Islam and the Evolution of Southeast Asian Ports, 15th to 17th Centuries

Historian A.R. Reid chose to identify the year 1450 as the start of Southeast Asia’s “Age of Commerce” for several reasons, including the economic stimulus of Islamisation associated with the introduction of new coinage and a shift of investment from rituals to commercial enterprises (Reid 1993, 114-123). Reid argued that the voyages of Admiral Zheng He in the 15th century helped to Islamicise Java, which in turn introduced Islamic commercial practices leading to an explosion of commercial activity.

Other scholars (Miksic 1996, Wade 2009) have noted that Southeast Asians were deeply engaged in maritime trade long before 1450. Other chapters in this book delineate Southeast Asia’s important role in pioneering transoceanic voyaging during the 1,500 years prior to Islamisation. This chapter describes the port of Banten Lama in Java, one of the first major Southeast Asian ports to embrace Islam, and asks whether and to what extent religious conversion affected the archaeological remains at this site.

When a Portuguese fleet arrived in Melaka in 1509, numerous major ports in Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Java, and Borneo were already Islamic. Gujarati Muslims were the predominant foreign merchant group in Melaka, the major port in Southeast Asia at that time. Chinese merchants played a lesser role; China had only recently resumed limited trading with Southeast Asia after a hiatus which began in 1368. Some ports, including two under the sovereignty of the kingdom of Pajajaran, western Java, still followed pre-Islamic beliefs: Sunda Kalapa, now Jakarta, and Banten, now Banten Lama.

After the Portuguese conquered Melaka in 1511, many Muslim merchants moved to Banten, which became the new centre of Southeast Asian trade. By 1526, the rulers of Banten and Sunda Kalapa were Muslims. When the first Dutch and British fleets arrived in 1596, Islam was the dominant force in Banten’s society.

This chapter summarises research on Banten’s history and archaeology during this pivotal era, and identifies attributes of the port which can be ascribed to Islam, as opposed to indigenous traditions. The case of Banten supports the argument that Islamisation and European presence in Indonesia destabilised the balance of power between coastal and hinterland populations, leading to a major transfer of population and political power from the hinterland to the coast (Miksic and Goh 2017, 54-57, 71-72, 150, passim). The development of Islamic religious centres in the coastal areas played a role in fostering this important transformation (Miksic 1989b).

Little archaeological research has yet been conducted in ports of the early Islamic period, such as Banda Aceh on Sumatra’s north coast (but see Edwards McKinnon 2006) or Melaka in peninsular Malaysia. Some data is available for Brunei (Harrisson and Shariffudin 1969, Harrisson 1970) and Jakarta (Hasan Muarif Ambary 1981). The most extensively studied early Islamic port in Southeast Asia is Banten Lama (“Old Banten”). This chapter summarises Indonesian, French, and Dutch research at this important site during this pivotal era.

The Ideal Islamic City

Early Islamic culture was closely associated with urbanisation. Michon depicted:

…[T]he classical visage of the Muslim world: a network of great cities from India to the West between which there would flow and interflow, by land and sea, every kind of product, as well as branches of knowledge, ideas, and cultures. (Michon 1980, 14) At a time when few European cities had 100,000 residents, Cairo and Constantinople each had several hundred thousand.

Cities had existed in the Near East for thousands of years before Islam arose. Islam does not prescribe an ideal urban form. Early Islamic cities derived some features such as walls from pre-existing sites. The basic components of early urban sites in Muslim India, Africa, and the Arabo-Persian countries included a walled palace complex, markets, mosques (often including a royal mosque near the palace), and residential subdivisions under noblemen in which inhabitants were grouped by social class, occupation, religion, and ethnicity. Respected occupational specialisations included potters, bricklayers, and metal workers. The provision of water was a solemn duty of the ruler, which Islam encoded in a Hadith. Unlike European cities, early Islamic cities did not normally have public squares. Maydan or open spaces, and graveyards, were located outside city walls (Elisseeff 1980 90-103, Gellman 1981, Hourani 1970, Kathirithamby-Wells 1986).

Pre-Islamic Cities in Southeast Asia

We possess little data on the physical layouts of pre-Islamic Southeast Asian cities to compare with sites of the early Islamic era. When Europeans reached Southeast Asia, they found well-developed urban societies, but the physical appearance of the cities was quite unfamiliar to them: they were bemused by the amount of greenery in densely populated ports (Miksic 1989a). Southeast Asia’s population at this period was mainly concentrated in or near cities; “In relation to its total population, then, Southeast Asia in this period (the 15th to 17th centuries) must have been one of the most urbanised areas in the world” (Reid 1980, 239). There is however no evidence that Southeast Asian urban areas were centrally planned.

Two 14th-century literary sources which shed some light on this problem are the Desawarnana, a poem which describes the court of Majapahit, at Trowulan, east Java, in 1365 (Robson 1995), and a book of court etiquette entitled Nawanatya (Pigeaud 1968: III, 121). These texts describe densely populated settlements without agriculture, but it is not clear whether this applied to the entire city or only the royal enclave. These texts and archaeological data suggest that the capital city of Java consisted of a cluster of walled “manors” (kuwu), each under the control of a nobleman, and inhabited by his retainers and dependents. The kuwu were probably separated by open spaces which may have been used for agriculture (Miksic 2000, 115-117).^[1] This pattern is not very different from layouts of Islamic cities in West Asia, but it seems to have developed independently in pre-Islamic east Java. It was perpetuated by 16th-century ports along the entire coast of Java.

