THE STORY BEHIND "A Bambangan like no others" in Daily Express



My good friend Emmanuel and I were just making a round of the Tamu ground of Donggongon ( Badi in Kadazan) just taking any photo of interest and hunting for any favourite fruits when we came across Jenip Gubal who calls himself a Dusun from Kg Batu Apar, about 10 km from Tenom town.

He claims to own the only tree of this Bambangan species which he called Raja Bambangan or King of Bambangan and inherited from his late father who planted it at his backyard 20 years ago.

He asked us to publicised his ware and even gave us one sample each.
So I took a few pictures during the in-situ interview while my friend took live videos for YOUTUBE.

Gubal says that his Raja bambangan tree is the only one in the Tambunan, Keningau and Tenom areas.  Not all the seeds will grow and the tree bears fruit only once in 2 years, making this fruit rare, he claimed.

So I took my sample fruit home to eat but not before measuring its vital statistic, it was in the shape of a rugby ball and the larger diameter was 9 inch and weight exactly 2 kilos. So I showed it to my sister who proceeded to cut it and it was ripe for eating. I ate half and gave the other half to my niece and husband to try. It was sweet with an added sour tang just like some mango however the fibres are rather thick.

I kept the seeds in order to try and plant it but hunt around in the internet for more information though this is the fruit that I practically grow up with, but the ones we had was much smaller in size and mostly sour and good only for making Nonsom or Pickled bambangan.

I came acrossed Datuk Rayner Stuel Galid's blog called "Frog on a wire" and he said the scientific name is "Mangifera Pajang" and the tree is rare because only big animals can help to disperse its seed and since elephants and other big animals are now rare and so this tree is becoming rare. So the good Datuk urge people to plant this tree in their land.
I posed a question on his blog to ask for his advice on the best chance I can grow the seed and he immediately gave me a reply from his iphone.

Thanks Datuk for sharing, I will try and plant the giant seed.

The Wikipedia has a very short info in this Mangifera and say that this tree is listed by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre as one of the threatened species in 1998. Not surprising because the one that used to grow at my mothers land which my mum called "Kovili" had to be chopped down to make way for my sister's house, another in Donggongon town was cut down to make way for a building and the third one near Dambai Bridge ( please follow my other blog "dambaibridge.blogspot.com" ) will soon be dead to make way for the new bridge.

If only I have an orchard land, I will definitely plant more of this raja bambangan because I believe I still have another 10 years to live, sure can wait for the fruits.

Finally I thought the Daily Express news may like the story and told the editor, if the article is not worth it, maybe we can just share a laugh at the photo where the two fruit he is holding is larger than a lady's breast. Haa ha ha ha

Well, the editor like it (human interest category)  and became a feature in Daily Express yesterday, 30th Aug 2014.  Hey go and read it there.  Yeah, and I believe this is my happy story for MERDEKA for the year 2014.

Cheers to all of you.  And please go and plant one Bambangan tree if you have space in your backyard, so we can preserve our traditional food of nonsom bambangan and contribute to the oxygen for our environment.

More photos here:

Gubal's Bambangan fruit on sale on the ground, just like that

 Close up of an open bambangan flesh to show the quality and the fibre



 

This Bambangan tree near the construction project for the new Dambai Bridge at Penampang will soon die or chopped down because of the upgrading of the road and the bridge.  Pity, probably 20 years of age and fruiting but it will die because the clay soil has been laid on top of the roots.