life must be balanced and kept in harmony between man and spirits and between man and his natural environment. This is also the basic concept of Balinese Hinduism, which in Bali is known as the Tri Hita Karana. In practice the Ngaju Dayaks focus on the supernatural world of spirits, including ancestral spirit. For them, the secondary funeral is most important, usually held after several months or even years after burial. During the second funeral rites (known as tiwah) the bones are exhumed and cleansed then placed in a special mausoleum, called sandung. The spirit of the deceased is then believed to watch over the village. The mausoleums are often beautifully decorated, showing scenes of the upper world. An ornate ship of the dead made of rubber is usually placed next to the remains depicting his entourage that accompany the soul to paradise. One of the most outstanding features of the Dayak faith is their local wisdom and innate concern to preserve the forest and the natural environment. There are strict rules and directives on how to treat the rain forests, what may be done or taken from the forests and what are taboo. The Dayaks’ local wisdom directs that trespassing these rules will destroy the balance of the forest and animals living in the forest, and so directly or indirectly will adversely damage communities living from the forest bounty. Recognition by the Indonesian government Among the many tribes of Dayaks in Borneo, those living in the upper reaches of the rivers in the province of Central Kalimantan are the Dayak Ngaju, the Lawangan, the Ma'anyan and the Ot Danum, known as the Barito Dayaks, named after the large Barito river. The Ngaju, who inhabit the Kahayan river basin by the present city of Palangkaraya, are involved in agricultural commerce, planting rice, cloves, coffee, palm oil, pepper and cocoa, whilst, the other tribes still mostly practice subsistence farming through the slash-and-burn lifestyle. The Dayak Ngaju were more open to technological and cultural influences from the outside than most other Dayak ethnic groups, even during precolonial times. With the arrival of the Dutch and – in 1835 – the missionary Rheinische Mission (later followed up by the Basel Mission), many converted to Christianity. The missionaries founded schools and increased the literacy rate. Education stimulated a 'national awakening' among the Ngaju and Ma'anyan Dayak. Already long before the Second World War, the