Kalimantan Tengah (Central Kalimantan) is about in the centre of Borneo Island. It is the one of Indonesian provinces. In comparison to the other provinces of Indonesia, this province is relatively in backward of the physical development stages. However, it has been a place of peaceful and lovely place for living. Geologically its area is far away from many natural disaster effects such as earthquakes / tsunami, land slides and others. The problem of smog during long summer days is only a temporary of extreme cause to affect the small portion of the most of natural living style of local community. This area has been able to be stable and recover from an internal ethnical riot in year 2001.

Central Kalimantan is still the one of largest area of Indonesian provinces. It has been number four among the provinces of Irian Jaya Barat, Papua and East Kalimantan.

The province was borne as the result of reorganization of Indonesian provinces in Kalimantan. It used to be a part of South Kalimantan Province.

Most of the land of the province is still mysterious, Southern part in general is cover by peat land and tidal areas. Across to the North, the landscapes come to the mountainous area of the Muller Schwanner mountain belt. This also is still to be a mysterious place for people.

Capital of the province is Palangka Raya. This city is in the centre from the all districts in the province. There is no so much different level of the development stages between the province and the districts; instead many of districts have been able to achieve a relatively bigger progress of development than the province, such as district of Kotawaringin Timur, Kotawaringin Barat and Barito Utara. This is caused by the leading position of Palangka Raya in the centre of province to bring about better simultaneous growing stages to the hinterland areas. Nowadays, inhabitants of this province are only about 12 percent per square kilometers and they are multi ethnic and multi cultural from all over Indonesian. However the first native inhabitant is the Dayak tribes.

Whenever you take a look from the window of a plane to the land surface of Central Kalimantan, you have to find a way to disclose the almost forever silvery clouds in the blue sky that always cover sky of the “Isen Mulang” (or no retreat). If it is enable, with a curious and distinctive effort, at first, you may be able to have a look to the almost virgin and silent shoreline of the province in the beach of Java Sea along 750 kilometers, there the downstream of big rivers comes to the end as just look like the head of big dragon in a never ending body. There are 11 big rivers and thousands of tributaries and small rivers. By the time you will see the hearth of Central Kalimantan, the province’s capital of Palangka Raya that lied down almost in the centre of Borneo Island.

Palangka Raya is a small city that has been created from nothing, as a result of grand design of Republic of Indonesia in the earlier time of Indonesian independence. The city was erected by the first President of Indonesia, Mr. Soekarno in togetherness with Mr. Tjilik Riwut and the local leaders of native people of Dayak. However, the city has been built hand in hand by almost all of the peoples of Indonesian. This is the only one of first city that has been planned and built from nothing in Indonesia. The city can be said as a nice gift of the earlier time of Indonesian independence that is in 1957.

Palangka Raya city can bee seen as a corner stone of a city development in Indonesia, because it was borne as the result of the fruit of Indonesian independence. It is from nothing to anything.

This is the one reason for annually event in the city has been arranged in an annual festival of Art and Culture of Dayak that is so called Isen Mulang Festival. This is an agenda of art and culture of the traditional Dayak tribes and their cultural blending to the outsides of their world.

The festival is of course, away from glamorous utopia art and culture dreams. This is only a representation of the native original simplicity of the tribal living of Dayak in the natural harmony and the philosophy of Indonesian Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (unity in diversity). This event is seldom and may be stranger for outside world, but we are exist and reachable for all who want to have in touch. …… So let’s go to discover Central Kalimantan in Palangka Raya through Isen Mulang Art and Cultural Festival. Come to the “the lung of the world” and the home of “orang hutan”, the most exotic and closer big ape or primate to human being.