Keramat Mosque

The Keramat Mosque is in Banua Halat Kiri Village, North Tapin District, Tapin Regency. It is 4 km from the of Buzzing Kite Village by motorcycle or car. The Keramat Mosque or also called the Al Mukkarramah Banua Halat Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in South Kalimantan, this mosque was built around 1840 AD. It has a simple construction with typical Banjar architecture, where most of the buildings are made of ironwood with a three-tiered overlapping roof. In 1890 AD, this mosque was burned down by the Dutch, because it was suspected of being a place of people’s resistance against the Dutch and was successfully rebuilt by the local community in 1910 AD and finished in 1914 AD. The Banua Halat Old Mosque is believed by Banua Halat community to be the oldest mosque in Tapin Regency, as well as a sacred place even by the Meratus Dayak who live in the Meratus Mountains who still adhere to the old belief. Because it is closely related to the belief in the form of a myth that has developed especially among the Meratus Dayak who convinced that people of Meratus Dayak and Banjar Hulu are “badangsanak”, which in Banjar language means blood ties/brothers. The uniqueness of this mosque is that every year, on the 12th of Rabiul Awal (based on the Islamic calendar) a Baayun Maulid ceremony is held and attended by around 5000 people from various regions/provinces/islands. Baayun Maulid has been designated as an Intangible Heritage by the Ministry of Education and Culture since 2015. In maintaining the preservation of this mosque, it has also been pointed as a Cultural Heritage, under the name Banua Halat Old Mosque Cultural Heritage (Republic of Indonesia Law No. 11 of 2010 concerning Cultural Heritage).