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Penajam North Paser Regency is a regency in the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan. Its administrative centre is the town of Penajam. The area which now forms Penajam North Paser was part of the Pasir Regency until its creation as a separate regency on 10 April 2002. It covers an area of 3,455.86 km2 (of which 3,060.82 km2 is land area and 272.24 km2 is sea area) and it had 142,922 inhabitants at the 2010 census and 178,681 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mid-2025 was 205,456 (comprising 106,346 males and 99,110 females). Penajam North Paser Regency has the smallest area among the seven regencies in East Kalimantan province.

The regency was historically part of the Paser Kingdom, which was a dependency of the Banjar Sultanate. As the second youngest regency in East Kalimantan, it had been previously affected by frequent territorial changes, to the extent that between 1956 and 1959, the modern-day regency was actually divided into half between Kotabaru of South Kalimantan and Special Region of Kutai of East Kalimantan. In 2019, parts of the regency, entirely consisting of Sepaku district, were designated to be included in the location of the new Indonesian national capital.

Dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat dan kehidupan sehari–hari, penduduk di Kabupaten Penajam Paser Utara mayoritas menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia karena merupakan akulturasi dari berbagai suku, terutama Suku Banjar, Kutai, Bugis, Jawa, Nusa Tenggara, Sumatra, Maluku, dan Dayak Paser.

Pesta Adat Nondoi Nondoi merupakan pesta adat suku Dayak Paser. Pesta Adat Nondoi dilaksanakan 2 tahun sekali. Dalam Pesta Adat Nondoi dilaksanakan upacara pesta panen, syukuran, pagelaran tari dan lain-lain.

Pesta Pantai Sipakario Pesta Pantai Sipakario diadakan dalam rangka memperingati HUT Kabupaten Penajam Paser Utara. Pesta Pantai Sipakario diadakan setiap tahun. Adapun materi acara adalah Festival Layang-layang dan Lomba Perahu Hias, Parade Band, pagelaran tari dan lain-lain.

Pesta Pantai Lango Pesta Adat Pantai Lango diadakan dalam rangka memperingati bulan Safar. Rangkaian upacara yang diadakan adalah pelarungan sesaji ke laut dengan tujuan agar penduduk yang bermata pencaharian sebagai nelayan diberi kelimpahan hasil laut.

Uok Botung Uok Botung artinya Hantu Bambu, adalah tarian pedalaman suku Dayak Paser yang digarap oleh Sanggar Seni Entero Penajam Paser Utara merupakan tarian yang menceritakan tentang keberadaan Uok Botung yang sangat mengganggu ketenteraman masyarakat. Hal tersebut membuat prihatin 5 orang pemuda yang kemudian tergerak semangatnya untuk membantu masyarakat mengusir Uok Botung tersebut. Namun karena Uok Botung memiliki kesaktian yang amat sangat luar biasa maka kelima pemuda tersebut tidak dapat mengalahkan Uok Botung. Hal tersebut kemudian membuat iba Dewi Bumi dan merasa harus turun tangan membantu 5 orang pemuda tersebut dengan cara menurunkan kesaktiannya. Akhirnya berkat bantuan Dewi Bumi, 5 orang pemuda tersebut mampu mengalahkan Uok Botung dengan cara menerbangkan Mandau mereka.

Tari Jepen Ampiek Muslimah Tari Jepen Ampiek Muslimah adalah tarian Pesisir yang mengangkat cerita tentang perilaku gadis muslim pesisir yang beranjak dewasa dan sedang mencari jati diri. Gerak yang mengambil pola kehidupan keseharian wanita muslim dalam menapaki kehidupan, membuat tarian ini menjadi tarian yang dinamis tetapi tidak terlepas dari norma-norma seorang wanita muslim yang diolah sedemikian rupa sehingga terciptalah sebuah tari dengan gaya dan ciri khas yang terpancar dari kostum dan gerak.

Tari Kode Bura (Kera Putih) Tari Kode Bura menggambarkan seekor kera putiang mrmcoba melindungi habitat burung Tukuk yang selalu diburu oleh orang-orang yang tak bertanggung jawab terhadap kelestarian satwa yang dimiliki masyarakat suku Paser.

