Kayan

The Kayan are a Dayak people of Borneo, whose oral history traces them to the upper Kayan, middle Kapuas and Mahakam rivers. They spread into Sarawak, and their southward migration brought conflict with the Iban; wars and headhunting displaced smaller tribes.

During the 1600s one Kayan sub-group, the Uma Apan or Dayak Hupan, moved east from the Apo Kayan highlands to the coast, adopted Islam and became the nucleus of the Bulungan people and their sultanate. Kayan society was built on riverside longhouses and shifting upland-rice farms; its feast of collected heads combined warrior initiation with funeral rites.

They hunted with the sumpitan blowpipe, forged the malat sword as their chief trade good, and recited their past in sung epics called tekna'. Women bore intricate tattoos and both sexes stretched their earlobes as a mark of beauty and standing.