Lotud

Lotud people
Dusun Tuaran

The rehabilitation of a traditional Lotud house in the Heritage Village of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
Total population
11,000
Regions with significant populations
Malaysia (Sabah)
Languages
Lotud language or standard Dusun language, Malay, English
Religion
Christianity (majority), Animism, Islam
Related ethnic groups
Kadazan-Dusun

The Lotud people are an indigenous ethnic group residing in Sabah, eastern Malaysia on the island of Borneo. They reside mainly in the Tuaran district (including the Tamparuli as well as Kiulu sub-districts) and also a portion of this tribe's population also reside in the village of Kampung Sukoli located in the Telipok suburban township of Kota Kinabalu city, all located in the West Coast Division of Sabah. Their population was estimated at 5,000 in the year 1985 but now believed to be more than 20,000. They are a sub-ethnic group of the Dusunic group, now also known as Kadazan-Dusun.

Nowadays, most of this ethnic group's population has been Christianized by adhering to denominations such as Roman Catholicism (in Tuaran district proper as well as the suburban township of Telipok in Kota Kinabalu city) and Seventh-Day Adventism (mostly those residing in Tamparuli and Kiulu sub-districts as well as in Telipok since the neighbouring town of Manggatal, both within the Kota Kinabalu city area has a Seventh-Day Adventist majority population among its native Dusun populace) with a large Muslim minority (both converts to the faith and Muslim by birth and ethnic descent alike) and some lesser extent to evangelical Christianity (Sidang Injil Borneo) as well as other denominations such as Anglicanism, True Jesuism and Lutheranism (Basel Christian Church of Malaysia), with a dwindling number are still animists. Less than 20 traditional priestesses are still alive, with no prospect of future replacement.