The Bisaya people, or simply the Bisayas, are an Austronesian ethnic group indigenous to East Malaysia and Brunei. Their populations are concentrated within Sabah's Interior Division, specifically on Klias Peninsula; along the Padas and Klias riverbanks, down to the coastal estuary within the districts of Beaufort, Kuala Penyu, and Sipitang in the southwestern area; the Federal Territory of Labuan; and in the Lawas and Limbang districts of Sarawak. The Bisaya tribe bears many similarities to the Tatana Dusun tribe, especially in terms of language, as there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two groups. In Brunei, they are referred to as both Dusun and Bisaya while being included in the official Malay ethnic designation within the country's official national census, where they are located in the Belait, Temburong, and Tutong districts.
Formerly animist-pagan and influenced by Buddhist-Hindu local governments, with strong spiritualist beliefs, the Bisaya form an important agricultural and fishing community within the northwestern coast of Borneo, with close connections to the Sultanate of Brunei.
The Bisaya people in Brunei, Sarawak, and Sabah share linguistic and cultural roots but differ in their religious practices and specific regional identities. Sabah Bisaya are mostly Muslim, concentrated along the southwestern coasts, including in Labuan; Sarawak Bisaya are mostly Christian, often found along the Limbang River; and Brunei Bisaya, with either Muslim or non-Muslim populations, are frequently classified as Dusun or Jati Dusun.
Etymology
There are several theories regarding the origin of the name "Bisaya". It refers to an ethnic group who settled in northern Sarawak and Sabah (the former North Borneo) and also to the Ilonggo Bisaya of the Philippines. Based on a Bornean Bisaya legend recorded by the British colonial administrator and resident of North Borneo Derek Headly in 1950, when the sultan of Brunei reached the region of the Bisaya in west northern Borneo, he exclaimed "Bisai-yah!", which is a Brunei Malay word meaning "how beautiful!" Another theory holds that the term comes from the word Ma Bisa, meaning "ability" or "greatness", associated with the medical knowledge and traditional practices of this tribe.
The American anthropologist H. Otley Beyer in 1926, E. D. Hester of the University of Chicago Philippine Studies Program in 1954, and the Argentine-born British polymath Tom Harrisson in 1956, suggested that the name may have come from the Sumatran empire of Srivijaya. However, in 1960, Eugene Vestraelen, professor of linguistics at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City, cautioned that the linguistic derivation of Vijaya would not be Bisaya but Bidaya, or Biraya. Another theory was suggested by the American author John Carroll:
Through his early writings on the Notes on the Bisaya in the Philippines and Borneo in 1959, Carroll detailed a significant difference between the Bisaya of the Philippines and those of North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak, especially in their languages. In Brunei, the Bisaya are referred to as Dusun, Jati Dusun, and Bisaya. The term Bisaya is also used within the country, although more commonly for those who settled in the border areas of Limbang and Sarawak, who have very close family ties with the Limbang Bisaya.
Background history and origin
Several theories have been put forward by various researchers regarding the origins of the Bisaya people of Borneo, with some research also associating the group with another ethnic group with a closely similar name in the neighbouring Philippines. The English-born anthropologist and museum curator Henry Ling Roth, through his publication The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo in 1896, describes the Bisaya as originating from the Philippine islands, where they were found within the lower waters of the Padas and Klias rivers of North Borneo, with the majority being Muslim, while in Limbang of Sarawak, most were non-Muslim. They were described by the British as a peaceful ethnic group fond of gambling, with their main occupations consisting of raising livestock, with rice and sago plantations where they migrated to Labuan in great numbers throughout the British administrations.
The English historian, novelist, and travel writer Owen Rutter further opined that the Bisaya of Borneo are probable offshoots of the Visayans of the Philippines. Several additional studies have presented theories suggesting that the Bornean Bisaya share a common ancestry with the Visayan Filipinos, attributing this connection to the migration of Bornean Bisaya chiefs to the island of Panay in the Philippines, which is also linked to the "10 Datus of Borneo" legends of the Maragtas in that country. This claim was further supported through the Tarsilah Brunei, a history and genealogy of the sultanate of Brunei, in which many of the Visayas inhabitants are close relatives of the Bisaya in northern Borneo, with their names being closely connected, and the island name itself being believed to be named as a remembrance to their ancestors in Po Ni (Brunei/Borneo). The Bornean Bisaya are closely associated with Bruneian royalty, since the first sultan, Muhammad Shah, known by his former name of Lok Batata, had Bisaya roots. It was during his reign and subsequent conversion that Brunei was transformed from a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom into a Muslim state.
