A Dusun village in Kadamaian district, north-west of Mount Kinabalu; regional centre of stingless bee honey production; preserving cultural and natural heritage for future generations.
Pinolobu Paradise
The Pinolobu Cooperative Ltd (Koperasi Pinolobu Berhad, S-5-1657) is set up to safeguard our cultural and natural resources around Pinolobu Village. This community cooperative is our collective initiative to manage our heritage in the most sustainable manner possible for the betterment of livelihood of Pinolobu people. Pinolobu Paradise is our vision of achieving this holistic dream by year 2030.
Children is our future and the very reason for Pinolobu Paradise : pictured here are the twin daughters of our chairperson, proudly in their traditional costume.
A visit to our village, especially during festivities or open days, allows one to experience our culture and tradition. Our village may be poor in terms of modern facilities, but we are definitely rich in heritage and proud to preserve it for our children.
Learn about our traditional household and farming tools, like the Bakul, Wakid, Basung, Sisirih, etc.Experience our traditional games like Gugundang (walking on bamboo stilts, top left), traditional hunting blowpipe, Sopuk / Sumpitan (top right), and traditional music from bamboo.
Sustainable Farming for Future
One may experience the life of Dusun villagers by visiting (and eating from) our home garden or orchard, and the stingless bee honey processing centre. Not only we have been rearing our own stingless bees, we are also the collection and processing centre of the district. We are committed to work towards permaculture, while utilizing agroforestry to rehabilitate damaged forest and to buffer our catchment reserve.
A walk around our village may surprise you with some unexpected fruits : here some grapes with Kinabalu as the backdrop.Visit our village during fruiting season in July-September and treat yourself to plenty of durian, terap, longan, matoa/kasai, rambutan, and mangos.Learn how we traditionally use plants as food and medicine. Pictured here some planted Bangkaki (Tabernamontana divericata), traditionally used for toothache, and some dried Pangi/Kepayang (Pangium edule, right) nuts, traditionally used for food preservation.Our village is surrounded by perennial flowering plants like the native Doringin (Dillenia beccariana, top left) and Tebu-Tebu (Cheilocostus cf. speciosa, top right), as well as the planted Turnera subulata (introduced from Latin America). All providing sustainable food source for our kelulut or tantadan (the stingless bees, Trigona spp.), and many other wildlife.Our stingless bee honey is a concentration of pure natural goodness from various flowering plants found around our village and forest.Our sumandak (young maiden in Dusun) showing a modern stingless bee hive. Your visit to our village will not be complete without trying to enjoy some honey straight from the bee hive.Collective of Nature Goodness from Pinolobu: purchase our nature produce to support our conservation effort.
Maranggoi River Reserve
We also welcome everyone to experience the beauty of nature, preserved in the form of waterfalls and rich biodiversity within our pride Tagal Maranggoi (or Maranggoi River Reserve). You will get to enjoy the forest and river via activities like jungle trekking, river trekking, camping, befriending the wild fishes, and discover the rich flora and fauna of Maranggoi. Get in touch to organize for a visit, which will ultimately support our conservation effort.
One of the four cascading waterfalls of Maranggoi, surrounded by lush green lowland rainforest.
(All text and photos by our Scientific Advisor, M.S. Khoo, unless otherwise stated)
