The Kedayan (also known as Kadayan, Kadaian or Kadyan) are an ethnic group residing in

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

, Federal Territory of Labuan, southwest of

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...

, and north of

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

on the island of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...

. According to the Language and Literature Bureau of Brunei, the Kedayan language (

ISO 639-3 ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...

: kxd) is spoken by about 30,000 people in Brunei, and it has been claimed that there are a further 46,500 speakers in Sabah and 37,000 in Sarawak. In Sabah the Kedayan mainly live in the cities of Sipitang, Beaufort, Kuala Penyu and Papar. In Sarawak the Kedayans mostly reside in Lawas, Limbang,

Miri ) , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = , subdivision_type2 = Division , subdivision_name2 ...

and the Subis area. The Kedayan people are also regarded as a sub-ethnic group of the Klemantan

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 ...

History

The origins of the Kedayans are uncertain. Some of them believe their people were originally from Ponorogo,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

, which they left during the reign of Sultan

Bolkiah Bolkiah, also known as Nakhoda Ragam, was the 5th Sultan of Brunei. He ascended the throne upon the abdication of his father, Sultan Sulaiman, and ruled Brunei from 1485 to 1524. His reign marked the Golden Age of Brunei and saw the Sultanate ...

. Because of his fame as a

sea captain A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel.Aragon and Messner, 2001, p.3. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficie ...

and voyager, the Sultan was well-known to the people of Java, Sumatra and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It is believed that when the Sultan arrived to the island of Java, he became interested in the local agricultural techniques. He brought some of the Javanese farmers back to his country to spread their techniques. The farmers inter-married with the local

Bruneian Malay people Bruneian MalaysBrunei Malay in its various forms can be identified with a nation, an ethnic group and a region. ( ms, Orang Melayu Brunei, Jawi: ) are a native Malay ethnic group that lives in Brunei, the federal territory of Labuan, the so ...

, giving birth to the ''Kedayan'' ethnicity. Most Kedayans have adopted Islam since the Islamic era of the Sultanate of Brunei. They have also adopted Malay culture. The Kedayans are recognized as one of the indigenous people of

. They are experts in making traditional medicines. The Kedayans are well known for their cultivation of

medicinal plants Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection ...

, which they grow to treat a wide range of ailments and to make tonics. The language of one of the indigenous tribes, the

Banjar people The Banjar or Banjarese ( bjn, Urang Banjar; ) are an indigenous ethnic group native to the Banjar regions (notably Banjarmasin, Banjarbaru, Banjar Regency, etc.) in the southeastern Kalimantan hemisphere of Indonesia. Nowadays, Banjarese ...

in Kutai,

East Kalimantan East Kalimantan (Indonesian: ) is a province of Indonesia. Its territory comprises the eastern portion of Borneo. It had a population of about 3.03 million at the 2010 census (within the current boundary), 3.42 million at the 2015 census, and 3 ...

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 Guine ...

, is said to share more than 90% of the vocabulary with the Kedayan language, despite the fact that the Banjarese do not refer to themselves as Kedayans. Both the Kedayans and the Banjarese are related, to a certain extent, because of the similarities in their languages.

Language

The Kedayan language is similar to Brunei Malay, and it has been claimed that as many as 94% of the words in the two languages are cognate. The main differences in pronunciation are that Kedayan has initial /h/ while Brunei Malay does not, so Kedayan ''hutan'' (forest) is ''utan'' in Brunei Malay; and Kedayan does not have /r/, so Malay ''rumah'' (house) is ''umah'' in Kedayan.Faahirah, R., & Deterding, D. (2019). The pronunciation of Kedayan, ''South East Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal'', 19, 78–85
On-line Version
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Notable people

* Sapawi Ahmad – Malaysia representative for Sipitang constituency *

Ahmad Lai Bujang Datuk Haji Ahmad Lai bin Bujang (26 November 1949 – 9 August 2019) was a Malaysian politician. He was the Member of the Parliament of Malaysia for the Sibuti constituency in Sarawak, representing the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) in ...

– Malaysia representative for

Sibuti Sibuti is a federal constituency in Miri Division (Miri District and Subis District), Sarawak, Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territori ...

constituency * Pengiran Ahmad Raffae – The second of The head of State of

References

External links

{{Authority control North Kalimantan Ethnic groups in Brunei Ethnic groups in Sabah Ethnic groups in Sarawak