Understanding the wisdom and the ways of the Dayak people

By S. Djuweng

PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan (JP): "Serve food to a guest, but give beras (raw rice) when your guest is a Malay." The proverb seems simple, but it contains profound philosophical teachings. This is the indigenous Dayak wisdom that has been passed on from generation to generation.

There are two messages to be told: The first regards an open attitude, togetherness, friendship and hospitality. A guest is an outsider to be honored, respected and treated almost like a king. It is an honor for the Dayak to have house guests, to whom they serve the best food and drink.

Secondly, Malay is identical to Islam. To the best of the Dayak's knowledge, the Moslem has a special diet. Therefore, the Dayak give them beras and let them cook and prepare their own food free of any prohibited ingredients.

Such a behavior reflects a sincere respect for other people's dignity and a recognition of different religious beliefs. In addition, it tells us about the Dayak philosophy of living harmoniously with others regardless of ethnic origin, race and religious background.

For the Dayak, friendship, mutual understanding, togetherness and tolerance are not the only social and cultural values that guide their internal and external relationships. Lives are rooted in religious belief, validated by philosophical thinking and governed by customary law.

According to the Dayak's world view, nature has a great spirit. Everything that exists possesses its own living spirit, be it land, a river, a stone, a tree or a human being. All are part of the "spirit of spirits".

Considering that everything has its own spirit, everything has the same right to exist. If human beings are to use those things, they have to apply to the spirit of spirits, and this application occurs in the form of ritual ceremonies. If human beings want to pick up a bird's nest, for example, they have to perform an appropriate ritual ceremony first. If one wants to farm a piece of land, one must perform another ritual ceremony.

The Dayak are also of the opinion that everything in the world can be used to fulfill the basic needs of human beings. However, human beings should not do everything just because they can. This basic principle is set out in their adat, or customary laws, which govern all aspects of a person's life.

Cultural basis

The most basic characteristic of the Dayak is their attachment to the land and its resources. Land is not only an economic resource, but the basis for cultural, social, political and spiritual life. Land holds the history of human beings. For Dayak, land links the past, present and future generations.

Based on adat, the Dayak have their own sustainable ways of extracting natural resources. In terms of land use, it is known as Integrated Natural Resources System Management. Under this system, the forest plays a prominent role. It consists of seven major elements: (1) conservation and reservation areas (primary forest) consisting of two main elements: sacred land (absolutely restricted) and collectively-held hunting and gathering fields; (2) farming land, both dried and swamp, divided into two categories: swidden in use and swidden in fallow; (3) fruit gardens; (4) rubber gardens; (5) settlement sites (group or individual houses); (6) breeding locations and rivers for fishing sites; and (7) cemetery grounds.

People and territory

In 1986, anthropologists Ave and King wrote that the Dayak and Punan peoples were the original inhabitants of Borneo. "The Dayak is in fact a collective name for more than 400 groups of indigenous peoples who differ in language, art form, customary laws, clothing, and several other elements of culture as well as social organizations. All Dayak groups, however, have some fundamental features in common."

It is a collective label applied to the indigenous ethnic groups of Kalimantan. This is because they share a wide range of similarities in their physical appearance, longhouse living, languages, customs, social organizations, economy, values and world view. The use of the term "Dayak" first appeared in 1757, in J.A. van Hohendoff's description of Banjarmasin. The word means "inland" or "interior" (Ave and King, 1986).

Each Dayak subgroup has its own territory. Within the banua (villages) there are people, territory, social and cultural institutions, and adat that are highly respected by the people. The boundaries between one banua and another banua are agreed to base on the consensus of adat chiefs representing their peoples.

The ownership rights to land and natural resources are a logical consequence of one's existence and therefore considered basic rights or birth rights. Primary forest areas are collectively owned by the peoples of the banua. However, individual rights to bee-trees, resin trees, bird nests, and trees marked for construction materials are acknowledged. The people of a different banua cannot utilize the property of the different banua without consent from its people. Breaking this consensus would be a source of collective conflict.

Most Dayak subgroups are egalitarian. Though each banua has its respective leader, the leaders and the people of the banua respect and recognize the highest authority.

Before independence, the Dayak considered themselves to be under the domination of the Dutch colonial administration. In most cases the power to govern the Dayak was exercised by Malay sultanates. Both the Dutch and the sultanates later granted social, cultural, political, economic and religious autonomy to the Dayak people.

Within egalitarian groups of the Dayak community, the role of traditional chief is more to facilitate than govern. Expressing a different opinion and criticizing elders is common practice. The people only have to respect adat but one has the right to defend oneself to obtain justice. The decision is made based on consensus, and once a decision is made, everybody is expected to fully respect and obey the decision.

The Dayak are obedient, honest, open and low profile. Van J. Vert, a Dutch anthropologist, quoted van Linden (1854), describing the Dayak as "the people whose destiny is to be determined rather than to be rulers." They have no political ambition. As there are more than 405 ethnolinguistic groups, the Dayak lack a united language. As a result, they favor the Indonesian national state and the national language, Indonesian.

Unlike the history of other areas in Indonesia, the Dayak have never organized an armed struggle against the Republic of Indonesia. On the contrary, the Dayak in 1967 helped the Armed Forces exterminate the PGRS/Paraku, a communist rebel wing in West Kalimantan.

S. Djuweng is the director of the Institute of Dayakology Research and Development, Pontianak, West Kalimantan.