Qualla: Equally Low: Samarinda and the Mahakam https://qualla.com/samarinda en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:27 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Equally Low: Samarinda and the Mahakam https://qualla.com/samarinda Equally Low: Samarinda and the Mahakam: Introduction https://qualla.com/samarinda/ The name tells you everything. When Bugis refugees arrived on the banks of the Mahakam River in the 17th century, they built their houses on rafts, every dwelling the same height as the next. No one's home sat higher or lower than another's. They called the settlement Samarenda -- "equally low" -- and in that modest descriptor lay a philosophy. Centuries later the pronunciation has softened to Samarinda, but the city that grew from those floating houses is now the most populous on the entire island of Borneo, a sprawling capital of nearly 870,000 people that runs on coal, timber, and the deep brown current of one of Indonesia's great rivers.

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/m/samarinda-wp/qxgm-equally-low-samarinda-and-the-mahakam-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Equally Low: Samarinda and the Mahakam: Exiles on the Mahakam https://qualla.com/samarinda/ Samarinda owes its existence to a war fought hundreds of kilometers away. When the Dutch East India Company and their Bugis ally Arung Palakka defeated the Kingdom of Gowa in 1667, Sultan Hasanuddin was forced to sign the Treaty of Bongaja. But the treaty did not end resistance. ...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/m/samarinda-wp/qxgm-equally-low-samarinda-and-the-mahakam-exiles-on-the-mahakam.mp3 0:06 2 full Equally Low: Samarinda and the Mahakam: River City https://qualla.com/samarinda/ The Mahakam River is not just Samarinda's geography; it is the city's circulatory system. For generations, tambangan ferries shuttled people from the southern bank at Samarinda Seberang to the morning market at Pasar Pagi, while ketinting motorboats carried passengers to more dis...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/m/samarinda-wp/qxgm-equally-low-samarinda-and-the-mahakam-river-city.mp3 0:06 3 full Equally Low: Samarinda and the Mahakam: Black Gold and Green Canopy https://qualla.com/samarinda/ Coal made Samarinda rich, and then coal made Samarinda complicated. Mining licenses proliferated in the early 2000s as global demand surged, carving open pits across the landscape. The Indonesian government eventually revoked many of those licenses, citing illegal chemicals and m...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/m/samarinda-wp/qxgm-equally-low-samarinda-and-the-mahakam-black-gold-and-green-canopy.mp3 0:06 4 full Equally Low: Samarinda and the Mahakam: A Quiet Cosmopolitanism https://qualla.com/samarinda/ Samarinda does not announce its diversity so much as simply live it. The population is predominantly Native Indonesian and Chinese descent, with smaller communities of Arabs, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, Australians, and Europeans drawn by the region's oil, timber, and wildlife ...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/m/samarinda-wp/qxgm-equally-low-samarinda-and-the-mahakam-a-quiet-cosmopolitanism.mp3 0:06 5 full Equally Low: Samarinda and the Mahakam: Gateway to the New Capital https://qualla.com/samarinda/ Samarinda's newest chapter is being written by a decision made far beyond its borders. Indonesia's new planned capital, Nusantara, is rising in East Kalimantan, and Samarinda sits at its northern flank as the region's established urban center. The Samarinda-Balikpapan Toll Road, ...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/x/g/m/samarinda-wp/qxgm-equally-low-samarinda-and-the-mahakam-gateway-to-the-new-capital.mp3 0:06 6 full