Ngaju

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The Ngaju are an indigenous group of people from the island of Borneo . They are counted among the Dayak . The Ngaju live in the interior of the Indonesian province of Kalimantan Tengah , mainly along the Barito , Kapuas and Kahayan rivers , and number around 500,000 to 800,000 members. They speak their own language, the Ngaju , which belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family and is divided into other local dialects. The ancient Indonesian religion of the Ngaju is now called Kaharingan and is officially a variant of Hinduism in Indonesia , as the restricted freedom of religion in Indonesia does not recognize any ethnic religion to which they actually adhere. However, many Ngaju have now converted to Christianity or Islam .

Cosmogonic myths, religion and the cult of the dead represent an extremely extensive body of thought, the complete textual reproduction of which would comprise several thousand printed pages. The Swiss missionary and ethnologist Hans Schärer lived on behalf of the Basel Mission from 1932 to 1939 with the Ngaju and made the Ngaju traditions known through his research.

literature

  • Jani Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo: A Bridge to the Upper World: Sacred Language of the Ngaju. In: Borneo Research Bulletin , January 1, 1999.
  • Hans Schärer: Ngaju Religion: The Conceptions of God among South Borneo People . KITLV Press, The Hague 1963
  • Hans Schärer: The death cult of the Ngadju Dajak in South Borneo. Myths about the cult of the dead and the texts about the Tantolak Matei. 2 volumes. Martinus Nijhoff, 's-Gravenhage 1966 ( JSTOR 10.1163 / j.ctt1w8h2q0 )
  • Anne Schiller: Religion and Identity in Central Kalimantan: The Case of the Ngaju Dayaks. In: Indigenous Peoples and the State: Politics, Land, and Ethnicity in the Malayan Peninsula and Borneo . Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, New Haven 1997