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James Brooke might be widely known as the first ‘White Rajah’ of Sarawak. However, did you know that he was not the first man to be known as the first ‘White Rajah’ in Borneo? About 30 years before Brooke established his dynasty in Sarawak, British merchant and adventurer Alexander Hare founded an independent fiefdom in […]
Today, the Kayan people of Borneo are known to practice mainly Christianity. Most of them have left their traditional belief called bungan and shamanism. However, did you know that hundreds of years ago, a Muslim sultanate called the Bulungan sultanate was allegedly founded by a Kayan princess from Apau Kayan who had married a Bruneian? […]
Mangkok Merah 1967, the conflict between the Dayak and Chinese in West Kalimantan The New Order in Indonesia is the term coined by the second Indonesian President Suharto to describe his administrative era when he came to power in 1966. In the beginning of this New Order, one incident left a bloody mark in Indonesian […]
Here is a story of how a war in ancient Kalimantan broke out due to mistaken identity: There was a Palin man named Baring Ma’ Bojang. He married an Embaloh woman and moved to the village of Belimbis in the upper Embaloh river of Kapuas Hulu. Both Palin and Embaloh are Dayak groups in Indonesian […]
People have been living along the border of Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia with Kalimantan, Indonesia for centuries. When there was a conflict such as the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation which broke out between the two countries, it was unfortunate that they found themselves caught in between. So how did the Sarawakians near Kalimantan border cope with Indonesia-Malaysia […]
Researcher Victor King recorded in his paper Main Outlines of Taman Oral Tradition (1975) that the Dayak Taman people once suffered a great setback in their population. And it was all thanks to a tree. So what was the poisonous tree and how did it kill thousands Dayak Taman people? There was a man named […]
Long time ago, there was a giant man named Temueng and his friend named Pengiran who first lived at Kemaloh in Kalimantan, Indonesia. According to legends, these people were believed to be the ancestors of Lun Bawang people. Benedict Sandin in his paper The Bisayah and Indigenous Peoples of Limbang, Sandin recorded the life journey […]
Centuries ago, Kalimantan was made up many small ancient kingdoms, each with its own unique history and culture. One of these kingdoms was Nanga Bunut, a small kingdom located at the intersection between Kapuas river and its tributary Bunut river. It was founded by Raden Setia Abang Berita Kiyai Nadi Pati Jaya between the 16th […]
How everyone began speaking in different languages according to a Taman legend. Have you heard of Psilocybin mushroom? Widely known as ‘magic mushroom’, this type of fungi is usually consumed for its hallucinogenic effects. Once consumed, the person may experience euphoria and change in consciousness, mood and even perception. They may even experience visual and […]
The Dayak Taman people is a small indigenous group found in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. There are roughly 30,000 people in this ethnic group. Apart from the Embaloh language, the Taman language is not close to other languages in Borneo. However, like any other Dayak groups in Borneo, the Taman people have many legends and folklore […]
