VIRTUAL London Heritages Conference

Abstract

Indonesia is well known with diverse culture and beautiful nature that makes it a potential tourism destination. Kalimantan island has Dayak indigenous people that inhabit almost the area of Kalimantan Island. These tribes have unique cultures, both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In relation to cultural heritage tourism, it is important to conserve the intangible cultural heritage. Maintaining the intangible heritage means to sustain the cultural heritage tourism. This study aims to explore and investigate the practices of Dayak intangible cultural heritage in daily life and in relation to its status as a cultural tourist village. What intangible cultural heritages have changed and what are remain. Is the cultural Festival merely a tourist’s attraction? A qualitative study is used to conduct this study. Four Dayak Cultural villages which are tourism destinations in East Kalimantan Province were chosen as case studies. The villages are Nehas Liah Bing, Ritan Baru, Pampang and Merasa’. These villages were chosen as they practise their intangible cultural heritage and held cultural festival annually. The primary data were gathered through field observation before, during and after the cultural festival. In addition to this, at least seven villagers in each village were interviewed with semi-structured questions regarding the cultural festival. The data was then analysed using a cross-case analysis with thematic analysis. The key findings to emerge from field observation and the interview that the harvest cultural festival is a part of the tradition, not merely an attraction of cultural tourism. One interesting finding is that despite the effort to conserve the originality of the intangible cultural heritage, some cultural activities e.g. Ngayau, Nemlen are no longer practised due to their contradiction with their beliefs. While long ear, traditional tattoo, Ngendau are facing the decreasing due to modernity issue. While, dances, playing traditional instrume