Family tree dying out in Buduk Nur

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BA KELALAN: Passengers alighting from the Twin Otter at Ba Kelalan Airport will find themselves staring at Buduk Nur, the biggest settlement in Ba Kelalan.

Buduk Nur is situated just by the Ba Kelalan Airport, accessible by Twin Ottter.

The age of innocence in Buduk Nur, like the other villages in Ba Kelalan, is experiencing the throes of being emptied by urban migration as its young venture out for jobs or marriage.

Pak Tagal – five generations down the road.

There are 10 Lun Bawang villages in Ba Kelalan and three of them are Buduk Nur – Pak Kumap, Puneng Kelalan and Pa Muda. The other villages include Long Langai, Long Lemutut, Long Rusu, Long Rangat, Pa Tawing, Long Ubau and Buduk Bui.

The tradition in Ba Kelalan is that a village is only called a ‘village’ when there is a church or a village head presiding over the community. However, like every place in the world, there are always exceptions to the case.

For example, Pa Tawing itself consists of only one family and is a village because the head of that household is the village chief.

Most of the time, Pa Tawing is totally deserted as the family has basically moved to the town area, only to return during Christmas or for a big celebration in Ba Kelalan.

According to Tagal Paran, 81, the population in Ba Kelalan is about 1,000 and they are mainly settled in Buduk Nur, which has about 75 families or a population of about 300.

“The most populated and vibrant village in Ba Kelalan is Buduk Nur. Villages here are all suffering from serious urban migration. Most of our young people have either moved to town because of job opportunity or marriage,” said Tagal who is respectably addressed as ‘Pak Tagal’ by the local community.

The father of late assistant minister Judson Sakai Tagal, Pak Tagal was born and raised here. Like a sentinel of the generations, he has spent his life here and watched the population of Buduk Nur increase, and now going on a decline.

Still very much alert and sprightly, the healthy Tagal said the Lun Bawang community has occupied the Ba Kelalan highlands for as long as he can remember.

“Though I can’t tell you when we first started settling down here exactly. What I can tell you is that before me, there were five generations of my ancestors staying here.”

Like Bario proper, Buduk Nur came into existence during Sarawak’s Confrontation years of 1963-1966. During that time, the outgoing British administrators had banked on the gallantry of the British Army, Gurkhas as well as the early Malayan Malay Regiment.

For safety and protection, villagers from Puneng Kelalan, Pa Muda and Pa Kumap were asked to stay in one area – the present site of Buduk Nur.

“The Indonesian National Army were all around. To protect us, the Gurkhas would patrol around at night, some would sit at our doorsteps when doing night watch,” said Pak Tagal.

To refer to the three villages, the then-villagers and the authorities agreed to come up with a new name. And “Buduk Nur” was chosen.

Why that name? According to Pak Tagal, “Buduk” means “hill” and “Nur” is a type of tree which the locals traditionally used as the material for fencing.

“Nur is known to be lasting. If we use it for our animal pen, the fence can last for at least three years.”

“Due to its of durability, the community has been chopping down the tree for their daily usage until it is now extinct, except when the name of the village – Buduk Nur – crops up.”