Kampung Kepayan, a village’s tale
I REMEMBER a time long past when houses in Kampung Kepayan were fenceless, and doors left open the whole day, yet spared of untoward incidents. Once a relatively large settlement in terms of area, Kampung Kepayan began as a sparsely populated backwater village, sitting on the fringes of the then quiet Districts of Kota Kinabalu and Penampang. That was before expansive development reared its head.
Contrary to popular belief, the name Kepayan did not originate from the word Kepayang, which is the Malay word for “pangiu edule”, a tall tree native to the mangrove swamps of Southeast Asia. Kepayang is not native to the area. Rather, Kepayan is the corruption of the Kadazan word, “Kakapazan”, which means flat land. In fact, until today, some old folks of Kadazan descent still call the village by its Kadazan name, Kapazan. Kampung is, of course, the Malay and Kadazan term for village.
Eight kilometres from the city of Kota Kinabalu, Kampung Kepayan is helmed on all its sides by the villages of Kobusak, Nosoob and Ganang; the Kepayan Police Headquarters, Kopungit Hill and Lido. While Kobusak and Nosoob sit within the District of Penampang, like Kampung Kepayan, Kampung Ganang too sits on the fringe.
In the 1970s, Kampung Kepayan was every nook and corner a remote village. Covered with vegetation reminiscent of a small forest, dirt paths were everywhere. Birds chirped in a multitude of chatters only they understand. Children played among the trees while the presence of gigantic trees fired the imaginations of the more adventurous children into constructing tree houses. The villagers reared domesticated animals, including buffaloes, pigs and chickens which roamed freely the realm of the village.
Tending to their paddy fields and orchards was the villagers’ way of life for many years. Water was drawn from wells or harvested from downpours while homes were lit with kerosene lamps. Villagers gathered firewood to cook food over earthen stoves. A walk of about one kilometre would take the villagers to the nearest bus stop, located outside of the village, to catch a bus to transport them to town. I should know because my own family and I have lived in the village all our lives.
It was an idyllic existence for the villagers until the bustling development of the city of Kota Kinabalu started to creep southward towards the Kota Kinabalu International Airport and beyond. Jalan Kepayan, which was the village’s main link to the city, was transformed from a two-way lane to a six-way lane main road over a period of time.
A humongous swamp once existed next to the village, which provided a recreational playground for the children of the village, and where the villagers would harvest the ubiquitous diplazium esculentum, commonly known as pakis or homiding. The swamp was eventually reclaimed, which rendered the village its first taste of major development. It has since become known as the Kepayan Low Cost Housing.
By the time the Kepayan Low Cost Housing was constructed, villagers born after 1940 had abandoned their agrarian lifestyle in favour of employment, especially with the government. The paddy fields have since disappeared under the earth of reclamations. My own father worked for Telekom Malaysia, which was a government entity then, until his untimely demise in the late 1980’s.
Black and white aerial televisions appeared on the scene in the late 1960’s with only two families, including mine, owning a set each for many years. Children from all over the village would flock at our homes to watch television with us. Since my father worked for Telekom Malaysia, his household was the only one equipped with a telephone at one time, which our fellow villagers would enthusiastically use for emergency, business and social purposes.
The Kepayan Low Cost Housing paved the way for myriads of other developments in and around Kampung Kepayan, which gobbled a massive swath of land once a constituent part of the kampung. Many of these developments share the name of the resulting smaller Kampung Kepayan. Now surrounding the kampung are Kepayan Perdana Commercial Centre, Kepayan Ridge Commercial Centre, Taman Kepayan Ridge, Taman Seri Kepayan and Kepayan Ridge Flat. Within a stone’s throw are Hotel No. 5, Open University Malaysia, RTM, Boulevard Shopping Centre, Taman Motiung, Cyber City, Sekolah Rendah Kerajaan Kepayan and St Thomas Catholic Church Kepayan. Based on the 2010 census, Greater Kepayan now is inhabited by about 25,000 people, of which 1,000 live in Kampung Kepayan.
Once, the majestic Mt Kinabalu was within view of my home until the panorama is interrupted by a condominium complex and other high-rise buildings. Kampung Kepayan itself has since been segmented along imaginary lines into Kibouvang, Matambai and Kodoinginan, but it remains as Kampung Kepayan as a whole. Despite the on-going development, there is perceptively comfortable breathing space between houses in the village. Asphalt roads, crisscrossing the village, are a common sight now.
In the 1960s to the late 1970s, there was only one cooperative store serving the whole village. Seeing the opportunity then, my mother established her own sundry shop, which outlasted the cooperative store by a cool twentyfive years. She finally drew the curtains on her business after the last of her offspring left the nest, and amidst stiff competition from other entrepreneurs operating from the nearby Kepayan Perdana Commercial Centre and Kepayan Ridge Commercial Centre, which have since become the hotbeds of commercial activities near the village.
Kampung Kepayan began as a Kadazan community. As it became more developed, the lands in the village started to attract the attention of land buyers from outside the community, sending the prices of lands in the village skyrocketing. Prior to the completion of the busy Jalan Lintas, which helms the village on its eastern sector, a piece of land, measuring just 0.25 acres (0.101171 hectares), the standard lot in the village, was selling at RM70,000 in the late 1970’s. By 2005, it was RM300,000. Now, the same piece of land costs a staggering RM1.20 million. Many of the villagers, enamoured by the thought of possessing a huge amount of instant cash, disposed of their lands to eager wealthy buyers by the turn of the 20th century. Surrounding the village now are fancy homes, furniture shops, showrooms and gas stations, rendering the village a cosmopolitan streak. Still, many villagers, including my family, continue to hold steadfastly to their lands which they treat as priceless heirlooms.
The village is administered by a Jawatankuasa Kemajuan Kampung or JKKK, a governmentsponsored steering committee. The post of village headman is currently vacant following the recent demise of the current incumbent. Disputes, particularly with respect to local culture or adat, are referred to the village headman for arbitration. Together, the villagers celebrate the annual Kaamatan or Harvest Festival at a community centre located next to the village’s only football field.
The village’s most prominent family is the Tonduba clan, whose ancestry is traceable up to five generations. Their ancestors were among the earliest to settle in the area long before it was gazetted as Kampung Kepayan. To date, the clan counts among its ranks doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and other professionals. I myself am the first home-grown university graduate from the village.
Kampung Kepayan faces the challenge of being gobbled entirely by the pace of development emanating especially from the city of Kota Kinabalu. However, all is not lost. If the villagers can hold on to their lands in spite of the increasingly attractive price, there will still be a Kampung Kepayan to speak of in time to come. The villagers could consider sprucing up their yards to render the whole village attractive. It is not farfetched to think of the village becoming a tourist attraction in its own right, given its strategic location of being a village within a city, and its close proximity to the Kota Kinabalu International Airport. Furthermore, although houses are now fenced and their doors closed, Kampung Kepayan has retained its aura as a genuine village in almost every sense of the word.