Much of Majapahit’s capital, which covered perhaps 100 square km (Laporan Penelitian 1995), was built of brick. Temples were scattered around the site, but no central temple analogous to a Royal Mosque existed. The rulers of Majapahit patronised three religions, each of which was allotted space on a different side of the palace. Some scholars (e.g. Maclaine Pont 1925) suspected that Trowulan was laid out according to a mandala pattern. Archaeological evidence suggests that the city was divided into four quadrants, divided by two major roads running north-south and east-west (Miksic 2011). Archaeological remains and modern placenames suggest that the palace occupied the southwest quadrant. An open field (Bubat) analogous to a palace square lay north of the palace.

The Desawarnana and inscriptions record officials in charge of markets, craftsmen and merchants who worked in them, and Chinese coins which constituted the main medium of exchange in them by 1300 CE. The official who supervised the markets received 8,000 Chinese coins per day (Pigeaud 1968, III, 122). The markets were probably open spaces with temporary structures like those described by Dutch visitors to Banten in 1600. They would not have left easily recognisable traces.

Trowulan had a complex system of reservoirs and canals; this would have fulfilled a main prerequisite for any large conurbation (Miksic 1999). Water supply was an important component of the urban plans of Islamic cities, whether in western Asia, the Mediterranean, or India, but each site had to be designed to cope with local circumstances. Trowulan seems to have been laid out in a grid pattern possibly corresponding to walled quarters interspersed with a road system. Water probably flowed from a volcanic peak southeast of the city to reservoirs at the southeast corner of the urban area. From there the water may have flowed to the palace, then through a canal system aligned with the road grid, regulated by a large rectangular reservoir near the centre of the site. The northern part of Trowulan, furthest downstream, may have depended on wells rather than the canal system for its water supply.

If population density at Trowulan approximated 1,000 per square km, this would indicate a population of 100,000 (Laporan Penelitian Arkeologi Situs-Kota Majapahit di Trowulan, Mojokerto, Jawa Timur 1991-1993). This is a rough estimate which could be refined if more archaeological data were available.

Early Islamic Cities in Java

Sartono Kartodirdjo (1988, xix) characterised early Islamic cities of Banten, Aceh, and Makasar as emporia. A study of royal courts of Yogyakarta and Surakarta includes comparative historical and architectural data on Banten Lama, Cirebon, Demak, and Gresik (Inajati Adrisijanti n.d., 107-145). Leirissa (1995, 4) identified Banten as the largest of Indonesia’s early Islamic ports: it covered 2 km², whereas Makassar’s area was 0.9 km², and Aceh 0.2 km². These and other studies show that early Islamic cities in Java such as Cirebon, Demak, Banten, Kartasura, Surakarta, and Yogyakarta, followed a standardised layout. Their principal components are a walled palace compound divided by internal walls into courtyards laid out on a north-south axis; a raised area (sitinggil) at the northern end of the palace facing a public square (alun-alun in Javanese); a mosque on the west side of the square; and a market northeast of the square.

Java thus possessed an indigenous pattern of urban planning, elements of which were found in contemporary cities in other parts of Southeast Asia. This pattern included water management, preservation of open spaces, and systematic infrastructure for transport and communication. If we consider the fact that cities evolve from the acts of many individuals, then we can conclude that the Javanese way of life did not experience a revolutionary change as the result of the introduction of Islam, but rather underwent a process of gradual continual evolution. The same can be said of art during the early Islamic period (15th and 16th centuries) in north coastal Java (Miksic 2005).

Comparative examples of the Javanese urban plan can be found as far away as Ternate in Maluku, which may have been laid out in the 15th century. Ternate had an axial pattern with the palace at one end of a ceremonial road similar to Javanese palaces of the 17th and 18th centuries. The urban axis in Java was normally laid out on a north-south bearing, whereas in Ternate the axis is aligned with the central mountain of the island on the west and the seashore on the east. In Yogyakarta, central Java, the north-south axis aligns with the sea and Mt Merapi; this is unlikely to be coincidental.

The grid of Trowulan in 14th-century Java seems to have been aligned with Mt. Penanggungan, which is about 10° south of east (100°) from Trowulan. In the 15th century the grid may have been realigned another 10° further south of east to align with Mt. Arjuna. This realignment may have been correlated with a reorientation of the belief in the most sacred mountain in the kingdom.

The layout of the capital city of Ternate displays numerous similarities to Trowulan. The correlation is not perfect; in Ternate the Great Mosque stood southeast of the royal residence rather than northeast.^[2] The surrounding town in Ternate consists of kampung^[3] named after ethnic groups and occupations. Kampungs south of the palace were allocated to foreigners, while the area north of the palace was reserved for indigenous people (Wuri Handoko 2015). It is possible that Javanese traders or immigrants from the 15th century influenced Ternate’s layout, so it cannot be determined whether this pattern was imported from Java, or whether it was a more general Indonesian cosmological concept.

