Samboja () is a district in

Kutai Kartanegara Regency Kutai Kartanegara Regency (abbreviated as ''Kukar'') is a regency of East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. It has a land area of 27,891.13 km2 and a water area of 4,097 km2, geographically located between 1°18′40″S and 116°31′3 ...

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 ...

, Indonesia. As of 2023, it was inhabited by 41,607 people, and currently has the total area of 284.93 km². Its district seat is located at the village of Kampung Lama. It borders West Samboja to the west and Muara Jawa to the north.

Etymology

The origin of this place name is still unclear, there are two theories: from a male given name, or from a purported Chinese sentence ''sam bo cia'' "not eating in three days".

History

The small town of Samboja was founded about a century ago in what was then rainforest when oil was discovered in the area. The first drilling began in 1897 near Balikpapan Bay. Dutch oil workers moved into the area to work for a company that was later taken over by

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

and later still by the national Indonesian oil company

Pertamina PT Pertamina (Persero) is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation, headquartered in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of ''Pertamin'' (established 1961) and ''Permina'' (established in 1957). In 2020, the ...

. The oil company began cutting wood in the 1950s and as people came flooding into the booming oil town of Balikpapan they cleared the surrounding forest. With the pronounced

El Niño EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

of 1982 and 1983 there were fires in the area, destroying the pockets of forest that remained. From 24 April 1969, Samboja was divided into two by gubernatorial decree number 55/TH-Pem/SK/1969, of which parts north of the "Rawa III river" (2,947 km²) were given to

Samarinda Samarinda is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The city lies on the banks of the Mahakam River with a land area of . Samarinda was one of Indonesia's top ten City qu ...

, while parts south of it (726 km²) were given to

Balikpapan Balikpapan is a seaport city in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Located on the east coast of the island of Borneo, the city is the financial center of Kalimantan. Balikpapan is the city with the largest economy in Kalimantan with an estimated 20 ...

. However, Samarinda returned the district to Kutai on 21 October 1987. Sanga-Sanga and Muara Jawa were likewise part of Samarinda at that time. According to 2009

TED talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

with

Willie Smits Willie Smits (born February 22, 1957, in Weurt, Gelderland, the Netherlands) is a trained forester, microbiologist, conservationist, animal welfare activist, wilderness engineer and social entrepreneur. He has lived in Indonesia since 1985 an ...

(the founder of Samboja Lestari reserve), Samboja in 2002 was the poorest district of East Kalimantan, with 50% of the population unemployed and a high crime rate. Almost a quarter of average income went on buying drinking water. The land was covered with alang-alang grass (''

Imperata cylindrica ''Imperata cylindrica'' (commonly known as cogongrass or kunai grass ) is a species of Perennial plant, perennial rhizomatous grass native to tropical and subtropical Asia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, Africa, and Southern Europe. It has al ...

''), putting it at high risk for repeated forest and land fires. There were many nutrition and hygiene related health problems and life expectancy was low, with high infant and maternal mortality. In 2019, Indonesian President

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 ...

announced the relocation of Indonesia's capital from Jakarta to a yet to be developed city in East Kalimantan, which will span portions of Samboja. The initial plan proposed construction of the capital city start in 2021, but was postponed due to shifting government priorities mitigating the effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia The COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia is part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was confirmed to have spread to I ...

. On 19 October 2020, the western parts of Samboja (containing 10 villages) were separated to form the new district of West Samboja, with its seat located at Tani Bhakti.

Governance

Villages

Samboja is divided into the following 13 villages (the rest are urban , rural are marked by grey background):

Etymology

History

Governance

Villages

References

Further reading