Traditional Ceremonies

Tepung Tawar
Tepung Tawar is a ceremony held to welcome visitors to the region or local villages. This ceremony is held in order to protect the visitors from bad spirit and disease as long as they are in the area. This ceremony is marked by smearing the faces of the guests on the floor and followed by traditional music and dance which is called "BURAI-BURAI".

Kelebur Bejamug
This ia a farewell ceremony to the visitors or guests who going to leave the place visited. This ceremony is held by some women of the local village.
Penhos
A Dayak Modang Tribe punishment ceremony, which takes the offender who is tied to several bamboo stems carried up to the river and submerged in the water by local people many times. This action is thought to cleanse not only the offender, but also the whole village from his sinful behaviour. A traditional village feast is also held to celebrate the occasion.

Belian
This is a ceremony of healing disease. The Dayak Benuaq Tribe believe that desease appears because there is imbalance between spiritual world and material world and it can be stabilized by holding Belian ceremony.
On this ceremony the entertainer wear specific uniform and is followed by traditional music while delivering ritual praying to recover the sick people. Belian traditional ceremony can be held for seven days and nights.

Kwangkai
Kwangkai means "fruit of corpse". This is a ceremony of moving a dead body (bones) of an ancestor after the body has been buried for four or five years. Then the bones are carried to a "Lamin" (long house) to be given a ceremonial service by the local people.
Generally the ceremony is held by Dayak Benuaq and Dayak Tunjung tribes for 21 days and 21 nights. The ceremony is also completed by "SETINGGIH" which invites the spirits of their forefathers.
This ritual also included other kinds of ritual such as "SETANGGIH / WARA" (the praise to old people's soul), "Ngerangkau" (dancing together with stepping "alu", a tool for pounding rice) is performed by some girls to deliver souls to the final place. Besides that, they also held customary ritual such as "pekanan saru", "sengkeliat", "senciwo", "sengkaramu", "lalaupang", "sengkaljung" and ended with "belontang".