Controversy erupted this month when ten holidaymakers who were climbing Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, had on May 30, 2015, stripped and posed naked for pictures.
Public anger, which first came about when the photos were posted on social media, later intensified in the aftermath of the earthquake six days later that killed eighteen people, with some locals blaming the tourists for the disaster.
Mount Kinabalu is estimated to be at least 15 million years old
With its towering height of 4,095m (13,435ft) and mist-shrouded peak, the 15 million-year-old mountain is one of the most recognizable symbols of Sabah and considered sacred to the state's Kadazandusun tribe.
"It is our temple", said Dr Benedict Topin, executive secretary of the Kadazandusun Cultural Association.
"When we die, our souls will journey upwards towards our creator in the sky, Kinohiringan. But we are not perfect, so our souls rest on the peak of Kinabalu and await for emancipation. It is like our purgatory".
Priests and priestesses, called Bobolians, help these spirits go to the sky by performing purification rituals.
Dr Topin said the stripping incident was a case of sacrilege on the mountain.
Sabah’s Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan said on June 06 that he believed the tourists caused the earthquake, according to Buzzfeed.
Pairin also said that the earthquake was 'confirmation' that Mount Kinabalu was sacred and that people 'cannot take it lightly', the Malay Mail Online reported.
Lindsey Petersen, 23, and his sister Danielle Petersen, 22, of Saskatchewan, Canada as well as British national Eleanor Hawkins, 24, and Dutch national Dylan Snel, 23, pleaded guilty to public indecency. They were each fined RM5,000 and deported.
The police didn’t manage to locate the six other accused, but it is possible they may have already left the state or even the country.
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