“Revival” of the Dayak Priest-King from a Historical Perspective: The Case of the Ulu Ai’ in Southwestern Kalimantan

Abstract

This paper examines how the Ulu Ai’, a Dayak priest-king in the hinterland of southwestern Kalimantan, was “revived” after the fall of the Soeharto regime in 1998. Heir to a sacred heirloom, the Ulu Ai’ was worshipped by the Dayak people in southwestern Kalimantan, but his ritual authority was dependent on the authority of the Matan kingdom, a Malay kingdom in the region that had collapsed at the time of Indonesia’s independence. Since then, the Ulu Ai’ had survived in the hinterland as a shaman giving blessings to the marginalized Dayak people there. Soon after the fall of Soeharto, the Ulu Ai’ re-emerged from the hinterland and was “revived” at a large ritual to ward off evil, in which the Dayak people collectively claimed their customary rights. After the ritual, the Ulu Ai’ fostered a close relationship with the Dayak elites, who had gained power in local politics. The Dayak political elites needed the local authorities in the hinterland to obtain the support of the Dayak people there, while the Ulu Ai’ needed a close relationship with the Dayak political elites to expand his ritual authority among the Dayak people in the hinterland. The interdependence between the Dayak political elites and the Ulu Ai’ brought about the resurgence of the Ulu Ai’ in local politics.