Page 143 - E-BOOK SEJARAH DAN BUDAYA INDONESIA

HISTORY OF DAYAK TRIBES

The Dayak tribe originates from Kalimantan, but spread to Sabah and Sarawak Malaysia.
According to history, this tribe had established a work before it was finally destroyed by Majapahit.
This incident made the Dayak community scattered and desperate. Most of them converted to
Islam and changed their identity to become “Malay” or “Banjar” people. And some who did not
convert to Islam returned to the river, then entered the interior of Kalimantan. As an indigenous
people, the Dayak tribe highly upholds their customs. Like the tiwah ceremony that is still
preserved. Tiwah is a ceremony that is carried out to bring the bones of the dead to Sandung that
have been made.
ETYMOLOGY

According to Lindblad, the word Dayak comes from the word Daya from the Kenyah
language, which means upstream or inland. King, further speculated that the Dayak might also
have come from the word aja, a Malay word meaning native or native. He also believes that the
word may have come from a Central Javanese term meaning inappropriate or inappropriate
behavior.
The term for the indigenous tribes near Sambas and Pontianak is Daya (Kanayatn: orang
daya = land people), while in Banjarmasin it is called Biaju (bi = from; aju = upstream). The West
is the Bidayuh family, hereinafter referred to as the Land Dayak, which is distinguished from the
Sea Dayak (Iban family). In Banjarmasin, the term Dayak began to be used in the agreement of
the Sultan of Banjar with the Dutch East Indies in 1826, to replace the terms Biaju Besar (Kahayan
river area) and Biaju Kecil (Kapuas Murung river area) which were respectively changed to Big
Dayak and Small Dayak, then by the Dutch colonial side, only these two areas were then
administratively called Tanah Dayak.

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