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Pontianak, also known as Khuntien or (Kūn diān) in Teochew and Hakka, is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, founded first as a trading port on the island of Borneo, occupying an area of 118.21 km2 in the delta of the Kapuas River, at a point where it is joined by its major tributary, the Landak River. The city is precisely on the equator, hence it is widely known as Kota Khatulistiwa (Equatorial City). The city center is less than south of the equator. Pontianak is the 23rd most populous city in Indonesia (as of 2023), and the fourth most populous city on the island of Borneo (Kalimantan) after Samarinda, Balikpapan and (Malaysia's) Kuching; it is now slightly ahead of Banjarmasin. It had a population of 658,685 at the 2020 Census within the city limits, with significant suburbs outside those limits, particularly in the regencies of Kubu Raya to the east and south of the city, and Mempawah to its north. The official estimate as of mid-2025 was 686,019 (comprising 342,880 males and 343,139 females - a gender ratio of 1:1.000755).

The city was founded as a small Malay fishing village at the mouth of the Kapuas River. It then became the seat of the Pontianak Sultanate for several centuries. Pontianak was then incorporated into the Dutch East Indies after an agreement between the Pontianak Sultanate and the Dutch Government. During the colonial era, Pontianak was the seat of the Residentie Westerafdeeling van Borneo, one of the residencies of the Dutch East Indies.

When the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies, Pontianak became the site of the Pontianak massacre, in which many Malay aristocrats and sultans as well as people from other ethnic groups (Particularly high profile Arabs and Chinese) were massacred by the Imperial Japanese Navy, especially in the Massacre of Mandor (Holocaust of Mandor).

After the Japanese surrendered, Pontianak became part of the Republic of Indonesia and was designated as the capital city of the province of West Kalimantan.

The Chinese celebrate Cap Go Meh festival in Pontianak.

Currently (as of 2026), the website of Statistics Indonesia for Pontianak City (BPS Kota Pontianak) does not show ethnic composition in its population data. The BPS data below was reported by news sites in 2019, and again in 2022:

In 2009, the government website of Pontianak City posted this ethnicity data:

Intermarriage between different ethnic groups is common in Pontianak.

Gawai Dayak Festival in Pontianak Compared to other Indonesian cities, Pontianak is one of the few cities with a significant number of Chinese Indonesians. The Chinese have lived in Pontianak for centuries. Most of the Chinese were passing through west Borneo from the third century for a last rest on their sailing journeys before returning to China. Beginning in the 7th century many Chinese had started to trade in western Borneo. Apart from the Chinese traders, in the 17th century Dutch colonization brought in mass Chinese for mining gold. Most of these Chinese miners originated from the Fujian or Guangdong provinces.

The two largest sub-groups of the Pontianak Chinese are the Teochew and Hakka. The Teochew people are from the northeastern coast of Guangdong and Hakka people from the interior of Fujian come to West Kalimantan. The Hakka people are pioneer groups living in villages and mining areas, working as miners, farmers, and also small traders. This is in contrast to the Teochew people who prefer to live in urban areas for trade. Even now the Teochew people form the largest ethnic Chinese population in the city of Pontianak and south of Pontianak. The Hakka people mostly live in the northern area of Pontianak.

The second largest ethnic group in Pontianak is the Malay people. The Pontianak Malay are one of the early inhabitants of the city. Pontianak was the seat of the Pontianak Sultanate, a great Malay kingdom for centuries. The Malay people mostly live on the bank of the Kapuas River and other rivers in Pontianak. They also live in coastal areas of the city. Most of the Pontianak Malay work as traders, government officials, and in other jobs.

Other significant ethnic groups living in Pontianak are the Dayak, Bugis, Madurese, and Javanese. Most of the Dayak living in Pontianak are the indigenous/native people of the interior part of West Kalimantan. Some of the Dayak still practice animism, which involves traditional rituals and dances. However, most of the Dayaks have converted to Christianity and are more urbanized. The Bugis, Javanese, and Madurese are immigrants from other parts of Indonesia. They migrated to Pontianak due to the Transmigration program enacted by the Dutch and continued during the New Order. Conflicts often erupted between the Madurese and the Dayak.