No plans of early seaports or hinterland cities in Sumatra or West Java are known. The little information we possess regarding Malay port-capitals (Palembang, Singapore, Melaka) suggests that the preferred location for a palace was on a hill overlooking an estuary. Associated settlements were built on the banks of the estuary. Even in large 19th-century Sumatran cities such as Palembang and Jambi, all houses were built in a line along the riverbank, sometimes stretching for several km (Miksic 1989a). When Kampong Glam became the seat of Singapore’s 19th-century sultanate, the palace and its surroundings were laid out according to the Javanese model, whereas the settlement of a ward under the supervision of a high official, the Temenggong, seems to have been more linear like the Sumatran model (Miksic 2013, frontispiece, the Butte Map).

One potentially significant difference between Trowulan’s layout and those of the early Islamic cities is that in Trowulan the palace may have occupied the southwest corner of the site, rather than the southern end of a ceremonial axis. Bubat, the ceremonial square mentioned in documents from Majapahit, lay north of the palace, but its precise location has not been verified.

Earliest Historical Sources on Sunda

Banten Lama is located at the mouth of the Cibanten (ci is Sundanese for “river”). The Banten River’s source is 30 km inland, on Mount Karang, near Mount Pulasari. The port known to Europeans as Bantam is now called Banten Lama, “Old Banten”. An older site 13 km inland is known as Banten Girang, “upstream Banten” (alternatively, girang may have been derived from the word for “leader” in Baduy language; Edwards McKinnon, personal communication, 1984). “Banten” now refers to a province of which Banten Lama forms a part. The people who inhabit the hinterland of Banten and West Java Province call themselves Sundanese; they are culturally and linguistically distinct from the population of central and east Java. The Baduy are a subgroup whose members isolate themselves from the outside world in order to preserve pre-Islamic Sundanese culture.

Banten Girang’s population before the 16th century was probably Sundanese; the first Muslim rulers of Banten Lama came from the pesisir or coastal zone of central and east Java. Javanese pesisir culture had a significant impact on the court of Banten.

Sunda probably appeared under the name Ge-ying in a Chinese report entitled Nan zhou i wu zhi written in the 3rd century. Ge-ying had volcanoes and traded with India, from whence it imported horses; it did not trade with China. “Western Java could therefore have been the oldest trading centre in western Indonesia” (Wolters 1967, 49-61, 227 n.53). A 6th-century Chinese manuscript, Lo yang jia lan ji, described Ge-ying as the most powerful country in the southern barbarian lands (Wolters 1967, Appendix A).

The oldest known inscriptions on Java were carved in Sunda in the 5th century in Sanskrit language and recorded the existence of a kingdom called Taruma. The majority (five) of them have been found in the environs of Bogor, thought to have been the kingdom’s capital; others include one in south Banten and one in Jakarta. The latter concerns the construction of a canal. Two rival kingdoms in west Java (Taruma and Heling) sent diplomatic missions to China in the 5th and 7th centuries (Coedès 1968, 54; Wolters 1967, 197).

In about 932 CE an inscription in Old Javanese was carved near Bogor (Krom 1931, 211). In 1030 another inscription was erected in the West Java highlands by a man who styled himself ruler of Sunda; this is the first known use of the toponym (Hirth and Rockhill 1911, 70-71). Krom surmised that "a Hindu-Sundanese culture, with its centrein the kingdom of Pajajaran” flourished in the 14th and 15th centuries (Krom 1923, 390-391). Images similar to Hindu deities but lacking clearly-defined attributes perhaps carved during this period have been found at numerous sites in Sunda (Krom 1923, 391-394). A set of 17 statues in a unique local style, one dated 1341 CE, was found on a 12m square terrace northeast of Bandung.

Pajajaran may have already existed in the 13th century, if it is the place that a Chinese source called Bai-hua-yuan (Hirth and Rockhill 1911, 83, 86). Pajajaran is mentioned in an inscription which historians believe dates from either 1333, found in the same area as one of the 5th-century Taruma inscriptions (Poerbatjaraka 1920; Sunarto and Sukanda-Tessier 1983), or 1433 (Djajadiningrat 1983, 158). The Ming Shih mentions Bai hua or Pai hua yuan in 15th-century contexts (Mills 1970, 210). Ming records from around 1433 mention Shunda (Mills 1970, 217) and Xia Jiang [lower anchorage] (Mills 1970, 196). Mills assumes that they are the same place, but this may be incorrect. Bai hua may have been the capital near Bogor; Xia Jiang may have been Banten Lama or Jakarta.

Fifteenth-century inscriptions in Old Sundanese language refer to a place called Pakuan (Krom 1923, 394; Bambang Sumadio 1975, 209-215). The word may derive from kuwu, used in east Java in the 14th century (Pigeaud 1962, III, 29-30, IV, 75), meaning “manor”.^[4] The name Pakuan Pajajaran probably refers to the royal residence of the ruler of Pajajaran. Guillot (Guillot et al 1996, 131) avers that Sundanese was “a hinterland culture which was less developed, and a language associated with rusticity as compared with the two main languages of the Archipelago at that time” (presumably referring to Javanese and Malay), but this is an assumption derived from the old habit of regarding Southeast Asian hinterlands as isolated culturally backward areas rather than centres of development. Pakuan may have been the capital of a sophisticated kingdom centred in the highland of West Java which controlled several ports on the north coast.

