Flying above Central Kalimantan before landing at TJILIK RIWUT Airport Palangkaraya what you will see, is a large greeny jungle. As far you can see as if all the trees going to reach the sky while rivers are winding like giant snakes, Central Kalimantan contains nature richness source which is not well explorated. Its tropical rain forest is a habitat for thousands of wild animals. Some of them which are world famous like ORANGUTAN (Pongo Pyjmaeus), BAKANTAN (Nasalis Larvatus), OWA-OWA (Hylobates Mullery) etc. While the wild jungle consist of many kinds of flora which have a very high economy value such as; ULIN (Exideroxylon Zwageri), LANAN (Sharea Tanresula), MERANTI (Sharea Spp) etc.
It is unastonishingly if the main product of this province are timbers. There are more than one hundred of timber companies operate in Central Kalimantan Province, some of them are joint venture companies with Japan and Korea. The Central Kalimantan forest also produces a number of other products that bring cash into local economic activities like Damar Resin and Kulit Gemur (a tree bark used in insect repellent), ellipe nuts yield and oli which is processed into cosmetic as well. Mining resources are also found in Central Kalimantan such as gold, coal which have been exploring in a big scale, and lately iron, oil, uranium are also found.
Beside nature resources richness, Central Kalimantan is also rich in tradition heritage which is still alive in the Dayak daily life. The combination of nature and tradition is a main tourism attraction of Central Kalimantan. There a new trend in the modern society life that is many people want something nature and original. So if you are part of such society means Central Kalimantan is the right palce for you to visit.
Motoring up the river passing through some streams is an interesting trip in the hinterland of Central Kalimantan the further up rivers you go to the more intersting the scenery will be, the river are getting smaller and the trees from each banks meet over head, then you begin to see monkeys playing above and also to hear birds singing around. The peak of your adventure is when you arrive at a Long House enable you to enjoy and experience the traditional life of Dayak communities in the Long House, a Long House which was built by their ancestor hundred years ago.
The name Borneo or Kalimantan as Indonesian called it, had the second most beautiful rainforest besides the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Part of the island of Kalimantan that belongs to Indonesian covers area of 211,982 sq. miles (549,032 sq. kms), 70% of which, in 1982 was rainforest area. The Central Borneo or Kalimantan Tengah, as the Indonesians put it, covers 56,682 sq. miles (146,807 sq. Kms), more than a quarter of the Indonesian region in Kalimantan.
The Natives of Kalimantan or Borneo are called Dayak or D'yak people. The Dayak people consists three mainstream tribes according to the three major rivers in Kalimantan. The first is the Tribes of Mahakam River, situated in Eastern Borneo (East Kalimantan), the second is the Tribes of Barito River which runs through the province of Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan, and thirdly is the Tribes of Kahayan River, which ran through the province of Central Kalimantan and West Kalimantan.
There are two major tribes that resides in Central Kalimantan, the first is the tribes of Dayak Ngaju or Dayak Kapuas, and the second is the tribe of Dayak Ma'anyan. Ngaju people mainly lives near to the Kahayan-Kapuas river. The original Ngaju people live off from fishing because of the river near them provides them with enormous number of fish species'. Opposite to the Ngaju people, the Ma'anyans depended their livings from hunting and farming, because they made their villages quite far from the main river into the forest.
Although the cultural basis of both tribes are strikingly similar, their languages are very much different. For an unknown reason the native language of the Ma'anyans somehow resembled ancient Javanese language. Another mysteries around the language of Ma'anyan tribes is that their language also found in the island of Madagascar, a land over 2,000 miles away from Kalimantan. Although the language in Madagascar have evolved through the time, the similarity is eerily obvious, and some amateur linguist believed that the Ma'anyans language is the original form of what has became the language of Madagascar People. Further studies is required to prove his theory.
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