Indonesian is the official language of Pontianak as well as other parts of Indonesia. The native language and main lingua franca of the city is Pontianak Malay, a distinct variety of Malay that is closely related to Johor-Riau Malay in Malaysia, Riau, and the Riau Islands in Indonesia and Singapore. As an example of the differences between Pontianak Malay and Indonesian, they use instead of, and instead of, which is more similar to Sarawak Malay, given their proximity. However, many people in the city also use Indonesian as their second language.

The other prevailing language family in Pontianak is Chinese. The most widely spoken varieties of Chinese in Pontianak are Teochew and Hakka. Teochew is a variety of Southern Min originating from Guangdong. It is mostly mutually intelligible with Hokkien. Teochew is mostly spoken in the central and southern parts of the city, as well as suburbs south of the city. Hakka is spoken in the northern part of the city, as well as in suburbs north of the city. There are more Teochew speakers than Hakka speakers in Pontianak. These varieties of Chinese have been influenced by local languages such as Malay and Indonesian. Therefore, native speakers from China may find it difficult to communicate using Teochew and Hakka with the people from Pontianak. Other Chinese varieties such as Cantonese and Hokkien have fewer speakers.

Other languages such as the Javanese, Madurese, Buginese, and different dialects of Dayak are also spoken.

As of 2006, cassava, rice, and yams were the most prominent crops in Pontianak. Residents also farmed vegetables and aloe vera. Jackfruit, banana, and pineapple are also grown in the city. Farms in Pontianak raise cattle (beef and dairy), goats, pigs, and chickens.

In the surrounding areas of Pontianak, the herb Mitragyna speciosa, known colloquially as kratom, is grown, and Pontianak is a major center for exportation of the herb.

The cultural diversity in Pontianak presents various events throughout the year. The Tionghua/Indonesian Chinese community celebrates Lunar New Year, Cap Go Meh (Lantern Festival, which falls on the fifteenth day of the first month of lunar calendar), and Cheng Meng (Tomb Sweeping Festival, on first day of the fifth solar term of the lunar calendar). The Malay celebrates Idul Fitri, Idul Adha, and Maulidur Rasul. The Dayak People celebrates the harvest season, locally known as Gawai Dayak. These events are usually marked with extravagant cultural parades around the city.

The equatorial line passing Pontianak is marked by a monument north of the city center. Between 19 and 21 March and 21–23 September (the equinoxes), solar culmination can be observed near the monument, where the setting of the sun will be exactly at 0° at noon (12:00), causing shadows at the monument and everything nearby to disappear for a few seconds, a phenomenon known in English as Lahaina noon.

Pontianak, around 1920The city was formerly the capital of the independent Sultanate of Pontianak and was founded on 23 October 1771 around an old trading station on the western coast of Borneo. It was built on swampy ground and tropical forest subjected to regular flooding by the river, requiring buildings to be constructed on piles to keep them off the ground. The name Pontianak refers to a story about ghosts that people in West Kalimantan refer to as Pontianak (a ferocious female ghost in Malay); it was a ghosts' haunt until Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie and his army fought and expelled the ghosts who attacked them by firing cannons. He then built a mosque and a palace, exactly on the location of the ghosts' haunt, and settled there. The mosque and palace became the first buildings in the city, and to this day locals fire bamboo cannons on Ramadan and other holidays in memory of this.

Pontianak in the Chinese language is known as, ((pinyin): Kūndiàn) in the local Hakka Chinese, Pontianak is known as Khuntîen.

In Malay mythology, the Pontianak is also the name of an astral creature that is said be a spirit of a woman who died while pregnant. Similar stories about the Pontianak first emerged from mythical and folkloric tales that are popular in Kalimantan (Borneo) before the city was built on a large scale of natural habitat. This was an active ancient civilization in the late 17th century.

Boats along the quay of a canal in Pontianak, circa 1920 The history of the city of Pontianak written by a Dutch historian, V.J. Verth in his book Borneos Afdeling Wester, whose content is slightly different from the version of the stories circulating in the community today.

