Places of Worship in Sabah: Mosques, Churches, Temples

Places of worship in Sabah at a glance

Few places in Malaysia wear their religious diversity as openly as Sabah. Within a short drive of Kota Kinabalu you can stand before a mosque that appears to float on the sea, a cathedral shaped like a spaceship, an eleven-storey Buddhist pagoda, and a Hindu temple that fills with milk-pot processions each Thaipusam. Out in the interior, the mountains and rivers themselves are sacred to the indigenous Kadazan-Dusun and Murut peoples.

This diversity reflects Sabah's population: about 65% Muslim, 26% Christian, and 8% Buddhist, Taoist or Confucian, with smaller Hindu, Sikh and animist communities. This guide walks through the most significant places of worship faith by faith — with the history, architecture and practical visitor information for each — and links to a detailed page on every landmark.

Mosques in Sabah

Sabah's mosques range from the photogenic Kota Kinabalu City Mosque on Likas Bay to the towering State Mosque with its 65-metre minaret, the vast Al-Kauthar Mosque in Tawau — the largest in the state — and the historic Sandakan Jamek Mosque, which still bears bullet holes from the Second World War. Each tells part of the story of Islam in North Borneo.

Churches in Sabah

Christianity arrived with missionaries in the colonial era and spread rapidly among indigenous communities in the twentieth century. Landmark churches include the modern Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu, mother church of the country's oldest Catholic territory, and the heritage-listed St. Michael's and All Angels in Sandakan, Sabah's oldest stone church.

Chinese temples

Sabah's Chinese community maintains Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian temples across the state. The grandest is Puh Toh Tze near Kota Kinabalu, the largest Mahayana Buddhist temple in Sabah, while Sandakan's Goddess of Mercy and Sam Sing Kung temples date back to the 1860s and 1870s, when the town was known as the "Little Hong Kong of the East."

Hindu temples and the Sikh gurdwara

Sabah's Tamil and broader Hindu communities worship at temples such as Sri Subramaniya Swamy Temple at Lok Kawi, whose Thaipusam celebrations draw worshippers of every faith. The state's small but long-established Sikh community gathers at the Gurdwara Sahib in Kota Kinabalu, which marked its centenary in 2024.

Indigenous spiritual sites

Long before mosques, churches and temples, Sabah's indigenous peoples revered the land itself. Mount Kinabalu is the resting place of ancestral spirits in Kadazan-Dusun belief, Nunuk Ragang is honoured as their ancestral homeland, and the bobohizan priestesses once led the rituals that bound communities to the spirit world. These traditions survive today mainly as living cultural memory.

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