A Wonderful Cultural Diversity

West Borneo is passed by equator line . It is one of the provinces that located in Borneo island. There are three major ethnics in West Borneo. They are Malaynese, Dayaknese and Chinese. As we know, each ethnic, commonly, has its own culture. Most of cultural festivals that happen in West Borneo are dominated by the cultures of these three major ethnics. Inspite of the various culture in West Borneo, these cultures can integrated well.

Firstly, I want to explain some of the big cultural festivals in West Borneo. Frirst is ‘Gawai Dayak”. Actually, this festival is a greatful expression of Dayaknese people to God related to the successful of harvest season. This festival is filled by ritual traditions and many cultural attraction, such as, traditional dance, traditional song and many traditional games ( ‘gasing’, ‘sumpit’, etc). Second is Malaynese Art and Cultural Festival. This festival is filled by traditional dance, traditional song, and the most interesting one is boat racing (‘balap sampan’). This game, usually, happen on the Kapuas river and the quickest boat is the winner. Third is Cap Go Meh (the 15th night). It is part of the celebration in Chinese lunar new years festival. It happens on the 15th day after the new years. This festival is filled by dragon and lion dance (barongsai). Every times the festival happens, it is almost certain that there will be traffic jam on the major road in the big cities at West Borneo, because most of the people are come out to the road to see the dance.

Although there are many cultures at West Borneo, in every cultural festival, most of the people, whatever the ethnics, will join the festivals. For example, many of the players in dragon and lion dance is come from malaynese, dayaknese and other ethnics people.

Those are a little description of the diversity of cultures at West Borneo. Unfortunately, there are not many people know how wonderful the cultural festivals in west Borneo are. So, if you also want to feel how wonderful the festivals are, you can make West Borneo as your destination for holiday.



Good, thanks for posting.