The Faces of Tamu Kota Belud

August 12, 2012 (Sunday) - Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo

It was at my hotel in Kota Kinabalu that I found out about this Sunday market. The "Tamu" as it is called here, is held every Sunday from 6 a.m. to noon when most food vendors close shop while some of the hardware and clothing stalls remain open until 2 p.m.

Everybody knows about the tamu here, so it was easy to ask for directions and then it was a short walk of about 10-15 mins from the town center, first up the hill and then down again and at that point, the market cannot be missed.

I got there shortly after 8 a.m. and the place was definitely busy. Women mostly wore colorful tunics with floral or other print patterns and head scarves, called anak tudung. These pieces can be of matching fabrics or separate items. Quite a lot of the men were wearing their songkok (also known as peci or kopiah) a cap widely worn in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand, mostly among Muslim males. It has the shape of a truncated cone, almost always made of black or embroidered felt, cotton or velvet. It is ordinarily worn with the traditional outfit for men. It is also worn by male in formal situations such as wedding feasts, funerals or festive occasions. Songkok came to be associated with Islam in Malaysia, while in Indonesia peci is also associated with nationalist secular movement.

Once a year, Kota Belud hosts the Tamu Besar which means Big Market and is literally the biggest tamu organised throughout Sabah. It is a time when traders come out in full force with their best goods and the local residents highlight the colourful cultures of Kota Belud.

At the Tamu Besar, a sight to behold are the Cowboys of the East when Bajau horsemen dress their horses and ponies in resplendent costumes, while displaying their unrivaled horse-riding skills.

Here are some of the faces of today's Tamu Kota Belud ...

These two women who looked like sisters to me were selling a kind of turnip which they grated and filled into plastic bags ... at least it looked like a turnip and they told me the Malayan name but I didn't understand them properly and also didn't want to keep them from attending their customers ...

He was gold-plating necklaces using a battery, a plastic jar filled with water and what looked like a gold wire ...

A male shopper wearing his songkok

This man actually asked me to take his photo. I told him that he looked "cool" with his sunglasses and the lady from the stall next to him added "and with his long beard" ...

Most of the photos I shot "from the hip" while pretending to look at something else ...

One of the photos I shot with the longer lens (28-135mm) ... the girl wearing her anak tudung

Depending on the ambient light, some photos turned out well in color but very often people were in the shade and in front of the bright sky ... this is when B&W conversions work best as it is possible to bring out more details and structure.