There is a popular legend among the Bisaya, the Tatanak, which considers Lok Batata and his six siblings to be descendants of the Bisaya ethnic group in Borneo. The Bisaya, along with their language, are considered to be indigenous and Bumiputera to Brunei, locally referred to as puak jati. The Bisaya, together with the Belait, Brunei Dusun, and Murut, were mainly non-Muslim at the time. They were further closely connected with other indigenous ethnicities within the western coast of northern Borneo, such as the Bruneian Malays, Kedayan, and the Dusun people (including the Kadazan), where they are further grouped as part of the broader Kadazan-Dusun grouping in Sabah, under the broader Orang Ulu designation in Sarawak, and part of the official broader Malay groups within Brunei; they are also a Bumiputera within Malaysia. During British rule, the Bisaya of Sarawak were classified under the Klemantan ethnic designation, where they are further grouped under the Baram ethnic subgroup. Bisaya children in North Borneo were also enrolled in schools, and some Bisaya adults were employed in the British North Borneo Constabulary.
In 1970, an estimated 14,000 Bisaya lived in Sabah and 3,312 in Sarawak. In Brunei, most of the Bisaya live within the Bebuloh and Batang Mitus villages, where they have a strong cultural bond with the Limbang Bisaya of Sarawak, since many of the Brunei Bisaya also come from Sarawak, and the movement of people between the two has been ongoing for generations. Within Sabah, Bisaya can be found from Gadong and Takuli villages in Beaufort District to Kerukan village in Kuala Penyu District. A number of them are also in Sipitang District, within Sindumin, Mesapol, and the main town area as well as in the neighbouring Federal Territory of Labuan and major Sabah cities and towns along the western coast. Most historical relics and stories about the Bisaya trace their roots to the community in Beaufort, considered to be the oldest Bisaya group.
Culture and society
The Bisaya people are known for their agricultural expertise in rice, sago, coconut, ginger, maize, and various fruit and vegetables cultivation, sharing close ties with the Bruneian Malays and both the Kedayan and Tatana Dusun, while being distinct from the Philippine Visayans due to different geographies and centuries of different colonial influences. Since Bisaya geographical settlements are mostly located on riverbanks and in coastal areas, they rely on farming and trade for sustenance. They engage in fishing, hunting, animal husbandry, handicraft production, and other small-scale business activities, with all of their agricultural, livestock, and forest products being brought to the market. Two Bisaya cultural centres, located in both Sabah and Sarawak, represent their respective regions: the Bisaya Cultural and Arts Centre in Beaufort District serves as the main centre for Sabah Bisaya, and the Sarawak Bisaya Association Cultural Centre in Batu Danau Limbang village of Limbang District for Sarawak Bisaya. Both centres organise various activities related to the tribes' development and promotion of cultural arts and heritage.
The Sarawak Bisaya celebrate their annual Babulang festival, which includes music, dance, the wearing of traditional costumes, and water buffalo races, while the Sabah Bisaya are known for their celebration and the Kulintangan festival. The latter celebration also features a traditional clothing competition, proa racing, tug of war, rowing, traditional kite flying, top spinning, a gendang competition along with other traditional musical instruments, as well as traditional Bisaya foods, such as ambuyat. A state-level Bisaya festival has also been held in Sabah since 2024, to empower the ethnic culture through various competitions involving traditional music and dance. During the Kaamatan celebration in Sabah, kulintangan performances take place at the Hongkod Koisaan hall. The Bisaya of the Kuala Penyu District of Sabah celebrate the Pesta Rumbia (sago palm) festival. In Sarawak, the use of digital platforms has been promoted to showcase various Bisaya cultural events in order to preserve the group's heritage in the face of challenges brought about by modernisation.
Music and dance
Bisaya culture includes several traditional dances, such as Alai Bubu, Lilibu, as well as the children's dances Anak Kuda and Liliput/Tumutu.
Popular among the Bisayas in Beaufort and Lawas as well as in Limbang, the Alai Bubu (also known by other names, such as Bubu Mengalai, Main Lukah, or Sayau Salahid), dance originates from a myth about a "dancing" fish trap. Since prohibitions were introduced by the Sabah Islamic Religious Affairs Department in the 1970s, elements of spirituality and black magic inherent in the dances have been abandoned. Despite a revival in the 1980s, spiritual chants have been completely omitted from the practice, with only a few elderly Bisaya still remembering them.
Lilibu is a traditional dance of the agricultural Sabah Bisaya community in Beaufort, centred around the rice harvest and accompanied by singing as an expression of gratitude, which, prior to Islamisation, was performed to appease the spirit of rice. Another dance, the Berasik is a type of traditional healing to expel disturbances believed to be the source of illness or affliction in individuals caused by spirits. Traditional Bisaya musical instruments, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak, are characterised by gong-based ensembles and bamboo percussion closely linked to communal celebrations. The main instruments include the kulintangan (gong-chime), various brass gongs, gambang (wood xylophone), and gendang (drums).
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