page_title: Dayak people
section_title: Ethnicity
hierarchical_section_title: Dayak people / Ethnicity
caption_attribution_description: English: The map was redrawed and made based on a large map of "Peta Suku Bangsa di Indonesia" displayed in Ethnography Room in National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta. The image was simply a cropped version highlighting the ethnic groups in Kalimantan from the original.
context_page_description: The Dayak or Dyak or Dayuh are one of the native groups of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the central and southern interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. Dayak languages are categorised as part of the Austronesian languages in Asia. The Dayak were animist in belief; however, many converted to Islam and since the 19th century there has been mass conversion to Christianity.
context_section_description: The term Dayak was coined by Europeans referring to the non-Malay and non-Muslim inhabitants of central and southern Borneo. There are seven main ethnic divisions of Dayaks according to their respective native languages which are:
  1. Ngaju
  2. Apo Kayan including Orang Ulu
  3. Iban (Sea Dayak) or Hiban
  4. Bidayuh (Land Dayak) or Klemantan
  5. Kadazan, Dusun, Murut
  6. Punan
  7. Ot Danum
  Under the main classifications, there are dozens of ethnics and hundreds of sub-ethnics dwelling in the Borneo island. There are over 50 ethnic Dayak groups speaking different languages. This cultural and linguistic diversity parallels the high biodiversity and related traditional knowledge of Borneo.
  The above list of Dayak clusters by Tjilik Riwut was revised by the First International Dayak Congress and Exhibition in 2017 to become: Ngaju-Ot Danum, Apo Kayan-Kenyan, Iban, Klemantan, Kadazan-Dusun and Punan.
caption: Various indigenous Malay and Dayak homeland in Indonesian Borneo. In contrast to the coastal Borneo which predominantly inhabited by ethnic Malay and Banjarese people, the Dayak groups were located further in the inland Kalimantan. Apart from Kalimantan, the Dayak groups can be found in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and Brunei.
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