East Kalimantan

East Kalimantan is a province of Indonesia. Its territory comprises the eastern portion of Borneo. It has a population of about 3.5 million, and its capital is Samarinda.

East Kalimantan has a total area of 129,066.64 square kilometres (49,832.91 sq mi) and is the second least densely populated province in Kalimantan. The majority of the region shares a maritime border to the east with West Sulawesi and North Sulawesi; its coastline faces the Makassar Strait and the Celebes Sea. Its former northernmost region is now North Kalimantan; to its south, East Kalimantan borders the South Kalimantan province. The province bordered Sabah before the split, but still borders Sarawak.

East Kalimantan is now divided into six regencies and three cities. Awang Faroek Ishak is its governor and Mukmin Faisal as its vice governor.

History

This province is the location of the oldest Hindu kingdom in Indonesia, Kutai, the existence of which is attested to by a stone manuscript, or Prasasti, which is now kept in the National Museum in Jakarta. The manuscript is written in the Pallava alphabet and the Sanskrit language. The replica of this manuscript can be seen in the Governor's Office in Samarinda.

Inscriptions on seven stone pillars (yupa posts) erected in the fifth century BCE on the command of a local ruler, King Mulavarman, records his victories, his generosity to Brahmins, his princely genealogy.

Historical population Year Pop. ±% 1971 733,797 — 1980 1,218,016 +66.0% 1990 1,876,663 +54.1% 1995 2,314,183 +23.3% 2000 2,451,895 +6.0% 2010 3,553,143 +44.9% 2014 3,508,012 −1.3% Source: Badan Pusat Statistik 2014.
These figures before 2012 include the population of the city and four northerly regencies split off in that year to form the new North Kalimantan Province; subsequent figures exclude them.

Ecology

Illegal logging has removed much of the original forests of the province. Less than half the original forest remains in places such as the Kayan Mentarang the Kutai national parks.

The projects that supports tropical rainforest conservation includes a WWF project and Samboja Lestari lodge, one of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation's reforestation and orangutan rehabilitation projects.

Tourist sites

At Kutai Regencies, There's a Bukit Bangkirai National park with their famously 30m canopy bridges that took 45 min driving by cars from Balikpapan city and Great Stone Wall (Batu Dinding) located at km.41 and took between 30 min with cars from Balikpapan city and another 15 min by walking to the spot. Orang utan sanctuary, Crocodile breeding park, and Botanical Garden located at Balikpapan city with some few other beach spot for tourism. At North Penajam Paser Regencies, there's a Deer Sanctuary and its also a waterfall at Riko, and another 2 waterfalls near ex. PT. International Timber Coorporation Indonesia area and another one dept to the jungle near Sepaku with located secretly by peoples to keep the waterfall beautiful and naturalized without any human or tourism damages. There also Mount Parung located at Sepaku as the Highest Mountain in the Area with a big cave and pre-historic stone formation at the peak of it. making In addition to Derawan Islands, East Kalimantan has a unique natural site, Labuan Cermin Lake at Biduk-biduk district which features fresh water on top with about 2 meters thickness and sea water underneath it. Both fresh water fish and sea water fish live in the lake inhabiting their respective habitat layer. "Cermin" means mirror in Indonesian language and the lake was named so due to the clarity of the water.

North Kalimantan Province

North Kalimantan was formally inaugurated as the 34th province of Indonesia on April 15, 2013. The new province was previously part of East Kalimantan Province and Irianto Lambrie will be acting as the governor of it until a new governor is chosen by their people in an election.