KDCA Sabah

Redemption

REDEMPTION AND THE SACRIFICE

In order to redeem the people and at the same time reveal how deeply He loved them, Kinoingan sacrificed His own beloved daughter Ponompuan. It was a painful decision but it was necessary in order that the people will never again forget how much He loves them, and that they will be reminded even while they toil, plant, harvest, eat and drink, that He is always with them.

In the Kadazandusun story of redemption, Kinoingan sacrificed His only daughter Ponompuan and planted the various parts of her body in the fields as though they were seeds. The people who came to ask Kinoingan for crop seeds could not understand why Kinoingan killed His beloved Daughter, cutting her body into pieces and planting them.

They could only watch and ponder. Upon leaving Kinoingan did not utter a word and no seeds were given to the people fro planting. So they all went back puzzled.

In another version of the story, Ponompuan entreated her Father’s mercy upon the dying earth, conveying to him the peoples’ act of repentance.

Kinoingan thus took Ponompuan for a walk before He unfolded to Her His plan to redeem the dying world, and His wish that Ponompulan be the symbolic sacrifice of the greatest love of all. For the love of Her Father and the world, Ponompulan thus willingly became the Saviour of the world. Through the miraculous power of her Mother Sumundu, Ponompuan’s wishes were granted — that her body parts be transformed into the food resources of the world and that her Spirit be the Bambarayon spirit of the staple food rice.