The picturesque town of Kota Belud is positioned approximately 70 kilometres from Kota Kinabalu.  Renowned as one of Sabah’s most scenic and culturally diverse district, Kota Belud is popular among locals as the ‘Land of the Cowboys of the East’.  This exceptional town is a fusion of different cultures and customs and is home to the Bajau Muslims, the KadazanDusun and Irranun mores.  For hundreds of years Kota Belud has played a vital role as Northern Borneo’s cultural centre. 

This charming town is also famous for hosting the largest and most popular open air market in Sabah titled the Tamu Besar Kota Belud.  This grand annual event brings together various communities to one place in order to meet and trade.  Different types of handmade handicrafts, house hold items and traditional local food are sold at this charming open air market. Among the wide range of products on sale are hand-made Parang Bajau which is a creation of the Bajau and Iranun communities, hand-made Rattan Baskets, dried fish, natural honey and other mouth watering local delights. 

Tamu Besar Grand event is held for two days each year and is the best place to discover the unique traditions and customs of the Bajau community. Adding more colours, the local community usually dresses in their traditional costumes when attending this vibrant event.  At the inception, this open market was held as a weekly tamu which was formally referred to as Tamu Mingguan Pekan Kota Belud.  A few years later, it transformed to be an annual event which is currently identified as the grand Tamu Besar in the month of October each year.

The ideal time to visit Kota Belud is considered to be during the grand annual festival that generally takes place during a weekend. Apart from the famous open air market, the festival is added with many other traditional activities. One of the famous activities here includes the performances of the Bajau horsemen. In an open field, just a stroll away from Tamu Kota Belud, visitors will find hundreds of Bajau horsemen showing off their skills. These horsemen are adorned in their colourful traditional Bajau costumes and their horses too are vividly decorated.

As an exceptional Malaysian accommodation, Shangri La’s Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa Kota Kinabalu provide convenient access to this colourful and vivacious Kota Kinabalu attraction as well as many other exciting tourist sites in the region.