This little settlement around Lake Jempang, In the lake-studded East Kalimnantan hinterland, has a traditional Dayak long house, which have been turned into lodges for visitors. The grave of a Benuaq Dayak chief lies aside the hamlet's only road.Visitors are usually given a traditional Benuaq Dayak welcome. The trip to Tanjung Isuy over the Mahakam River is a long but interesting one past floating villages and forest scenery. If you are lucky, you can watch a belian, or witch doctor dressed in his skirt of leaves, cures his patients at night by performing the rites prescribed by ancestors to the frenzied accompaniment of gongs and drums. Many Benuaq Dayaks still prefer the old cures to the modern ones at government public health center, which are nearby.

Back to Asiatour