Legend of Banyu Batuah Natural Lake

The Meratus Dayak Tribe

In ancient times, there was a small village that was only inhabited by a group of residents.They mostly consisted of several families with blood ties. They lived around the foothills of the mountains now known as the Bajuin Mountains. That said, this group of residents is the Dayak Ngaju tribe from the Meratus Mountains. The population group is known as the Dayak Biaju tribe.Masukan Banjar Kuala call the Dayak Meratus tribe as Biaju or Dayak Biaju. As for the people of Banjar Hulu call the Dayak Meratus tribe as the Dayak Bukit people.

The work of the Dayak Meratus tribe everyday is planting, rubber gardening, and looking for gold.Meratus Dayak tribe is a collective name for a group of Dayak subspecies that inhabit along the Meratus Mountains region in South Kalimantan. The Bukit tribe is also called Ukit, Buket, Bukat, or Bukut. The Bukit tribe or Bukit Dayak tribe is located in several sub-districts located along the Meratus Mountains in Banjar Regency, Tapin Regency, South Sungai Hulu Regency (HSS), Sungai Tengah Hulu Tengah (HST) Regency, Indonesia, Balangan Regency, Tabalong Regency, Kotabaru Regency, and Tanah Laut Regency. Some of the Meratus Dayak tribes include Dayak Pitap, Dayak Alai (including Labuhan Dayak, Dayak Atiran, Dayak Kiyu, Dayak Juhu), Dayak Hantakan, Dayak Labuan Amas, Loksado Dayak (including Amandit Dayak), Harakit Dayak (including Tapin Dayak), Paramasan Dayak, Tangi Wood Dayak, Bangkalan Dayak, Sampanahan Dayak, Riam Adungan Dayak, Bajuin Dayak, and Sebamban Baru Dayak. In its development, those who live in the Meratus Mountains prefer to be called the Dayak Meratus tribe than the previous name Dayak Bukit which is interpreted as a mountain person. This is because they live in the Meratus Mountains, the term hill itself according to the local vocabulary in the area is the bottom of a tree that also means a person or group of people or family group that is the first that is the forerunner of other communities.

Meratus itself is the name of a mountainous region that divides South Kalimantan Province in two, stretching along ± 600 km² from the southeast and turning north to the border of East Kalimantan. At this time along the Meratus Mountains there are many rubber plantations and rice fields that become the livelihood of the surrounding population.Geographically the Meratus Mountains region is located between 115° 38’ 00” to 115° 52’ 00” east longitude and 2° 28’ 00” to 20° 54’ 00” south latitude. The Meratus Mountains are part of eight regencies in South Kalimantan Province, namely Banjar Regency, Tapin Regency, South Sungai Hulu Regency, Sungai Tengah Hulu Regency (HST), Balangan Regency, Tabalong Regency, Kotabaru Regency, and Tanah Laut Regency.Meratus Mountains are grouped as low mountain forest areas. This forest area has a high biodiversity with some dominant vegetation, such as white meranti, red meranti, agathis, canary, medang, durian, rider, kempas, and maggots.

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