40,000 Years of Guardianship: How the Dayak Became the Keepers of Borneo’s Cosmic Forest

Dayak Lundayeh settlements in Krayan stand as proof that the Dayak are the rightful heirs and guardians of Borneo’s forests, living as an integral part of the natural world. Photo: Eremespe.

By Fidelis Saputra, S.Pd.

A 40,000-year footprint, the Dayak as the first Guardians of Borneo’s Cosmos

When excavations at Niah Cave revealed human remains dating back 40,000 years, the archaeological world paused. This was not a mere cluster of stones or a scatter of bones; it was evidence that the ancestors of today’s Dayak people had already lived, walked, crafted tools, held rituals, and shaped the cosmic order of Borneo long before most ancient civilizations emerged. 

In other words, the relationship between the Dayak and the forest is not 100 or 500 years old. It stretches back farther than the Pyramids of Egypt.

For the Dayak, the forest has never been an economic object. It is not a commodity. It is a cosmic realm, a living sanctuary where ancestral spirits dwell, where rivers and roots carry memory, and where identity, rituals, and social orders are woven together. 

Every tree, every stream, every morning mist carries a place in this cosmic web.

Because of this worldview, the Dayak developed strict ecological and spiritual governance systems:

1. Tembawang, ancestral forests protected through generations

2. Rotational farming systems designed to restore soil health

3. Sacred taboos prohibiting the cutting of certain trees

4. Rituals performed before clearing any land

5. Customary laws for ecological violations

These systems protected Borneo’s forests for tens of thousands of years. While the modern world only began talking about “sustainable living” and “eco-conservation” in the 20th century, the Dayak had already practiced these principles for 400 centuries without universities, NGOs, donors, or project proposals. They protected the forest not for slogans, but because their lives were inseparable from it.

Yet this long, profound history began to shift the moment forces outside Borneo arrived with a completely different agenda.

When Oligarchs and Outsiders Turned Borneo into an Economic Backyard

Borneo, the vast emerald giant of Southeast Asia, became a target for interests arriving from far beyond its shores. These forces did not come with respect for the Dayak worldview or humility toward the island’s cosmic balance. They came with economic blueprints, concession maps, and industrial machinery.

This was the beginning of Borneo’s ecological downfall.

Forests that had been protected through strict ecological ethics for 40,000 years were stripped bare in less than six decades by:

1. palm-oil oligarchies,

2. large-scale timber concessions,

3. mining conglomerates,

4. sprawling extractive industries,

5. foreign companies treating Borneo as an unclaimed resource frontier.

The most tragic irony is that those who benefited least from Borneo’s wealth were the very people who had protected it the longest. Outsiders came and went with enormous profits while the forest was left wounded.

From colonial times to the present, the script has barely changed:

1. Dayak lands seized, often without consultation

2. Forests clear-cut at industrial scale

3. Rivers contaminated, fish populations collapsing

4. Dayak communities blamed for “burning forests” despite practicing a rotational system proven to be ecologically sustainable

5. Oligarchic economics dominating local life and governance

Today Borneo faces severe ecological threats: catastrophic flooding, landslides, collapsing biodiversity, dying river systems, habitat loss for orangutans, and microclimate destabilization. These crises were not caused by the Dayak, but by those who viewed forests as production metrics, export graphs, and rising stock value.

Even more devastating is the erasure of the Dayak cosmic realm, a spiritual-ecological universe built and guarded since the era of early Homo sapiens.

The Rise of Borneo People: Eco-Tourism as Peaceful Resistance

But Borneo’s story is not finished. Amid destruction, a new movement has emerged: the rise of Borneo people reclaiming their relationship with the island. This movement is not only about Dayak identity; it represents a global recognition that Borneo is a planetary asset worth defending.

Eco-tourism has become a form of peaceful resistance.

Dayak-centered eco-tourism offers something oligarchic industries never could:

1. authenticity,

2. unmanufactured beauty,

3. a spiritual connection with the forest,

4. deep ecological knowledge,

5. traditional arts and music,

6. ancestral rituals,

7. intricate tattoos and weaving traditions,

8. river journeys,

9. longhouse stays,

10. storytelling embedded in every landscape.

Community-led travel and tours are not simply recreational experiences. They are lessons in how humans can coexist with nature without destroying it. For many global visitors, these experiences become an education that no classroom or resort can provide.

The Dayak eco-tourism model creates a triple benefit:

Conservation: forests stay intact because they hold tourism value.
Local economy: revenue flows back to communities, not to oligarchs.
Cultural revival: Dayak youth embrace their heritage with pride and purpose.

Borneo rises as a global destination not for skyscrapers or malls but for a rare, millennia-old insight: a functioning relationship between people and forests. This is a value Bali, Phuket, Manila, and even the Amazon cannot claim in the same way — a 40,000-year continuum of ecological guardianship.

Dayak eco-tourism invites the world:
“Come, and learn from those who practiced conservation long before the world knew the word.”

Saving the Future: From Dayak Cosmic Tourism to a Global Movement for Borneo

Borneo stands at a crossroads. If destruction continues, the loss will be far more than trees. We risk losing one of Southeast Asia’s oldest ecological histories, its climate-regulating systems, thousands of species, the home of the Dayak, and a cosmic realm that has survived 40 millennia.

Yet hope endures.

A new wave is rising:

• Dayak communities managing village-based tourism

• Indigenous youth becoming cultural and ecological guides

• Longhouses reinvented as centers for environmental education

• Travel companies promoting authentic Borneo experiences

• Global photographers documenting rituals, tattoos, dances, longhouses, and remaining forests

• Researchers writing about Dayak cosmic ecology

• Travelers seeking spiritual-ecological journeys rather than malls and beaches

Travel and tours have evolved into cultural diplomacy:

They show the world that the Dayak are the First Nation of Borneo.
They affirm the historical rights of Indigenous peoples.
They prove the Dayak are the island’s most effective ecological stewards.
And they demonstrate that the Dayak can lead Borneo’s future, not merely survive within it.

Eco-tourism carries a message to oligarchs:
“We are not selling our forests. We are living through them.”

And a message to the world:
“If you want to save the Earth, learn from the Dayak.”

Borneo can rise as a compelling global destination not with concrete, but through a sacred relationship between people and the natural world that has endured 40,000 years — a relationship unmatched anywhere else on the planet.

The choice is now ours.
Will we allow Borneo to fall into the hands of those who see it as numbers on a balance sheet? Or will we stand with the people who have protected it since prehistory?

If humanity wants Borneo to survive, the answer is clear:
We must stand with the Dayak and protect the forest — their cosmic home and, ultimately, ours as well.