The Tutong people are an ethnic group

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

, mainly in

Tutong District Tutong District (; Jawi: دائيره توتوڠ) or simply Tutong is one of the four districts of Brunei. It has an area of ; the population was 48,313 in 2016. The administrative town is Pekan Tutong. It is home to Tasek Merimbun, the count ...

. They traditionally speak the

Tutong language The Tutong language, also known as ''Basa Tutong'', is a language spoken by approximately 17,000 people in Brunei. It is the main language of the Tutong people, the majority ethnic group in the Tutong District of Brunei. Classification Tuton ...

. They are officially recognised as one of the seven ethnic groups of the Bruneian

Malay race The concept of a Malay race was originally proposed by the Germany, German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), and classified as a brown (racial classification), brown race. ''Malay'' is a loose term used in the late 19th century ...

().

Names

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

, the official language of Brunei, they are called . The

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

is in

. The

Dusun people Dusun is the collective name of a tribe or ethnic and linguistic group in the Malaysian state of Sabah of North Borneo. Collectively, they form the largest ethnic group in Sabah. Dusun has been recognised as among the indigenous community of ...

, another indigenous ethnic group in Brunei, called the Tutong people .

Origin

The origin of the Tutong people is unclear. According to an oral tradition, they are descended from a

Murut Murut may refer to: * Murut people The Murut are an indigenous ethnic group, comprising 29 sub-ethnic groups inhabiting the northern inland regions of Borneo. The Murutic languages are a family of half a dozen closely related Austronesian lan ...

named Tutong who had helped the people of Lurah Saban, a village on the banks of the

Tutong River The Tutong River ( ms, Sungai Tutong) is a river in Tutong District, Brunei. It is the second longest of the four main rivers in the country. Sites Tutong Town is one of the largest human settlements in the district in which the river passe ...

, against

headhunting Headhunting is the practice of hunting a human and collecting the severed head after killing the victim, although sometimes more portable body parts (such as ear, nose or scalp) are taken instead as trophies. Headhunting was practiced in hi ...

by the Kayan people. The river itself is believed to have been named after him in honour of his heroic action. Also, the people whom he had helped eventually considered themselves the followers of Tutong. Another oral tradition states that they are descended from someone named Si Letong who had migrated from

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It was believed that he initially settled in

Kampong Telisai Kampong Telisai is a coastal villages of Brunei, village in Tutong District, Brunei, about from the district town Pekan Tutong. The village also encompasses the public housing areas in Brunei, public housing area STKRJ Kampong Telisai. The pop ...

and married a local who was a member of the

Dusun Dusun is the collective name of a tribe or ethnic and linguistic group in the Malaysian state of Sabah of North Borneo. Collectively, they form the largest ethnic group in Sabah. Dusun has been recognised as among the indigenous community of ...

tribe. It was said that he did not favour living there due to the noise from the sea waves, hence he decided to resettled away from the coast. The river in the new settlement where he lived was eventually named after him, hence the name the Tutong River. Researchers on the linguistics of Tutong language hypothesise that the Tutong people might have originated from Lower Baram (), a region near the mouth of the

Baram River The Baram River ( ms, Sungai Baram) is a river in Sarawak on the island of Borneo. The river originates in the Kelabit Highlands, a watershed demarcated by the Iran Mountains of East Kalimantan, which form a natural border with Sarawak. The riv ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. This is based on the cumulative researches which demonstrate the linguistic similarity between the language and Miri language, the language of the people native to the region.

Language

The Tutong people are the traditional speakers of the

(), an Austronesian language. It is considered

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

. Notable initiatives to revitalise the language include the publication of a bilingual dictionary between Tutong and

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei The Language and Literature Bureau ( ms, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, DBP) is the Bruneian language authority of the country's official language Malay. It is also the operator of public libraries in the country. It was established in 1960 and i ...

, the Bruneian

language authority This is a list of bodies that consider themselves to be authorities on standard languages, often called language academies. Language academies are motivated by, or closely associated with, linguistic purism and prestige, and typically publish pre ...

, and the introduction of Tutong as a language subject in the national university

Universiti Brunei Darussalam Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD; Jawi: ) is a national research university located in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. It was established in 1985 and has since become the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curricu ...

Population

The population is recorded to be 16,958 in Brunei. Majority is in

at , followed by

Brunei-Muara District Brunei-Muara District ( ms, Daerah Brunei dan Muara; Jawi: برونائی-موارا ضلع) or simply Brunei-Muara is one of the four districts of Brunei. It has the smallest area among the four districts, with , yet is the most populous, wi ...

at ,

Belait District Belait District (; Jawi: دأيره بلأيت), or simply Belait (), is the largest as well as the westernmost district in Brunei. It has an area of and the population of 69,062 as of 2016. The administrative town is Kuala Belait, located at ...

at and

Temburong District Temburong District ( ms, Daerah Temburong; Jawi: دائيره تمبوروڠ) or simply Temburong () is the easternmost district in Brunei. It is an exclave — the land is separated from the rest of the country by Malaysia and Brunei Bay, an ...

at .

Religion

The Tutong people are entirely

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

. However, in the past, they had practiced

animism Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...

. The exact point in time when they converted to Islam is not known, however it is thought to be related to the migration of the Muslims from Brunei proper and

and their marriage with the Tutong locals sometime in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * Ethnic groups in Brunei Society of Brunei {{Brunei-stub