According to him, the Dutch started to go to Pontianak in 1773 from Batavia. Verth wrote that Syarif Abdurrahman, son of Sharif Hussein bin Ahmed cleric Alqadrie (or in another version called Al Habib Husin), left the Kingdom of Mempawah and began to wander. In the region of Banjarmasin, he married the sister of the sultan of Banjar, Sunan Nata Nature and was sworn in as prince. He was successful in commerce and accumulated enough capital to arm ships and boats and then started to take the fight against Dutch colonialism.

With the help of Sultan Sand, Syarif Abdurrahman then successfully hijacked Dutch ship near Bangka, also British and French ships in the port of Pasir. Abdurrahman became a rich man and then tried to establish a settlement on an island in the Kapuas River. He found branching Landak River and then to develop the area into a prosperous trading center. This is the region that is now called Pontianak. He then established the Sultanate of Pontianak with himself as the first sultan. The influential Arab-Malay writer, Abdullah al-Misri, was closely connected to the rulers of Pontianak at around this time.

The sultanate imported Chinese laborers in the 18th century to work in gold or tin mines. A number of mining companies (kongsi) enjoyed some political autonomy. As the Dutch were expanding its power on Borneo, in 1777, the Chinese declared the formation of the Lanfang Republic, led by Luo Fangbo to oppose the Dutch attempt to colonize West Kalimantan, including Pontianak. The settlers subsequently elected Luo as their inaugural president. Luo implemented many democratic principles, including the idea that all matters of state must involve the consultation of the republic's citizenry. He also created a comprehensive set of executive, legislative, and judicial agencies. The Republic did not have a standing military, but had a defense ministry that administered a national militia based on conscription. During peacetime, the populace mostly engaged in farming, production, trading, and mining. Lanfang's administrative divisions included three tiers (province, prefecture, and county) with the people electing leaders for all levels. Lanfang was allied with Sultan Abdurrahman of the Pontianak Sultanate. Lanfang was also declared a tributary state of the Chinese Qing Empire.Also,the common name of pontianak is raiyan firdaus and hariz

Sultan Syarif Muhammad Alkadrie of Pontianak and Family, circa 1920 Capped sago trunks are plumbed downstream on the river at Pontianak, circa 1948. Tropenmuseum's Coat of Arms of Pontianak designed based on the request from Sultan Hamid of Pontianak In 1778, Dutch colonialists from Batavia entered Pontianak, led by Willem Ardinpola. The Netherlands occupied an area opposite the imperial palace now known as the Tanah Seribu or the Verkendepaal area.

On 5 July 1779, the Dutch made an agreement with the Sultanate of Pontianak regarding the Verkendepaal so that it would serve as the area of activities of the Dutch nation which later became the seat of government of Resident het Hoofd Westerafdeeling van Borneo (Regional Head residency of Borneo West) and Assistant Resident het Hoofd der Afdeeling van Pontianak (Resident assistant Chief of Pontianak regency). This area then became Controleur Onderafdeeling van het Hoofd Pontianak or Plaatselijk Bestuur van Pontianak. The Assistant Resident het Hoofd van der Afdeeling Pontianak (as a sort of regent of Pontianak) set the Plaatselijk Fonds. The agency manages government wealth and took care of tax funds.

The Dutch first recognized the independence of the Lanfang Republic. However, the Dutch decided to expand its territory in Borneo, This was resisted by the officials of Lanfang. In the mid-to-late 19th century, the Chinese Qing Empire weakened substantially and became increasingly unable to support the Lanfang Republic as its vassal state. The republic's citizenry waged a tenacious resistance, but ultimately failed due to poor weaponry. Lin Ah Sin was the last leader of Lanfang. Many of Lanfang's citizens and their descendants made their way to Sumatra or Singapore. The three campaigns waged by the Dutch East Indies Army against the Chinese kongsi, called the Kongsi Wars, were: Expedition to the West Coast of Borneo (1822–1824) Expedition against the Chinese in Montrado (1850–1854) Chinese uprising in Mandor, Borneo (1884–1885) Due to being outnumbered and also with the lack of effective weaponry by the more superior and equipped Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, Lanfang finally surrendered to the Dutch in 1884 and was dissolved. Wary of Qing intervention, the Dutch did not openly annex the Lanfang Republic, and created another puppet regime. It was not until 1912, when the Qing Dynasty collapsed, that the Dutch proclaimed their occupation. Pontianak was then designated as the Residentie Westerafdeeling van Borneo, one of the different residencies of the Dutch East Indies.

