First Dayak cultural Kapuas cruise

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The refurbished Kapal Bandung will take the Sarawakian group on the river cruise from Danau to Pontianak.

The refurbished Kapal Bandung will take the Sarawakian group on the river cruise from Danau to Pontianak.

A SPECIAL cruise, the first of its kind, will take a group of Dayak professionals, businessmen and friends from Sarawak on what promises to be a culturally enriching trip from Lubok Antu to Danau Santarum (Lanjak), then to Pontianak, over the Chinese New Year holidays.

The cruise on a big riverboat — the Kapal Bandung, a refurbished Kalimantan-built vessel — is billed as The first Dayak cultural Kapuas cruise and will take six days and five nights — from Jan 27 to Feb 1.

According to Pak Alim Mideh from Kuching and Pak Herkulanus Sumtomo from Putussibau — both freelance consultants on Kalimantan Barat Affairs — sailing from Danau Santarum, Lanjak, to Pontianak alone will take three nights.

The Bandung will pass through Sintang, Sekadau, Sanggau and Tayan with special visits to Tayan Island and Tayan Bridge, Suka Lanting (Kubu Raya Kelenteng Tua), a famous Chinese temple and several other tourist spots near Pontianak.

Its final destination will be the port of Pontianak, where the touring group will spend two nights before leaving for Kuching overland.

Danau Santarum

Danau Santarum, a world famous National Park, is the largest inland lake on the island of Borneo.

Located in Kapuas Hulu, a remote area on the upper Kapuas River close to the Sarawak-Indonesian border, the National Park is about 700km inland from the West Kalimantan provincial capital, Pontianak.

Actually, it is an area of connecting big lakes and seasonally flooded during the tropical Monsoon as the storm water gushes down from the rainforest hills in the surrounding areas.

This National Park is about 30 to 35 metres above sea level while the surrounding hills are as high as 750 metres above sea level.

Daytime temperatures are consistently between 26 and 30 degrees Celsius. The driest months are usually July, August, and September.

The area was established in 1985 as the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve.

While the borders are unclear, the main part of the Park is around 1,250 sq km. Several longhouses are found within it.

The Iban longhouse of Sungal Sedik is located about six km from the district centre of Lanjak, a 14-household community of some 100 residents.

A scene on the Kapuas River.

A scene on the Kapuas River.

Hunting ground

The Sedik River territory is a hunting ground for at least five other Lanjak Dayak longhouse communities.

The wildlife comprises 120 species of fish, among them the Asian bony tongue, toman, betutu, jelawat, belida, ketutung and the beautiful clown loach. Animals such as proboscis monkey, orangutan, estuarine crocodile, siamese crocodile, clouded leopard, great argus pheasant, false gavial, and wooly-necked stork also inhabit the Park.

The Danau Sentarum is a dream destination for nature and culture enthusiasts. One of the unique birds here is the hornbill. In Kalimantan, this bird of omen is regarded as an important diperser of seeds for rich flora of Taman Nasional Danau Sentarum.

Furthermore, the tourists will get to see for themselves “the homeland of the Dayak-Iban people.”

Many first-timers on the cruise have been encouraged by the stories of the Dayaks, especially from the Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who have been to Danun over the past seven years, that their Kalimantan counterparts in the Kapuas area are still living in harmony with their natural environment.

The water level at Sentarum is only up to 8-14 metres deep 10 months a year, forming a lake area of up to 80,000 hectares, according to Pak Alim Mideh.

But in the two driest months — usually July and August — the tides ebb and expose the dry bottom of the Sentarum basin, splitting the massive lake into little rivers and hundreds of fish ponds.

A traditional Dayak weaving loom.

A traditional Dayak weaving loom.

Ikat weaving and tattoos

The cruise will also take the group to the villages and towns along the route to experience the local cultures. They will have a chance to see ikat textile weaving and tattoos known as ukir (to carve).

The Iban’s ikat and ukir typically flaunts the basic motifs of flowers, dragons and stylised human figures.

Ikat and songket weaving is usually done by the women, using natural fibers and colours. Ukir is tattooed on a young adult Iban’s body as he prepares to embark on a bejalai odessey. The tattoo will serve as a memento he can look back to later in life.

I, myself, had taken a boat ride in 2010 with the Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry group, led by Dato Sri Edmund Langgu. It took 45 minutes by speedboat from Badau to the Park’s headquarters of Danau Sentarum at Bukit Terkenang — a soul-searching, inspiring and memorable boat trip.

The Kapuas River

The Kapuas is the longest river in Borneo and believed by the Dayaks to flow through their original home, hence the great interest of this group of Dayak professionals and leading business personalities from Sarawak in making the cruise.

Sailing down the Kapuas, one highlight for the group will be a side visit to the Kerato (palace) of Dara Juanti, a Dayak lady warrior who ruled the kingdom of Sintang during the era of the Majapahit Empire in the 1400’s.

Pak Aga Mideh said: “We Dayak people from both sides of the Sarawak-Kalimantan border are rich in oral history and some recorded history written in papan turai or wooden planks. There will be plenty to see along the River Kapuas and its surrounding valleys.”

Among the prominent accounts on the origin of the Dayak people is the mythical oral epic of Tetek Tahtum by the Ngaju Dayak of Central Kalimantan which narrates that the ancestors of the Dayak people descended from the heavens before moving from inland to the downstream shores of Borneo.

The Kapuas River,  710 miles in length, is one of the world’s longest island rivers,  originating in the Müller mountain range at the center of the island and flows west into the South China Sea, creating an extended marshy delta where the capital of West Kalimantan or Kalbar, Pontianak, is sited.

Today, over 50 ethnic Dayak groups speaking different languages, are found there. This cultural and linguistic diversity parallels the high biodiversity and related traditional knowledge of Borneo.

A typical Dayak longhouse along the Kapuas.

A typical Dayak longhouse along the Kapuas.

Leaders and participants

So far, over 60 Dayaks from Miri, Bintulu, Sibu, Saratok and Kuching have registered for the cruise. A few from Kuala Lumpur, Brunei and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, are expected to participate.

The joint chefs de mission are two respectable Dayak personalities — Datuk Pemancha Janggu anak Banyang, a community leader from Julau, and Dato Sri Edmund Langgu anak Saga, a statesman and an expert on Dayak cultural heritage and anthropology.

This first cruise is specially supported by Dinas Pemuda Olahraga dan Paristiwa (Ministry of Youth Sports and Tourism Kalbar). Among the key Kalimantan officials expected to participate in the cruise are Bapak Kartus SH M.SI, Head of the Ministry and Bapak Tanto Yakobus M.SI, Ketua Fraksi Partai Demokrat Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Provinsi Kalbar based in Sekadau (equivalent to State Assemblyman in Sarawak).