Location And History Of The Daya Tribe

The dayak people are a group of around 200 different small ethnic group located around Borneo. Their main habitat is on the hills dotted around Borneo. As with most tribes found around the Indonesian archipelago, they emigrated from mainland Asia, and settled at their current locations about 3,000 years ago. 

Their fierce and violent actions against western traders during the 19^th and 20^th centuries are well documented. In the past, most of the Dayak people believed in spirits and very superstitious, but in the past 50 years they have slowly converted into religions such as, Anglicanism, roman Catholicism and Protestantism, although most are Muslim or Christian. Until recently, many people of this tribe lived in small groups, with about 10 families in each group. However, recently young men and women have been leaving early to find work. As of now, there are 2-4 million dayak people. 

The Daya Tribe's Architecture

The daya’s style of constructing houses is very simple but effective. The usual layout of a house would only consist of two rooms, a bedroom and a large guest room. The reason why they make their homes so simple is because it uses minimal effort to construct and if there is a problem it is very easy to fix. The Daya construct their houses using natural, easy to find materials such as bamboo, wood and coconut palm leafs. Considering the weather is usually wet and damp, Daya people layer the coconut palm leaf roofing with clay to make sure no water can seep into their homes. 

More info on the Daya Tribe

The Daya homes are found on the southern and western foothills and mountains of the Bukit Barisan range. The soil around the area that the Daya live is very fertile, therefore, they make a living out of farming. The Daya's main crop is rice, however, they also plany coffee, rubber, fruits, coconut, and yam. Their houses are usually made of wood and bamboo,and the roof is made with coconut palm leaves that are layered with clay. The Daya are also followers of Islam.

P.S The picture shows a Daya house made with wood

General info of the Daya tribe

The Daya, or Dayak tribe are a large indigenous tribe that live among the vast Sumatran rain forest, fish in the river that runs through it, and hunt in the forest with techniques and weapon designs that are centuries old. When contact was first made with the daya people, they were very welcoming and open to alliances. Globalization made the Daya tribe change some of their practices, like religion. They were known to have practiced animist polytheism, which is practicing of human sacrifices and head hunting. However, as colonization spread throughout the area, some of the extreme practices have stopped