Archaeology of Sunda

Prehistoric Sites

In addition to Hindu-Buddhist-inflected statuary, sites in the highlands of Pandeglang, West Java, have yielded artefacts in “megalithic” style, i.e. stone menhirs, statues, jars, dolmens, and incised boulders (Haris Sukendar, R. Indraningsih Panggabean, and Rokhus Due Awe 1982). It is not possible to date these sites; the use of large stones for monuments has a long history in western Indonesia. They could be anywhere from 500 to 2,500 years old (cf. highland Sumatra; Miksic 1986, 1987).

An excavation was carried out on Sangkuriang and Kucong, two neighbouring hills on the southern fringe of Jakarta, in 1977 (Dinas Museum dan Sejarah DKI Jakarta 1979). The excavation yielded a very mixed assortment of artefacts: stone tools, local earthenware, and Chinese ceramics dating from the Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties (12th-20th centuries), Thai ware of the 15th century, one dark red bead (possibly ancient Indian), iron slag and tools. Remains of agricultural terracing suggest that the area had been cultivated. This assemblage is representative of upland West Java. Low-density settlements seem to have been widely distributed in this area for centuries, but recent forest clearance and erosion have resulted in a thin, diffuse cultural layer where artefacts from a time span of perhaps 2,000 years or more are all found on or near the surface of the ground. It is possible that agricultural implements made of stone were used as recently as 500 years ago.

Sites dating from around 200 BCE-1 CE, including jar burials with Indian beads and metal objects, have been found at Anyar, on Java’s west coast, Plawangan (north coast of central Java), and Gilimanuk (west Bali). More than 40 sites of what is called Buni Culture (1–500 CE) have been found along Java’s northwest coast (Teguh Asmar 1975). Unfortunately, we know very little about this culture aside from its burial customs. Romano-Indian rouletted ware imported from south India shows that Buni Culture was connected to long-distance trade routes (Sutayasa 1979). Buddhist and Hindu art associated with Romano-Indian ware has been found in the Cibuaya delta east of Jakarta (Hasan Djafar 2010). It is tempting to connect those remains with the kingdoms of Taruma and Heling.

Historic Sites

One stone which some scholars have described as a dolmen in megalithic terminology (Haris Sukendar, R. Indraningsih, Rokhus Due Awe 1982, 6) found at Baturanjang, Pandeglang, is a flat rectangular block of andesite 110 x 250 cm, supported by four stone legs, all neatly worked. It is more accurate to term this artefact a watu gemilang or “shining stone” (Miksic 2008). Such stones were made during the Classic Period (roughly 600–1400 CE) as thrones for royalty, which by their simplicity were meant to evoke heroic ascetics. This one is similar to two others now at Banten Lama and one now in Cirebon which was probably brought there from Banten after the Muslim conquest in the early 16th century.

According to local tradition, the last ruler of pre-Islamic Sunda was Prabhu Pucukumun, who lived at Wahanten Girang (Raffles 1817, II, 133). When the Muslim saint Sunan Gunung Jati conquered Pajajaran, he appointed his son Maulana Hasanuddin as ruler, built the Surosowan Palace for him at Banten Lama, then ordered that the watu gemilang in front of it never be moved (Djajadiningrat 1913, 33; Mundardjito, Hasan Muarif Ambary, Hasan Djafar 1978, 1). According to folklore, a watu gemilang now at Sunan Gunung Jati’s tomb complex in Cirebon was brought from Banten.

Near the watu gemilang at Baturanjang are other artefacts more typical of megalithic style. The watu gemilang at Baturanjang was probably commissioned and used by someone who wished to associate himself with the Hindu and Buddhist rulers of Java. It is located on a mountain slope with a spectacular view over an extensive lowland which is today used for intensive wet rice cultivation. Probably the stone was used by a high-status person who may also have spent time in ascetic complexes mentioned in historical chronicles such as the story of Maulana Hasanuddin’s visit to 800 hermits who lived on south Banten’s mountains in 1525. At the end of the 16th century, a village named Sura at the foot of Mt Karang (which was probably Muslim) allowed a group of refugee Hindu priests from Pasuruan to live there (Rouffaer and Ijzerman 1915, 128). Modern villages named Mandalawangi and Mandalasari between Mounts Karang and Pulosari hint at the former existence of hermitages there. The term mandala in 14th-century east Java was applied to ascetic communities in mountain forests under the leadership of charismatic teachers (Hariani Santiko 1995).

Sunda’s mountains had religious significance for people living in central and east Java. Sunda is not mentioned in the 14th-century Desawarnana; Pigeaud thought this was due to the sorrow of the king of Majapahit after his intended bride and her retinue were massacred as the result of an argument about protocol at the field of Bubat (Pigeaud 1960-63, III, 48). A late Classic text written in East Java, Tantu Panggelaran, says that at the holy mountain Mahameru was originally located at the west end of Java (Pigeaud 1924, 136 stanzas 65-66 and 213-214).

