Orang Ulu "people of the interior" in Malay is an ethnic designation politically coined to group together roughly 27 very small but ethnically diverse tribal groups in northeastern Sarawak, Malaysia with populations ranging from less than 300 persons to over 25,000 persons. Orang Ulu is not a legal term, and no such racial group exists or is listed in the Malaysian Constitution.
A vast majority of the Orang Ulu tribes are Christians with significant Muslim minorities especially amongst converts to the faith via intermarriages to ethnicities such as Malays and Melanaus who are adherents of the said belief), but old traditional religions are still practiced in some areas.
The Orang Ulu tribal groups are diverse, they typically live in longhouses elaborately decorated with murals and woodcarvings. They are also well known for their intricate beadwork detailed tattoos, rattan weaving, and other tribal crafts. The Orang Ulu tribes can also be identified by their unique music - distinctive sounds from their sapes, a plucked boat-shaped lute, formerly with two strings, nowadays usually with four strings
The Orang Ulu are an indigenous ethnic group in Sarawak, Malaysia who speak a variety of languages. The Orang Ulu are a collective term for the many indigenous languages spoken by the native tribes of the area, which number in the dozens.