In 1942, the Japanese occupied Pontianak and expelled the Dutch. The Japanese military government decided to allow the Pontianak Sultanate to remain. However, the Japanese soon become distrusted to the Sultanate, and between 1943 and 1944, Japanese troops did a mass arrest of Malay elites, Arabs, Chinese, Javanese, Menadonese, Dayaks, Bugis, Bataks, Minangkabau, Dutch, Indians, and Eurasians in Kalimantan, including all of the Malay Sultans, accused them of plotting to overthrow Japanese rule, and then massacred them. This is known as the Pontianak massacre.

After the surrender of Japan, a Dutch military court in Pontianak on 18 October 1947 convicted the Japanese Admiral Michiaki Kamada of war crimes and sentenced him to death.

After the Japanese surrendered, the Dutch returned to Pontianak. Due to international opposition to Dutch attempts to reinstate control over Indonesia in the United Nations, the Dutch were forced to recognise Sukarno's Republic as the de facto government of Java and Sumatra and to grant independence to a Republic of the United States of Indonesia (RUSI) on 27 December 1949. Pontianak became the capital of the State of West Kalimantan, one of the federal states of the United States of Indonesia. It was led by Sultan Hamid II, the last sultan of the Pontianak Sultanate. However, Hamid II was accused of conspiring with the former KNIL Captain Raymond Westerling to organise an anti-Republican coup in Bandung and Jakarta. Hamid's role in the coup led to increased agitation in West Kalimantan for its integration into the Republic of Indonesia.

Following a fact-finding mission by the Government Commission, the RUSI House of Representatives voted by 50 votes to one to merge West Kalimantan into the Republic of Indonesia. Following clashes with demobilised KNIL troops in Makassar and the attempted secession of an Ambonese Republic of South Moluccas, the federal United States of Indonesia was dissolved on 17 August 1950, turning Indonesia into a unitary state dominated by the central government in Jakarta. Pontianak then became the capital city of the new province of West Kalimantan.

The Seng Hie port, the oldest port in Pontianak, lies along the banks of Kapuas river. Pontianak Town park Pontianak lies on the equator at a height ranging from 0.1 to 1.5 meters above sea level. It is divided into three parts by the Kapuas Besar and its major tributaries – the Kapuas Kecil and Landak rivers. The city lies on flat land in the delta of the Kapuas River with a ground level elevation ranging from 0.1 to 1.9 meters above sea level.

The city is built on fall peneplain and alluvial sediments that are physically a clay type. This type of soil is in the form of peat and silt deposits of Kapuas river. Under these conditions, the soil is very unstable and has a very low carrying capacity. The soil composition along the river is formed from a precipitation process that produces a tropaquent area coupled with tropofluevent and under permanently saturated fluvawuent conditions. It is derived from the new sapphire sediment from various compositions and shapes, including organic matter.

Pontianak consists of a kind of soil organosol, gray, humus, and alluvial with different characteristics. At some points, the thickness of the peat soils reaches up to 1–6 meters, thus causing a poor carrying capacity if it is designated to construct large buildings to make it as a farm.

In 1963 by Presidential Decree No. 243, the city entered into the Central Indonesian Time (WITA) zone (GMT+8).

On 1 January 1988 by Presidential Decree No. 41, West Kalimantan (together with Central Kalimantan) moved back 1 hour from the Central Indonesian Time (WITA) zone, to the Western Indonesian Time (WIB) zone. As such, in 1988 the city of Pontianak celebrated the New Year twice: at 00:00 on GMT+8 and then 00:00 on GMT+7.

Pontianak features a tropical rainforest climate (Af under the Köppen climate classification) with no distinct seasons at all and with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round. The city experiences a large amount of rainfall throughout the year, averaging of precipitation annually. Only in the month from June to September does the average monthly precipitation fall below. Temperatures are consistent throughout the course of the year, with average high temperatures of and average low temperatures of.