The Telegraph | UK | 23 June 2015 | Asia Samachar
The first Europeans to climb Mount Kinabalu in 1934 took Sikh policemen with him as the local tribesmen were too fearful to accompany him. A letter to the The Telegraph, a UK newspaper
SIR – I find it somewhat surprising that the local Dusun tribesmen took such umbrage over Eleanor Hawkins going topless on Mount Kinabalu.
My father, John Longfield, went to work in British North Borneo, now Sabah or East Malaysia, in 1932. He was a keen photographer and I still have various pictures of local girls there wearing their native attire. They were essentially bare to the waist – in other words, topless.
John was one of the first Europeans to climb the mountain in 1934. He had to take some of his Sikh policemen with him, as the local tribesmen were too fearful to accompany him, believing the mountain to be the sacred home of the spirits of their ancestors.
On reaching the summit, the Sikhs were amazed to see ice and snow there and wrapped some in their headbands to take down the mountain and show their friends below. On their return, they were incredulous to find it had disappeared. The local tribesmen, on the other hand, were in no way surprised, claiming that the spirits had taken back what was rightfully theirs.
Richard Longfield
Basingstoke, Hampshire
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Ice in the Turban..of course it will melt and disappear on the long way down in typical Malaysian hot weather……Is the Turban a Fridge ??
Ha Ha
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