Another clear sign of the high esteem accorded to the mountains of Banten by the Javanese in the early 1500s is found in the Sajarah Banten, a chronicle which says that when Hasanuddin first came to Banten, he went to Mount Pulasari where he stayed with 800 ascetics. From thence he went to Panaitan Island off Banten’s southwest coast, then into the sea, where he obtained a sacred gong (Sajarah Banten, Canto XVII, stanzas 14-15).

No major Hindu or Buddhist shrines have been found in Banten Province. Archaeologists have however found statues and inscriptions related to these religions there. A stone statue of an unidentifiable deity was found on the aforementioned Mount Pulasari (Pleyte 1913: 281-428). Statues of Brahma, Shiva, Agastya, Durga, and Ganesha, a common set of Hindu deities in central Java, were found near an extinct volcanic crater in Cipanas (Brumund 1840; Hoëvell 1842; Guillot, Lukman Nurhakim and Sonny Wibisono 1994: 101-102). Two Ganesha statues and one Shiva were found on Mount Raksha, Panaitan Island, now part of Ujung Kulon National Park, where Java’s last remaining wild rhinoceroses roam; the statues have been dated stylistically to the 14th-15th centuries (Guillot, Lukman Nurhakim, and Sonny Wibisono 1994, 104-105; Halwany Michrob 1992).

The Kosala area on the southern slope of the mountains has yielded several Classic remains, including a bronze bell (Pennings 1902, 376) of a type used in esoteric Hindu ceremonies in Java. At a place nearby called Candi (which can mean “temple” in Indonesian), fragments of a brick Shiva temple with statues of Agastya and Ganesha were found (Friederich 1855, 32-37).

Several inscriptions on stone give us a glimpse of political developments in pre-Islamic Banten, but they often allude to events and personages about whom we lack information to put them into context. The name Sunda first appears in Java in an inscription dated 932 CE at Kebon Kopi (“coffee garden”) in the Bogor area where one of the Taruma inscriptions of the 5th century was also carved (Bosch 1941, Guillot, Lukman Nurhakim, and Sonny Wibisono 1996, 111). This inscription records that the Raja returned to Sunda. Where had he gone? Why had he been away? The inscription is written in the Old Malay language of Sumatra, not Sanskrit, Sundanese, or Javanese; why?

A ruler called Maharaja Sri Jayabupati had two inscriptions carved at a highland site in 1030 in Old Javanese language. At this period no polity existed in central Java, and no major archaeological sites are known to exist in east Java. Guillot (in Guillot, Lukman Nurhakim, and Sonny Wibisono 1996, 117) speculates that Sri Jayabupati was a Javanese protégé who moved to the highlands from a former capital at Banten Girang in order to escape an attack from the Sumatran kingdom of Srivijaya. This theory has little support. In 1025 Srivijaya had been attacked and destroyed by the Chola kingdom. There is no evidence that a major settlement, let alone a royal capital, yet existed at Banten Girang at this time. It is more likely that a series of local rulers inhabited various locations in the Banten highlands in the 10th through 15th centuries. Fifteenth-century pottery imported from Vietnam and Thailand has been found at the site of the Coffee Garden inscription (Edwards McKinnon 1985, 29-30), indicating that numerous sites in Sunda’s highlands were occupied more than once over long periods.

Banten Girang

The pre-Islamic site of Banten Girang is located on the Cibanten approximately midway between the coast and the river’s source (Mundardjito et al. 1978). Little is known of the site’s history. The Carita Parahiyangan, an Old Sundanese work thought to date from the early 16th century, mentions Banten Girang, but provides no further information about the site. Raffles (1817, II, 133) recorded a legend according to which Banten Girang was the capital of a kingdom the last ruler of which was Prabhu Pucukumun. The Sajarah Banten says the capital moved from Banten Girang to Banten Lama when Majapahit fell in the late 15th century. This account may contain a kernel of historical truth. Some legends say that the watu gilang now in the grave complex of Sunan Gunung Jati in Cirebon was the throne of Pucukumun. The Baduy are said to be descendants of Pucukumun’s followers who fled to the interior to escape Islamisation. They are reputed to have made pilgrimages to Banten Girang in recent times. The area was an important rice-producing area during the height of Banten’s prosperity in the 17th century and today has a dense agrarian population.

Although written sources are scarce, Banten Girang has yielded significant archaeological remains which demonstrate that the site was a cosmopolitan town from the 13th through 15th centuries with access to large quantities of high-quality ceramics from China, Thailand, and Vietnam. In the early 16th century, the centre of commercial and political power moved 13 km downstream to the coast. The reasons for this move are uncertain, but a combination of archaeological and historical data provides potential answers. Archaeological research at this site is discussed below.

The Islamisation of Sunda and the Growth of Banten

In 1515 a Portuguese official named Tome Pires described “the king of Sunda with his great city of Dayo” (Cortesão 1944, I, 166-173).^[5] Muslims were not allowed to enter “except for a few, because it is feared that with their cunning they may do there what has been done in Java [meaning central and east Java, as distinct from Sunda or west Java]; because the Moors are cunning and they make themselves masters of countries by cunning” (Cortesão 1944, 173).

