Kayanic

Kayanic, more fully the Kayan-Murik languages, is the Malayo-Polynesian group spoken by the upriver Dayak peoples of the Borneo interior: the Kayan dialects, the closely related Bahau and the Murik. Its speakers trace their homeland to the Apo Kayan plateau of North Kalimantan, shared by the Kayan and Kenyah.

Over the centuries they spread into Sarawak as part of the Orang Ulu, or upriver people, and their expansion collided with Iban groups moving in the same period. They lived by shifting upland-rice cultivation, built longhouses, and were feared headhunters whose warriors held feasts of collected heads.

Their smiths traded forged swords and their singers preserved history in the sung Tekna' epics. In the 1600s the Kayan sub-group Uma Apan pushed into eastern Borneo, adopted Islam and gave rise to the Bulungan people and their sultanate.