One of the conditions for a cultural festival can develop and last for a long time is because it has a uniqueness that is not found elsewhere. In the Isen Mulang Cultural Festival, the unique culture of Dayak people from 14 districts /cities throughout Central Kalimantan will be the main attraction for visitors to this event.

Isen Mulang Cultural Festival is an annual festival held in the city of Palangka Raya to celebrate the Central Kalimantan Anniversary which falls in May.

Isen Mulang is on the annual agenda of the Palangkaraya Tourism Office. The purpose of this event is to showcase and increasingly popularize cultural diversity in Central Kalimantan which is packaged in the form of carnivals.

This activity is routinely carried out in every year including holding various cultural events, such as the Balogo Contest, Manewang Competition, Manetek, Manyila Kayu, Karungut Cultural Song Contest, Sepak Sawut, Besei Kambe and others.

In addition to the competitions, exhibitions of superior products are held, followed by various regions throughout Indonesia in the Central Kalimantan Expo. Kalteng Expo itself as a means to introduce superior products from regional craftsmen, MSMEs and Cooperatives who are fostered partners from both BUMN / BUMD and large private companies in Central Kalimantan.

Isen Mulang as a discourse means not going home if you don’t win. This means that once the Dayaks decide to take to the battlefield, it is very embarrassing if he comes home without bringing victory. Because of this, it is better to go home with the name only than to go home after being defeated.

For those who return home being losers , the person concerned will not have a place to put face in front of the community. He is not to be seen again. Instead of going home no longer seen by the village people, it is a sign that he is not someone who is “mamut-menteng, smart-harati, mameh-ureh, he is reliably “batimpal” (courageous, clever, lackluster and diligent, unrivaled great), then instead of living a shame, it’s better to fight it out to win.

Even if he dies in this fight, he has defended his life, dignity and prestige as a Dayak. Symbolically, Isen Mulang’s views and attitudes are expressed by “lawung bahandang” (red headband), or even plots (menumiti the earth). Once Uluh, It wears a lawung bahandang, puts on a red bowl, or even turns on pétak, meaning that it is ready to go down competing with the motif as above.

According to such discourse, Utus Itah calls itself Utus Panarung, the face of an ideal or ideal human being. Isen Mulang as part of the value order of the ideal man, also expressed with a low view of a liar, whose words and deeds are different, to traitors, thieves.

The Isen Mulang Festival is the right momentum to revive the tourism industry in Central Kalimantan. This activity is thick with cultural nuances that are packed with national standards.

Isen Mulang is an inseparable part of the philosophy of life and death of Dayak people who manifest themselves in various forms, including art-literature. Because of this, Indonesian Isen Mulang with Forward Trembling or Never Surrender, is probably very inadequate, to say it is not right. Progressing without fear and or never giving up is not able to accommodate the breadth and depth of the Dayak human discourse about life and death.

But presumably Isen Mulang’s discourse is an inseparable part of Dayak philosophy, including discourse that is still very responsive to the time to be embodied and needs to be understood or understood its meaning deeply.

Surabaya, 29 Juli 2019