Dayak tribes in the region initiated mangkuk merah (red bowl) ritual, as a sign to mobilise men from villages and prepare for war.

Japanese forces landed in Pontianak, West Kalimantan on 19 December 1941 and quickly overran Dutch defenses in the region.

With the fall of Banjarmasin, a major city of Dutch Borneo, in 1942, the Japanese assumed control over the entire island.

[5][6] Mass forced labour and poor working conditions caused deaths of native workers and created discontent among the local population.

[9] Elsewhere, workers of the Japanese timber company Sumitomo Shokusan Kabushiki Kaisan rioted after not receiving salaries.

[8] As tensions rose, Dayak tribes from Ketapang to Sekadau initiated the mangkuk merah (red bowl) ritual as a symbol of hostility to the Japanese and as a message to mobilize men from villages.

The newly-organized men from the Dayak Desa war collaborated with Indonesian nationalist guerillas in the region during the Kalimantan Physical Revolution.

[5] Independence was recognized in 1949 and autonomous states were absorbed into the modern country of Indonesia, and many Dayaks joined the new republican government, filling a power vacuum left by a lack of Malay rulers who formerly ruled the region and were killed by the Japanese during the Pontianak incidents.