Tidung's Animism
Based on the map of the Dutch East Indies in 1878, the border position was much further north than the North Kalimantan—Sabah border today because it included all the villages of the Tidung tribe in the Tawau region. Tidung speakers, especially Tarakan Tidung, are bilingual. They speak Tidung but can also speak Indonesian.
This language can also be interacted with throughout the archipelago. The Malinaw subdialect is generally found in the upstream area of the Sesayap River, including the Malinau & Tideng Pale districts. For writing purposes, they used Malay Arabic letters before they knew Latin letters like they do now.
The Tidung tribe adheres to animist beliefs and lives by farming and fishing in the sea. The Tidung people adopted Islam around the 18th century. It is said that the Sultan of Sulu, Sultan Salahuddin Karamat / Pangiran Bakhtiar, married a Chinese girl from the Tirun area.
So from the blood descendants of this Tidung princess, there was a son named Datu Bantilan & a daughter named Dayang Meria. Dayang Meria is said to have married a Chinese trader and eventually gave birth to Datu Teteng / Datu Tating.
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