The capital of Sunda lay two days’ journey inland from Kalapa (modern Jakarta), one of the kingdom’s six ports; the others were Banten, Pontang, Cigede, Tangara, and Cimanuk (Cortesão 1944, 170). Kalapa was the biggest, but Banten was “almost the most important of all”. In 1522 the Portuguese received permission from the ruler of Kalapa to establish a base there. The Portuguese described the Sundanese as pacific; “they spend their time praying to their gods. They have many temples to pray to these gods” (Djajadiningrat 1983, 84). Pires was the first author to use the toponym “Bantam”. He noted that Banten’s population included both coastal dwellers and inhabitants of the hinterland. Chinese bronze coins were used in everyday transactions (Cortesão 1944, 170). In the 18th century a palace for Dutch Governors-General was built near the site of the Pakuan Pajajaran palace in what is now the city of Bogor. During the British interregnum (1811–1816), Sir Stamford Raffles spent much time there (enjoying the cool weather at its higher elevation) and described Pakuan’s ruins, including a canal which had supplied the ancient palace with water (Raffles 1817, II, 53, 133). Pakuan Pajajaran was strategically situated at the junction of major communication routes in hinterland west Java (ten Dam 1956, 299). Two roads led from there to the north coast, one of which ended at Banten Girang, which was linked to the north coast via the Banten River.

When the Portuguese returned to west Java in 1526, they found that they were too late; Sunda’s coast was now under a Muslim ruler. Non-Muslim rulers held out at Bogor until about 1580.

The Sajarah Banten (“History of Banten”) was composed around 1660. This text displays influence from central Javanese literary traditions (Djajadiningrat 1983, 318,333). The story begins in the kingdom of Pajajaran. The king was succeeded by his son who was raised by a blacksmith, which reproduces the story of the founding of the kingdom of Majapahit in the Javanese chronicle Babad Tanah Jawi (Djajadiningrat 1983, 260).

Maulana Hasanuddin and his father, the heroic Muslim saint named Sunan Gunung Jati, travelled from Cirebon (a port city at the border between Sunda and central Java) to Banten Girang and then to mystical Mount Pulasari where 800 ascetics lived, while his army travelled to Pakuan (Sajarah Banten, Cantos XVI and XX). Maulana Hasanuddin meditated on the three mountains of Banten’s hinterland, after which the leader of the ascetics disappeared, and Hasanuddin assumed his role. After a (ritual) cockfight, two chiefs from Pakuan converted to Islam. Hasanuddin conquered Banten Girang, where he settled. Sunan Gunung Jati then told Hasanuddin to build a new city on the coast, with a market, palace, and public square (alun-alun).

Maulana Hasanuddin reigned until 1570 and was credited with creating a great port at Banten Lama with a palace and Great Mosque. He was succeeded by his son Maulana Yusup who built a fort, dams, and canals, and developed rice cultivation and more settlements. In 1580 Yusuf was succeeded by Maulana Muhammad, who was a minor. The ruler of Jepara in north-central Java claimed the throne of Banten, but the indigenous population of Banten rejected his claim (Pigeaud and de Graaf 1976, 13). Banten Lama remained an enclave of Javanese culture and language within a Sundanese milieu.

According to another chronicle, the Babad Cerbon, Sunan Gunung Jati married a fourth wife who had been born in Majapahit; due to her influence, Javanese culture superseded Sundanese culture in Cirebon (Pigeaud 1968, II, 706).

In 1596 Muhammad led a fleet to attack Palembang, south Sumatra, where he was killed (Mollema 1936, 229). Muhammad`s son and heir Abdulkadir was only five months old. This ushered in a period of regency and intrigue at a moment when unity and decisive leadership were most needed, for the first Dutch fleet arrived in Banten during that year.

Arrival of Northern Europeans

According to Francois Pyrard de Laval, who sailed from France in 1601:

All those who go to the Indies and other places beyond the Cape of Good Hope, when they desire to go to Sumatra they only say that they are going to Achin, for that town and port conveys the whole name and reputation of the island, as is done on Java Major with Bantam, so that talk is only of these two kings. (Schrieke 1966, 43–4)

The Dutch arrived in Banten in 1596, followed shortly thereafter by the English. When they entered Banten Bay, they counted 70 vessels at anchor (Mollema 1936, 212-217). The city was threatened by rebellious chiefs (Djajadiningrat 1983, 173), probably Sundanese in conflict with nobles of Javanese ancestry (Meilink-Roelofsz 1962, 245). Sundanese legends such as Wawacan Banten Girang depict the relationship between Javanese and Sundanese in Banten as uneasy (Jumsari Jusuf and Titi Munawar 1982). Banten’s mobility seems to have been divided into two factions: some of Javanese descent, others Sundanese. Perhaps the Sundanese were more agriculturally oriented than the Javanese. The balance of power at court probably oscillated between these two factions.

The Dutch established a trading office in Banten and in 1611 another one at Kalapa. In 1619 the Dutch in Kalapa renounced Banten’s authority and formed a colony which they renamed Batavia. For the next 60 years Banten successfully competed with Batavia, reaching a peak of prosperity in the 1670s (Meilink-Roelofsz 1962, 253-255). Banten formed its own colonies in Borneo and south Sumatra, and became increasingly Islamic.

