Kalimantan (; ) is the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n portion of the island of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. It constitutes 73% of the island's area, and consists of the provinces of

Central Kalimantan Central Kalimantan () is a provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is one of five provinces in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. It is the largest province in Indonesia by area since 2022, bordered by West Kalimantan to the west ...

East Kalimantan East Kalimantan (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. Its territory comprises the eastern portion of Borneo/Kalimantan. It had a population of about 3.03 million at the 2010 census (within the cu ...

North Kalimantan North Kalimantan () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawa ...

South Kalimantan South Kalimantan () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is the second most populous province on the island of Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory of the island of Borneo after West Kalimantan. The provincial capital was Banjar ...

, and

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan () is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital and largest city is Pontianak. It is bordered by East Kalimantan and Central ...

. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

and

East Malaysia East Malaysia (), or the Borneo States, also known as Malaysian Borneo, is the part of Malaysia on and near the island of Borneo, the world's third-largest island. East Malaysia comprises the states of Sabah, Sarawak, and the Federal Territory ...

. In

the whole island of Borneo is also called "Kalimantan". In 2019, President of Indonesia

Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), often known mononymously as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician, engineer, and businessman who served as the seventh president of Indonesia from 2014 to 2024. Previously a member of the Indonesian Democratic ...

proposed that Indonesia's capital be moved to Kalimantan. The

People's Consultative Assembly The People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia (, MPR-RI) is the legislative branch in Indonesia's political system. It is composed of the members of a lower body, House of Representatives (DPR) and an upper body, Regional R ...

approved the

Law on State Capital Law on State Capital () is an omnibus law to relocate capital of Indonesia from Jakarta to Nusantara at East Kalimantan as new capital of Indonesia. The omnibus bill of the law was passed into law on 18 January 2022, and finally commenced o ...

in January 2022. The future capital, Nusantara, is a

planned city A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

that will be carved out of East Kalimantan. A government official said construction is expected to be fully complete by 2045, but the unfinished capital officially celebrated

Indonesian Independence Day The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence (, or simply ''Proklamasi'') was read at 10:00 Japan Standard Time, Tokyo Standard Time on Friday 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of ...

for the first time and it was scheduled to be inaugurated as the capital city on 17 August 2024, but the move did not take place due to delays of construction.

Etymology

The name ''Kalimantan'' is derived from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

word , which means "burning weather island" or "very hot island", referring to its hot and humid

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

climate. It consists of the two words ("time, season, period") and ("boiling, churning, burning"). The native people of the Indonesian Borneo referred to their island as ''Pulu K'lemantan'' or "Kalimantan" when the sixteenth century Portuguese explorer

Jorge de Menezes Jorge de Menezes (also spelt Meneses) (c. 1498 – 1537) was a Portuguese explorer. Due to a monsoon, he was forced to reside in Versya, posited by Pieter Anton Tiele as Waisai, between 1526 and 1527. Menezes called the region ''Ilhas dos Papuas' ...

made contact with them. Due to Europeans encountering the Bruneian Sultanate in the north part of the island during the

Age of Exploration The Age of Discovery (), also known as the Age of Exploration, was part of the early modern period and overlapped with the Age of Sail. It was a period from approximately the 15th to the 17th century, during which Seamanship, seafarers fro ...

, the entire island has come to be called Borneo in English, with Kalimantan being known as Indonesian Borneo, but this name is not used in Indonesia itself. In the early twentieth century, the British colonist Charles Hose described Kalimantan as being home to a " Klemantan people", but this term is no longer in use as Kalimantan has always had many ethnic groups.

Area

The Indonesian territory makes up 73% of the island by area, and 72.1% of its 2020 population of 23,053,723 (the population was 13,772,543 at the 2010 Census of Indonesia, and 16,625,796 at the 2020 Census).Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are of

(460,345 in 2020) and

(5,967,582 in 2020), the latter comprising the states of

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

(3,418,785) and

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

(2,453,677), and the federal territory of

Labuan Labuan (), officially the Federal Territory of Labuan (), is an island federal territory of Malaysia. It includes and six smaller islands off the coast of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Labuan's capital is Victoria, which is best kno ...

(95,120). Kalimantan's total area is . The widespread deforestation and other environmental destruction in Kalimantan and other parts of Indonesia has often been described by academics as an

ecocide Ecocide (from Greek 'home' and Latin 'to kill') is the destruction of the natural environment, environment by humans. Ecocide threatens all human populations that are dependent on natural resources for maintaining Ecosystem, ecosystems and ensu ...

Administrative divisions

Kalimantan is now divided into five

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

. It was administered as one province between 1945 and 1956, but in 1956 it was split into three provinces –

and

; then in 1957, the province of

was created when it was split away from the existing South Kalimantan. There remained four provinces until 25 October 2012, when

was split off from

. These are listed below with their areas in km² and their populations at the 2010 and 2020 Censuses, together with the official estimates as at mid 2023. ^{* excluding North Kalimantan, split off from East Kalimantan with resulting population and area loss for the 2015 census.}

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Number of the largest population of ethnic groups according to the 2010 census:

Religion

Number of the largest population of religious groups according to the 2010 census: Number of the largest population of religious groups in 2023:

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Borneo Islands of Indonesia Greater Sunda Islands Maritime Southeast Asia Populated places in Indonesia