Kalimantan Island

Kalimantan  Island

The Indonesian part of Borneo, Kalimantan is comprising four provinces, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and  East Kalimantan. Kalimantan occupying almost three quuarters of this third largest island in the world after Greenland and New Guinea. A little over eight million people live here on 560.000 square Kilometers of land, or about one-tenth of the couuntry’s total land surface, which makes the island one of the most sparsely populated regions of the archipelago. It is an old land.

The voclcanic formations which are spread with all over the island, date date back to a much older period than those in which the volcanoes of Java and Sumatera were formed. None of Kalimantan’s volcanoes is believed to have been active for thousands of years. vast highlands and great mountain chains like the Schwaner and Mueller ranhes are found in the central parts of the island. The highest peak of Kalimantan is the 2,278 meters tall mountain Bukit Raya in south.The island’s fauna differs in some respects from those of Java and Sumatera. Sig predatory mamals like tigers and panthers never existed in Kalimantan. On the other hand, it is rich in other animal species and varieties, the best known of which are perhaps the orang utan primate and the hornbill, a bird which occupies an important place in the myths of the local Dayak population.

Among the minerals mined, oil is the most important to the Indonesian economy. East Kalimantan is one of the country’s leading oil producing provinces. Diamonds are also found in the area around Martapura.A part of the people in Kalimantan lives near a river. For a countless number of centuries, the rivers have been the place where the people chose the settle. Fortune seekers and conquerors used them as waterways to penetrate into other wise impenetrable places in the hinterland. Alien influences came and spread by following their course.

Kalimantan’s coastal population consists mainly of relative newcomers from other parts of the Indonesian archipelago who often intermixed, and settlers from abroad, in particular from China.And Kalimantan is a native land of the Dayak tribes, also the The original population are the Dayak Tribe. It’s huge Mahakam River offers an unforgettable experience to the more adventurous and apecial interest travellers, but the most interesting of all is Dayak tribes with their unique form of arts, culture and the way of life.

A colective name which includes many sub groups like the Kenyah, Tunjung, Benuaq, Bahau, Punan and others of East Kalimantan, and the Ngaju of Central Kalimantan. Gentleness, hospitality, honesty, frankness and a penchant for showing sympathy towards the suffering of others are generally among their natural traits. Dayak Tribe’s still treasure their ancestral cultural heritage by preserving the age old art forms and traditions, at least in their outward expression.