In 1635 Sultan Abdul Kadir appointed his son Pekik as co-sovereign. In the following year Abdul Kadir sent a mission to Mecca, as the result of which the Grand Sharif conferred the title of Sultan on both Abdul Kadir and Pekik (Guillot et al. 1990, 35). They were among the earliest rulers in Indonesia to use this title. A local coin issued before 1639 used Arabic script (Djajadiningrat 1983, 140-141). The court became a centre of Islamic learning. “Again and again one notes in Banten the continual coming and going of ‘moorish popes’, which can only mean that there was unbroken contact—via Surat—with the centres of Moslem spiritual life" (Schrieke 1966, 242).In 1639 Banten signed a peace treaty with the Dutch recognising Batavia as an independent polity and making several other concessions (Guillot et al 1990, 36): Banten agreed to cease trading with Maluku, the source of valuable spices; submitted to Dutch demands that Banten’s ships had to obtain passes from Batavia; and affirming that Chinese shipping would no longer call at Banten. To counterbalance the Dutch, Banten strengthened diplomatic relations with other Indonesian kingdoms including Palembang, Jambi, Aceh, Johor, Indragiri, Mataram, Bali, and Makasar.

Banten’s relations with Mataram, the largest hinterland kingdom in Java in the 17th century, were however rocky. In 1644 envoys came to Banten from Mataram to propose an alliance, but Banten refused the request, and made plans to seize Cirebon from Mataram. In 1650 Mataram sent two missions to Banten demanding submission, which Banten refused. Mataram sent a fleet from Cirebon to attack Banten, and a sea battle ensued which Banten won, then executed 500 captives from Cirebon (Guillot et al 1990, 38).

In 1651 Pangeran Surya, then 25 years old, succeeded to the throne of Banten and took the title Sultan Agung (the Great Sultan). The next 30 years constituted Banten’s golden age.

As Banten became more cosmopolitan, its Chinese quarter grew wealthy. Around 1670 French and Danes joined the English and Dutch in Banten, followed by Portuguese. The palace was entertained by dancers from India (Schrieke 1966, 396 n. 180). Malay language, a lingua franca of trade, became more common: texts such as the Hikayat Hasanuddin and royal letters were written in Malay (Ricklefs 1976, 128-136). Banten’s government employed English, Danes, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Dutch (Guillot et al 1990, 59).

One example of Banten’s cosmopolitanism is a letter written in Malay language and Javanese script by a harbourmaster (shahbandar) of Banten of Chinese descent (Voorhoeve et al 1974; Guillot et al 1990, 131). This shahbandar created a trading fleet which one European called the “Banten Company”. Sultan Agung hired British captains to sail his ships to Manila, Macao, and Madras (Furber 1976, 49, 271). He ordered European type ships to be built in Rembang, north coastal Java, by English shipwrights. He also bought ships from Armenians, Moors, Japanese, and Europeans. Eventually Agung owned six ships which sailed to Tonkin, Mecca, Siam, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Coromandel, and Japan (Guillot et al 1990, 49-52).

In addition to trade, Sultan Agung expanded Banten’s diplomatic activity in the Java Sea. He sent 2,000 troops to southwest Borneo to support the principality of Landak in a local conflict, after which Landak became Banten’s dependency. Sultan Agung also attempted to establish suzerainty over Cirebon, but his plan was foiled when the Dutch formed an alliance with Mataram.

Banten’s golden age was eventually shattered by the effects of an ancient custom of power-sharing between the ruler and the crown prince which was common in Southeast Asia (Miksic and Goh 2017, 245). There was no fixed rule of succession, so rulers tried to groom favoured successors by devolving power to them while they were still alive. In old age kings often withdrew entirely from government. Sultan Agung followed this practice by appointing his son Abdulkahar his co-ruler in 1677 or 1678, with the title Sultan Haji (Jones 1982), and retired to a country estate called Tirtayasa (Djajadiningrat 1982, 208, 215).

In 1680, a schism developed between father and son over policy toward the Dutch: Agung opposed them, while Haji favoured accommodation with them. In 1682 Agung burned much of Banten Lama and besieged Haji in the palace. Haji appealed to the Dutch for support, which proved decisive (Stapel 1939, 417-419). Agung died a prisoner in Batavia in 1692 (Guillot et al 1990, 53). As compensation, in 1684 Haji granted monopoly rights over Banten’s foreign commerce to the Dutch; all other Europeans were ejected. The Dutch implemented policies aimed at moving the main centre of trade and power to Batavia. Chinese however continued to trade in Banten. A Chinese temple which still stands at Pabean (“Customs House”), a district in Banten Lama, is first mentioned in 1747. The mosque called Masjid Pacinan Tinggi may also have been built in the 18th century (Guillot et al 1990, 58, 66).

Banten’s fortunes gradually declined; by 1800 it was a shadow of its former self. This decline was due partially to human factors, and partly to the silting up of the port. Fort Speelwijk, built at the mouth of the Cibanten by the Dutch in 1684, now lies four km inland (Ongkodharma 1987). The eastern mouth of the Cibanten at Karangantu is still accessible by local fishing boats.

