Rumah Panjang Tradisi Rungus dalam Arus Pembangunan: Perbezaan Pengertian

In Malaysia, longhouses have long existed as a mode of rural settlement, particularly among the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak. However, Malaysians in general have a vague conception of longhouses as a housing pattern, with clear-cut boundaries of public and private spaces for the domestic families dwelling in these longhouses, just like families living in modern forms of housing such as terrace houses, apartments, bungalows or condominiums. This article focuses on the longhouse of one particular indigenous community – the Rungus of Kudat, Sabah. The Rungus longhouse is singled out in this paper, as the Rungus community is one of two indigenous communities of Sabah, the other being the Murut community, who lived or are still living in longhouses. In addition, the Rungus longhouse has also been targeted as one of the major tourism attractions in Sabah. Non-Rungus people, as ‘Other’, perceive the Rungus longhouse as a communal dwelling where its occupants share a communal space and ownership without clear physical boundaries for private space and private ownership. The question posed is, does the Rungus longhouse represent a communal settlement or individual housing? Tourism authorities have appropriated this ‘Other’ meaning of the Rungus longhouse as a communal, primitive and traditional housing pattern existing at the edge of modernisation to appeal to potential visitors wanting to revisit ‘their past’, as supposedly represented by the Rungus community in their ‘traditional and communal longhouses’. In the context of change and development, the Rungus longhouse has undergone much transformation. This article looks into the meanings of the Rungus longhouse to the Rungus people themselves and contrasts these indigenous meanings with the meanings that the non-Rungus people, including the tourism sector, have of the Rungus longhouse.