Kalimantan

Kalimantan is the name of the part indonésienne of the island which the Western geographers call Borneo, term resulting from " Berunai" who finds himself in the name of the sultanate of Brunei.

Administrative divisions

Kalimantan, which constitutes the four fifth of Borneo, is divided into four provinces:

Population

5.000 years ago, of the inhabitants of the littoral of China of the south start to cross the strait to settle with Taiwan. Towards 2.000 before J. - C., of the migrations take place of Taiwan towards the Filipino . New migrations start soon of Philippines towards Célèbes and Timor and from there, the other islands of the archipelago indonésien. Towards 1 500 av. J. - C., another movement carries out of Philippines in New Guinea and beyond that, the Pacific Islands. The Austronésien S are undoubtedly the first navigators of the history of humanity.

The inhabitants of Borneo come from these migrations. One tends to distribute them two main categories: those which populate the littoral and those which live the interior.

In the coastal areas, one finds the Malais ( orang Melayu ), which are characterized themselves locally by strong characteristics. In addition to the Malayan language , the Malayan ones are characterized especially by adhesion with Islam. However, many Malayan go down in fact from Daya Islamized, which then mingled with immigrants with other islands with the archipelago like Java, Sumatra or Célèbes. This identification with Islam also makes it possible these Malayan to be different (and sometimes to be opposed) of Indonésiens of Chinese origin, which controls an important part of the economic activities of the area.

Inside the grounds, one finds the people daya (made up of several tens of different ethnos groups) which continue to practice until our days the languages and the cultures of origins of their ancestors, in spite of the recent development of occidentalization, resulting in particular in conversion with Christianity.

History

Prehistory

Probably habitéee as of the Paleolithic inferior, the island has one of the prehistoric layers most important of this area.

In 2000, the university of Leicester launched the " Niah Undermines Project" , intended to allow the archeologists to re-examine the stratigraphy of the archeological site most famous of Southeast Asia, the Large Cave of Niah in the coastal forests of Sarawak.

In the years 1950 and 1960 two English, Tom and Barbara Harrison, had carried out first excavations to it. Among their discoveries was in particular a human cranium that radiocarbon went back to approximately 40.000 years. It was the oldest date of human traces in Borneo, quite former on arrival of the Austronésiens. Harrison thought that the site had been occupied without interruption until our days. However, their excavations had not been the systematic inventory object, and great uncertainties remained on their results.

The first three campaigns (September 2000, April 2001 and April 2002) will bring important components for the knowledge of the history of the settlement of the Southeast Asia, in particular on the date of arrived of the modern man at Borneo on the way for the Australia.

In addition, several Grotte S decorated with cave paintings (impressed hands into negative, Bovidé S, stag anthropomorphic S and some representations) was discovered in the east of Kalimantan; these paintings, gone back roughly to 20  000 years before the Christian era and presenting formal analogies with the old rupestral art of the Indigenous of Australia, could modify the allowed theories until now on the chronology of the settlement of the Southeast Asia, by showing that the pre-austronésienne influence extended much more to the west which one did not think.

At all events, 5.000 years ago (3 000 before Jesus Christ), of the inhabitants of the littoral of the China of the south start to cross the strait to settle with Taiwan. Towards 2.000 before J. - C., of the migrations take place of Taiwan towards the Filipino . New migrations start soon of Philippines towards Célèbes and Timor and from there, the other islands of the archipelago indonésien, of which Borneo. The Austronésiens are undoubtedly the first large navigators of the history of humanity.

See also: Settlement of the insular Southeast Asia

It is in Borneo that one found the oldest inscriptions of Indonesia known to date, in the area of Kutai in the province of Kalimantan Is. Written in alphabet Pallava, they are reproduced on four sacrificial stone posts (called yupa in Sanskrit) which one dated from the surroundings of 400 after J. - C. They rent the generosity of king Mulawarman, wire of Aswawarman, towards the Brahmane S. There is not any more a trace in this area for: 1000  years which follow.

The names of Banjarmasin (Southern Kalimantan) and Kutai are attested as of the 14th century after J. - C. the Nagarakertagama , a poem epic writes in 1365 in the kingdom java are born from Majapahit, mentions them among the few hundred “regions tributary” of the kingdom. Actually, the territory controlled by Majapahit did not extend that on part of the east and center of Java. The “tributary regions” were in fact of the counters forming a sales network whose Majapahit was the center. Majapahit sent to it dignitaries of which the role was to make sure that these counters were not devoted to a private trade which would escape the kingdom.

Arrival of Europeans

In 1606 the VOC ( Vereenigde Oostindische Company or “Dutch Company of the Eastern Indies”) opens a counter with Banjarmasin. In the years 1620, the Agung Sultan of Mataram in Java wants to tackle Banjarmasin and request the naval support of the VOC, which refuses it to him. Banjarmasin will become finally vassal of Mataram but will free itself some in 1659.

In 1733, a fleet of Bugis pirates attacks without Banjarmasin success. The decline of the VOC at the end of the XVIIIe century allows a rebirth of the Asian, Moslem and Chinese sales networks, supporting the development of Banjarmasin.

In 1800, the Dutch government takes again the credits of the VOC, declared in bankruptcy. From 1815, the Dutchmen fight the " pirates malais" who plunder in particular the coasts of Java. These campaigns serve as a pretext for attack the Malayan sultanates, of which Banjarmasin. Between the 1817 and 1821 sultan of Banjarmasin must yield territories to the Dutchmen, who start to work there coal mines in 1846.

In the years a 1840 English adventurer, James Brooke, put themselves at the service of the sultan of Brunei in the north of Borneo, object of pirate raids and rebellions of populations of the interior. The Dutchmen see there a threat for their own expansionist aimings in Borneo. They sign treaties with the various States of the coast, of which the sultanate of Pontianak. This Dutch interest for the area runs up against the resistance of the Chinese kongsi which control the gold mines of the interior.

The expansion of Pontianak, with the support of the Dutchmen, is marked by the catch of Sambas in north with the Bugis and the destruction of Sukadana in the south. Pontianak is in competition with the pirate State of Sambas for the control of the inhabitants of the upstream of the rivers and the Chinese companies ( kongsi ) which work the diamond and gold mines. Then the Dutchmen withdraw themselves from Pontianak.

Tourism

Kalimantan is the country of Joseph Conrad, of which many novels: the madness Almayer , One bet islands , Lord Jim and others, occur on this part of Borneo. " In the middle of the ténèbres" even the film " inspired; Now" apocalypse;.

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