The Mortar Dance of Kapuas Hulu

The mortar dance (The Lesung Dance) comes from the Dayak tribe of Kapuas Hulu.
The dance is held as an expression of gratitude for the success of the rice harvest. Rice harvest is commonly conducted in June every year.
After the rice harvest, farmers will have a party of rice. In this party, youth would present dances, one of them is the mortar dance.
In this dance, one of the male dancer would dance with mortar on his mouth. He holds it by biting it with his teeth. Mortar is a tool to release rice from the chaff.
The phenomenon of climate change takes effect on agriculture which thr period of harvest begins to change which is not always takes time in June.

The Dancer from Mendalam Dayak of Kapuas Hulu

This dance comes from Dayak tribe of Mendalam, in Kapuas Hulu. Dancer dressed in traditional clothes of Dayak Mendalam. The equipment of Dayak traditional dress in general use as a decorative feather on his head, and tattoos on his arms and neck.

Lubuk Liuk, a Seasonal Hamlet in Sentarum Lake

Children are playing in the wooden path along the huts. That path is the only place for kids’ playground in that hamlet. They do not have another place as the hamlet is surrounded by water and swampy forest. In the daytime when sun shines heatly, those children play on an shed, enjoy the windy air in Sentarum Lake.


It’s name Lubuk Liuk, a small village in Sentarum Lake watery. It’s 20 minutes by speed boat (with 60PK machine), from Lanjak, the capital of Batang Lupar sub-district. It encompasses tens of small wooden houses. It’s occupied by fishermen’s family during the dry season.

This hamlet is empty during the wet season (rainy season). The innate atmosphere of this community has become an interesting point for visitor.
Along with its simplicity, for many times Lubuk Liuk became a spot for documentary film shootings, from national and foreign TV stations.


With 132,000 hectares widely, Sentarum lake is the source of life for fishermen. Many kind of fish could be found here, in particular fresh water fish species.
Hasan Basri, head of the Lubuk Liuk hamlet, their income has decrease since Sentarum Lake got a status of national park. The authority of national park forbids fishermen using certain traditional fishing tools which can be harm the lake’s inhabitant.

Working as a fisherman on the lake Sentarum, according to Hasan Basri, does not give satisfactory financial outcomes. The high price of fuel for their boats, is one of the reasons, while the selling price the fish is uncomparable. The price of fish in lake is very lower than in town. Therefore more people choose to make salted fish and smoked fish as those are higher in price than fresh fish.


Women and children will greet every boat that came as they belief it brings many fishes. In dray season they would get plenty, and often they catch expensive fish, for instance jelawat fish and betutu fish.

When the fish arrived, the women took role, cleaned the chosen fishes for their lunch and dinner. In this picture, a wife of fisherman was cleaning the jelawat fish. In town, this fish could reach a price of Rp. 80,000,- per kilogram.


Unlike village in general, Lubuk Liuk is a seasonal hamlet. Fishermen only stay there during the dry season as it’s a harvest season for fishing in the lake. It’s from the end of April to the end of July. During school holiday (June-July) the hamlet will be more crowded as fishermen also bring their children. This time is a right time for tourist to visit. A place to stay overnight is provided by local people.

In the rainy season or at the season when watery is in high level, the hamlet’s residents return to their initial village. Most of them are from Selimbau sub-district. They work in agricultural field, like farming, gardening and keeping livestock (cows, chickens), in their home village.

SMART TRIP TO REACH KAPUAS HULU

We write this after noticing that often foreign visitors face difficulty to get in Kapuas Hulu area due to the poor transportation.
The only airport in Kapuas Hulu is in Putussibau, the capital of this regency. To come to Kapuas Hulu, you first should enter West Borneo. There are several paths to get in West Borneo:

First, you take flights from Jakarta to Pontianak (the capital of West Borneo province). The flight takes one hour and fifteen minutes. There’re some airlines with many options of time departure everyday: Batavia Air, Garuda Indonesia, Sriwijaya, Lion Air and Mandala Air Service, with tickets start from Rp.400,000,- to Rp.900.000,- in normal season. Prices rise during peak season.

Another option, you could take travel by ship from Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta, to Oevang Oeray Port in Pontianak. You will sail about three days and two nights. The price of ticket is cheaper that airplane (about Rp.300,000,-) but you should spend several days on the sea. It’s just wasting time.

Through Malaysi. You could take flight from your country to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak in East Malaysia. From Kuching, take the bus to Pontianak. There’re some options of buses: SJS bus, Damri bus, or bus owned by Malaysian company. The ticket is about Rp.200.000,-. Kuching-Pontianak takes nine-hour-trip.

No problems at the border (Tebedu-Malaysia, Entikong-Indonesia) as long as you have document required. The border is opened from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Indonesian time).
In Pontianak you can stay overnight or directly take another vessel to go Putussibau. There are so many hotels in Pontianak, from star hotels to inns and also transit houses. We suggest you to look for hotel in save and strategic location in where you are not difficult to find restaurants or other stores.

From Pontianak To Putussibau
There are several ways to get into Putussibau from Pontianak.
You can take flights from Supadio airport, Pontianak, to Pangsuma airport in Putussibau. The ticket is Rp.838,000,-.

The flight is on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. One flight on each day, check in at 12.30 a.m. in Supadio airport. Only one airline: Indonesian Air Transport, with 40 passengers. It’s one hour flights with ATR-42 aircraft.

The second way, you could take bus from Pontianak to Putussibau. There are some busses: Perintis Bus, Tri Anugerah Bus, Valenty Bus, or you can rent a car (it would take much money). It’s Rp.360.000,- (bus with Air Conditioner), Rp.240.000,- (Executive, Non-AC), Rp.160.000,- (Economy, Non-AC). The travel would take 18 hours.

Another way, you can take bus from Pontianak to Sintang. There are Damri bus or SJS bus with Rp.100.000,- (with Air Conditioner).
From Sintang to Putussibau, you could take a speedboat or “Motor Bandung”. Motor Bandung or Motor Tambang is used to call a cargo boat that in the past was the main intercity transportation.
But those do not always available everyday, depends on the owner. Commonly for a speedboat, Rp.400.000,- per each with ten-hour-sailing. If you take Motor Bandung, it takes two days and one night on the river of Kapuas, to get to Putussibau.

Fire Hit Sawah Long House in Batang Lupar

A long house in the district of Batang Lupar, Betang Sawah, burnt last week. Currently betang residents are living in emergency tents.

Local Government of Kapuas Hulu already has provided rehabilitation assistance cost of 20 million rupiah and 750 zinc of roof.

Betang Sawah was comprised of 15 doors, occupied by Dayak Iban community.
Fire allegedly came from one of the kitchens in that long house during cooking "salai" fish (making "ikan salai" by "mengasap").



Ikan salai is a typical food of people in Kapuas Hulu. Ikan is fish and "salai" refers to the way the fish is cooked by using smokes from burning wood.
The way to cook is called mengasap.

Burning wood is put under the fish in where fire could not reach it and only its smoke and the heat of fire roast the fish.