Batu Payung The Answer to Tawau History

BATU PAYUNG

The story about this stone among the Tidong community is about a Tidong man called Bentawo who had wanted to reach his wife, who was a goddess, but he was unsuccessful to reach her and she went to a place called SiBuku Island in Indonesia. To go to this place you have to take a boat and it takes about 4 hours. He used an axe to cut down the stone but was unsuccessful and she was lost foreaver. You could see some footprints at the place near the Batu Payung area. Buku means book and a religious person could be the one called Sibuku.

Tinagat is also called ‘Tanah Naga’ which means the Land Of The Dragon. Could the goddess be some Chinese princess who became a Chinese goddess later on? It has become part of the history of the Tidong community until this date. Batu Payung is called such as it looked like an umbrella and ‘payung’, a Malay word means an umbrella. Most of the ladies use umbrella until today. So there is a relation here in that there could be a lady living here in the past.

Batu Payung today is lined up with coconut tress and there is beach and many of the communities who lived at Batu Payung are fishermen and small holders.