Pada suatu hari sekelompok burung Tukuk sedang bermain, tanpa mereka sadari bahaya sedang mengintai dan kegembiraan mereka tidaklah berlangsung lama karena salah satu dari mereka tiba-tiba roboh dan mati ditembus anak sumpit seorang pemburu. Datanglah seekor kera putih yang marah terhadap pemburu dan perkelahian pun terjadi antara pemburu dengan kode bura dan pada akhirnya sang pemburu kalah. Seluruh penghuni hutan pun bergembira karena sang pemburu telah tewas. Tarian ini mengingatkan pada kita agar selalu mencintai dan menyayangi hutan dan satwa yang ada agar terhindar dari kepunahan.

Tari Rentak Penajam Tari Lenggang Taka Ronggeng Paser

Map of in 1936, showing the older definition of North Pasir, which included present-day Babulu and Waru as well. The word "Paser" is claimed to be from two combinations of words in the native language of the Paser people, "pa" which means "bright" and "ser" which means "spirit". Combined, the word "Paser" roughly means "bright spirit". The word "Paser" also originated from the name of a former kingdom in the region, Paser Kingdom. Penajam is a name used to refer to the region where the regency seat is now located. As the regency was formerly the northern part of the Paser Kingdom and the region used to be called Penajam, it was named Penajam North Paser Regency.

While the southern half (Waru and Babulu) were indeed part of the former district of North Pasir (not to be confused with Penajam North Paser, as shown on the map above), they only consisted 19.88% of its total area as the district extended as far south as Kuaro. The English translation of this regency name has varied between Penajam North Paser, Penajam–North Paser, North Paser Penajam, North Paser–Penajam, North Paser of Penajam, and also the incorrect North Penajam Paser. The first one, is used on publications by Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Google Earth, and Google Maps, but the last one is still upheld by Google Translate as well as many other publications in English. The regency's name is sometimes shortened into Penajam, though this abbreviation may lead into confusion with the name of Penajam District (Kecamatan Penajam).

The region was originally inhabited by several tribes such as Lolo, Adang, and Kali, who each founded small tribal kingdoms. The Paser Kingdom was founded by a combination of several tribes. Smaller tribal kingdoms soon disappeared due to urbanization to the capital of the Paser Kingdom or migration to the interior, which caused these kingdoms' population to drop rapidly.

Since the independence, the region has experienced multiple administrative changes. On 26 June 1959, when the law no. 27 enacted, Paser Regency (then Pasir) was split from Kotabaru Regency, South Kalimantan and transferred to East Kalimantan, based on closer ties with the latter province. At the same time, the Special Region of Kutai was dissolved into Kutai Regency, Samarinda, and Balikpapan. This meant that the current region of Penajam North Paser once belonged to two separate provinces. On 24 April 1969, Penajam along with parts of Samboja, were transferred from Kutai to Balikpapan (and later renamed as Balikpapan Seberang) by gubernatorial decree 55SK/1969.

However, 18 years later, on 13 October 1987, Balikpapan Seberang was transferred from Balikpapan to Pasir, and renamed into Penajam. On 11 June 1996, Sepaku and Babulu districts were carved out from parts of Penajam and Waru districts, respectively. The regency's secession from Pasir was advocated by the Northern Region Goes to Regency Success Team, and had urged the central government and the DPR to materialize its formation. Six years later, on 10 April 2002, the northeastern parts of Pasir were finally split out into a new regency, known as Penajam North Paser.

On 26 August 2019, then-president Joko Widodo announced that parts of the future capital Nusantara would be located in parts of Kutai Kartanegara and Penajam North Paser, including the district of Sepaku. However, since Sepaku is to be separated from rest of the regency at some future time, Penajam North Paser will be left with only three districts, notwithstanding the legal requirements for an autonomous regency. Because of this, there are currently plans by the local government to increase the number of districts into five (Sepaku will not be split because its future administrative status remains unclear). Many of their proposed names, however, remain unclear as of.