The Dayak Proverbs Related to Land and Life

Proverbs, for the Dayak people are not just beautiful words that are easy to say and pleasant to listen to.

However, the proverb contains the essence of tacit knowledge of a nation, tribe, and tribe that has lived for hundreds, even thousands

Traditions in Proverbs

Maybe as a foreigner, you will ask, “Why is this customary law so strong among the Dayaks wherever they are?”

The answer is this proverb,

1. “Hidup dikandung adat, mati dikandung tanah (Life is conceived by custom, death is conceived by soil).
2. “Betungkat ke adat basa bepegai ke pengator pekara – Stick to the customs and obey the customs of the customary holders – the proverbs of the Iban people.
3. “Biar sesat di belantara, asalkan jangan sesat di adat basa” (Let us get lost in the wilderness, as long as we don’t go astray in traditional customs).

Proverbs, for the Dayak people are not just beautiful words that are easy to say and pleasant to listen to. However, the proverb contains the essence of tacit knowledge of a nation, tribe, and tribe that has lived for hundreds, even thousands of years. Proverbs reflect their excellences that have not been stated out through scientific articles and books.

Tacit knowledge

We know that in the process of birth and configuration of knowledge, tacit knowledge is 95% of human knowledge and virtue.The rest, which is written and recorded, is only 5%.

read Ladang Orang Dayak Ramah Lingkungan

This tacit knowledge is thick among ethnic groups who still live in traditional cultural customs. From the Latin lata “tacere”, the third person singular is “tacit”, per the dictionary meaning it means: silent, not speaking (Latin Indonesian Dictionary, 1969: 847).

What is meant, of course, is not silence in the literal sense, mute, or not talk at all. Tacit knowledge is knowledge acquired not in school or college, from the formal teaching-learning process between teacher-students. However, tacit knowledge is acquired by a serious learner through a series of: experience, thought, competence, and commitment.

read The Dayaks Are From Nowhere Else But Borneo According to Prehistoric Research, Carbon Dating, Inscriptions, and Artifacts

Processed in such a way, through a dialectical process like science and theory, in such a way as to become knowledge and competence with a system and methodology. It can be said, a person who has tacit knowledge has even reached the level of discovering and building his own theory. It comes in 4 main advantages, this tacit knowledge consists of:

1) experience,
2) thought,
3) compensation, and
4) commitment.

In the Dayak proverb above we find it all!