South Kalimantan is full of colourful and distinctive traditional arts and cultures which can be seen in its people's ways of life, art, dance, music, ancestral dress, games and ceremonies. Exquisite traditional and commercial handicrafts are all made from local raw materials which include a variety of precious and semiprecious stones, gold, silver, brass, iron and a wide variety of wood including bamboo and rattan. South Kalimantan, is one of the largest wood producers in Indonesia. Extensive forests with a wide variety of trees such as iron wood, meranti, pinus and rubber have helped to make the province a unique and rich natural resource.

The southern section of the province, however, is much flatter and is characterized by large and powerful rivers, meandering through lowlands and depositing enormous of silt, at vast mangrove swamps all along the coast helping to make South Kalimantan an exceptionally fertile land. Many villages and settlements hove been built along these rivers, particularly the Barito river, by the indigenous majority, the Banjar.