It was 4 in the evening. Different from the hot and humid city, it was cool and breezy at the bottom of Mt Kinabalu. I tried to look at the summit of the gigantic mountain but no avail. All I could see were the waves of mists caressing and embracing the dark green forest. I was there standing still and feeling amazed by the touch of nature. “Why is this mountain called Kinabalu?” I asked. To answer my question, the guide told me this story.
Many years ago, there was a girl who lived at the foot of the mysterious Mt Kinabalu. She was a happy girl just like any other girls in Borneo. She lived her carefree life with her family and friends until one day she met the prince of her life. She heard that the villagers rescued a man whose ship sank in the middle of South China Sea. The villagers not only saved his life but also took care of him until he was fully recovered. Later, the whole village learned that he was a Prince of the Chinese Emperor. Getting away from the grand but certainly limited life of a prince, he enjoyed living like an ordinary person. He doesn’t have to listen to the lecture about governance or war. He doesn’t have to think about taxes and trade. He thought he would live the rest of his life in the Borneo thus he proposed the girl for marriage. They got married, had children and lived their life just like every family in the village.
Years went by, and he started to feel homesick. He started to remember his responsibility as a prince. By now his father should be old, and need to live a less tiresome life. He is a prince with duties for the country and the people. So he asked permission from his newly-found family to go back to China to visit his parents (the Emperor and Empress of China). To his wife, he promised that as soon as he was done with his family duties in China, he would come back to Borneo to take her and their children back to China.
When he made his return to China, he was given a grand welcome by his family. However, to his dismay, his parents disagreed with him about taking his Bornean wife back to China. Worse, they told him that they had already arranged his marriage to a princess of a neighboring kingdom. The prince had high respect towards his parents. Thus he obeyed the parents’ words with a heavy heart.
Meanwhile, back in Borneo, his wife grew more and more anxious. Eventually, she decided that she will wait for her husband's ship. However, since the village was situated far away from the coast, she couldn't afford to come to the shore and wait for him daily. Instead she decided to climb to the top of the highest mountain near her village, so that she could have a better view of the ships sailing in the South China Sea. Thus, she was then seen climbing up the mountain at every sunrise, returning only at night to attend to her growing children.
Eventually she fell ill, and died at the top of the cold mountain while waiting for her husband. The spirit of the mountain, having observed her for years, was extremely touched by her loyalty towards her husband. Out of admiration for this woman, the spirit of the mountain turned her into a stone. Her face was made to face the South China Sea, so that she could wait forever for her dear husband's return.
The people in her hometown who heard about this were also gravely touched by this. Thus, they decided to name the mountain "Cina Balu" in remembrance of her. Cina means Chinese and Balu means widow in the local Kadazan-Dusun language. Due to the lingual influence among the Kadazan Dusun of Sabah, the pronunciation for the word "cina" (chee-na) was changed to "Kina" (kee-na). That was the story of a wife, her royalty and the name of Mt Kinabalu.
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