Qualla: The Mahakam: Borneo's River of Kingdoms and Dolphins https://qualla.com/mahakam-river en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:27 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/e/mahakam-river-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The Mahakam: Borneo's River of Kingdoms and Dolphins https://qualla.com/mahakam-river The Mahakam: Borneo's River of Kingdoms and Dolphins: Introduction https://qualla.com/mahakam-river/ Photo credit Agri at Indonesian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The fishermen on the middle Mahakam call them pesut. Freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins, barely eighty left, surfacing in brown water between coal barges and fishing nets. That a critically endangered cetacean still breathes in one of Indonesia's busiest industrial waterways tells you everything about this river: the Mahakam has always held contradictions together. It cradles ancient kingdoms and oil fields, pristine peatland and heavy-metal pollution, thirty shallow lakes and three billion barrels of petroleum, all along 980 kilometers of equatorial Borneo.

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Image: Agri at Indonesian Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/e/mahakam-river-wp/qxge-the-mahakam-borneos-river-of-kingdoms-and-dolphins-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Mahakam: Borneo's River of Kingdoms and Dolphins: Where the River Begins https://qualla.com/mahakam-river/ Photo credit Hidayat008, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Mahakam rises at Cemaru, 1,681 meters up in the mountainous heart of Kalimantan, where the pre-tertiary spine of Borneo divides Indonesian and Malaysian territory. From there it cuts southeast through ancient rock, meeting the Kedang Pahu tributary at Muara Pahu before enteri...

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Image: Hidayat008 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/e/mahakam-river-wp/qxge-the-mahakam-borneos-river-of-kingdoms-and-dolphins-where-the-river-begins.mp3 0:06 2 full The Mahakam: Borneo's River of Kingdoms and Dolphins: The Cradle of Kutai https://qualla.com/mahakam-river/ Photo credit Hidayat008, CC BY-SA 3.0. Long before the Dutch drilled for oil, the Mahakam gave rise to what is widely considered the oldest kingdom in the Indonesian archipelago. Kutai Martadipura, a Hindu kingdom founded by Mulawarman around the 4th century AD at Muara Kaman, left behind seven stone yupa inscriptions...

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Image: Hidayat008 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/e/mahakam-river-wp/qxge-the-mahakam-borneos-river-of-kingdoms-and-dolphins-the-cradle-of-kutai.mp3 0:06 3 full The Mahakam: Borneo's River of Kingdoms and Dolphins: Black Gold Beneath the Delta https://qualla.com/mahakam-river/ Photo credit Sandarw, CC BY-SA 3.0. Geological surveys began along the lower Mahakam in 1888. Nine years later, an exploration well struck oil at just 46 meters depth on the Louise structure, and by 1898 production was flowing. A small refinery went up in nearby Balikpapan. Today the Kutai Basin ranks as one of the...

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Image: Sandarw | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/e/mahakam-river-wp/qxge-the-mahakam-borneos-river-of-kingdoms-and-dolphins-black-gold-beneath-the-delta.mp3 0:06 4 full The Mahakam: Borneo's River of Kingdoms and Dolphins: A River Under Pressure https://qualla.com/mahakam-river/ Photo credit Hidayat008, CC BY-SA 3.0. Logging, coal mining, and oil extraction have polluted the Mahakam at what researchers describe as an alarming rate. Water pollutant levels rose sharply between 2009 and 2011. A 2015 study found lead concentrations in Mahakam fish exceeding safe levels by more than a thousand tim...

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Image: Hidayat008 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/e/mahakam-river-wp/qxge-the-mahakam-borneos-river-of-kingdoms-and-dolphins-a-river-under-pressure.mp3 0:06 5 full The Mahakam: Borneo's River of Kingdoms and Dolphins: The Last Pesut https://qualla.com/mahakam-river/ Photo credit J. (Jean) Demmeni (Fotograaf/photographer)., CC BY-SA 3.0. The Mahakam's Irrawaddy dolphins represent one of only three riverine populations of this species anywhere in the world, alongside those in the Mekong and the Irrawaddy itself. Roughly eighty individuals survive in a 93-kilometer stretch of the middle Mahakam between Kutai Kartan...

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Image: J. (Jean) Demmeni (Fotograaf/photographer). | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/e/mahakam-river-wp/qxge-the-mahakam-borneos-river-of-kingdoms-and-dolphins-the-last-pesut.mp3 0:06 6 full