo Bisaya; Tombonuo and Orang Sungai (Paitanic people) and to Murut and Tidong (Murutic). Kadazandusun is recognized as an indigenous nation of Borneo with documented heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2004. Kadazandusuns are part of the bumiputera in Malaysia having been endowed with rights concerning land, rivers, education and maintaining their own customary laws.

thumb|Percentage population of Kadazandusun by state constituencies in Sabah, according to 2020 census

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Kadazan-Dusun” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (5)

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