Ot Danum (also known as Dohoi, Malahoi, Uud Danum or Uut Danum) people are a subethnicity of the

Dayak people The Dayak (; older spelling: Dajak) or Dyak or Dayuh are one of the native groups of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic groups, located principally in the central and southern interior of Borneo, each w ...

(hence also referred as Dayak Ot Danum) dwelling at the upper reaches of south Kapuas River, and along the Schwaner range, bordering

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city is Pontianak. The province has an area of 147,307&nbs ...

and

Central Kalimantan Central Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Tengah) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five provinces in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. Its provincial capital is Palangka Raya and in 2010 its population was over 2.2 million, while the 20 ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. They are the most important group of the upper Melawi River and culturally and linguistically the most distinct from the

Malay people Malays ( ms, Orang Melayu, Jawi: أورڠ ملايو) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations — areas that are c ...

. Besides, the

, the Ot Danum people are also linguistically distinct from the

Ngaju people The Ngaju people (also Ngaju Dayak or Dayak Ngaju or Biaju) are an indigenous ethnic group of Borneo from the Dayak group. In a census from 2000, when they were first listed as a separate ethnic group, they made up 18.02% of the population of C ...

who live along the middle reaches of

's great rivers and who are numerically and linguistically the dominant

group in the area. Just like most

group, majority of the Ot Danum people also practice Kaharingan religion. The word ''Ot'' means people or upstream, while the word ''Danum'' means water. Therefore, the name ''Ot Danum'' means "water people" or "upriver people" or "people who live at the upstream river". The Ot Danum people are closely tied to living with nature and would revere the traditions of their ancestors by taking care of the balance between mankind and the surrounding nature.

References

Ethnic groups in Indonesia Kalimantan Dayak people {{Indonesia-stub