Banten’s Population and Physical Layout

The first population estimates for ports in Java are found in a 15th-century Chinese source. Tuban and Gresik in northeast Java around 1430 were said to have had populations of about 5,000 each (Mills 1970, 89-90). The Portuguese estimated that Demak and Palembang in the early 16th century contained 8,000 to 10,000 families (equivalent to 40,000 to 50,000 people; see Cortesao 1944, 155, 184). The palace complex at Pasai was estimated to contain 3,000 inhabitants, the whole city 20,000 (Dion 1970, 151, Cortesao 1944, 143).

These figures suggest that the populations of Javanese port cities may have grown by five to ten times between 1500 and 1600. This phenomenal growth was perhaps due to migration from the interior to the coast. The largest 15th and 16th-century Javanese cities were probably located in the hinterland, about which the Chinese and Portuguese knew little.

Banten’s population in the 1670s might have reached 150,000; only two cities in France had populations over 100,000 at this time (Guillot et al 1990, 44). A manuscript from the palace of Banten dated 1694 contains the first recorded census of Banten’s population. It lists 31,848 “men of Surasowan”, although some of the people listed as heads of families may have been women (Pigeaud 1968, II, 64-65; 1970, III, 68). The female population of the city was substantial; 1200 concubines lived in the palace in 1692 (Fryke 1929, 42).

In 1706, Banten’s population had declined to 36,302 inhabitants (Pigeaud 1968-70, 64-65, 68). François Valentyn, who visited Banten 12 years after the Dutch took control of the port (Valentyn 1726, IV, 214-215), estimated that Banten’s population was 8,170 families. This indicates a major decrease in the city’s population. Another census in Banten conducted around 1708 to 1715 listed 36,302 men (Pigeaud 1968, II, 65). Batavia was now more than twice as populous (19,370 families/100,000 people; see Uka 1975, 172). Surabaya in the early 17th century may have had 50,000 to 60,000 total inhabitants, and Jepara, 100,000 (Schrieke 1966, I, 25-26).

By 1815, Banten’s population had declined to just 5,699 people in 12 villages, whereas the town of Serang near Banten Girang comprised 42 villages and 19,793 people (Raffles 1817, II, 244). This pattern of settlement wherein the population is concentrated some distance inland probably resembled that of the early 16th century; it is also the same as that of today. The shift of population and power from the hinterland to the coast during the period of early European colonisation and Islamisation is common in Southeast Asia (Miksic and Goh 2017, 64-65). Historical and archaeological sources both indicate that before the Muslim conquest of Banten, the centre of settlement and power lay 13 km from the coast at Banten Girang.

Banten was probably the largest port in north coastal Java (and Indonesia) in 1596. The commander of the Dutch fleet which arrived in that year estimated that Banten was about the same size as Amsterdam, the city from which he had departed (Rouffaer and Ijzerman 1915, 59; van der Chijs 1881, 15).

Banten’s layout in 1600 shared a number of characteristics with other Javanese ports, which suggests that they were all built according to the same abstract plan. Unfortunately, we know little of Banten’s physical development during its formative period before the end of the 16th century. Portuguese sources provide few details about the port’s physical layout. Da Couto, in a source probably written before 1570, gave Banten’s dimensions as 850 fathoms inland and 400 fathoms wide at the shore, becoming broader as one proceeded inland. Boats could sail on rivers and canals through the town. On one side of the settlement was a fort with brick walls seven layers thick, augmented with wooden fortifications (Djajadiningrat 1983, 145).

The first detailed descriptions of Banten date from the arrival of the Dutch and British, at which point the city had already been Muslim for 70 years and had grown from the secondary port of the Sundanese kingdom of Pajajaran to a major political capital and international marketplace, an emporium where foreigners formed a significant proportion of the population. The city was divided into three zones (Mollema 1936, 221). The central zone (including the palace, royal mosque, public square, and houses of the indigenous population) was the largest: it was surrounded by a wall, and comprised the palace within its own wall, the royal mosque, the public square, and other enclaves where the indigenous population lived under the jurisdiction of noblemen. The area west of the central zone was allocated to Chinese, and later to Europeans. The eastern area was set aside for foreign Muslims.

Water was well-regulated in Banten. Water was channelled from a square reservoir, Tasik Ardi, two km southwest of the city, through an aqueduct to the palace. The rest of the population obtained water from the two branches of the Cibanten and canals which flowed through the city. After the Dutch obtained control over Banten in 1682, they built Fort Speelwijk at the western mouth of the Banten River. This enabled them to safeguard maritime communication with their headquarters at Batavia, but condemned them to suffer from waterborne diseases since their water was polluted by the upstream population.

The distribution of public and private places in Banten Lama perpetuated the traditional layout of the Javanese court complex of pre-Islamic Majapahit. When we first obtain a detailed description of Banten in 1596, Islam was pervasive, but the cityscape probably preserved several features which originated during the pre-Islamic period. Within the wall were three main roads, but water transport was the main mode of travel within the city. Entry to the Chinese and European quarter called Pacinan was by canal (Mollema 1936, 223).

The layout of Kalapa in 1618 closely resembled that of Banten (ten Dam 1956, 295). Kalapa in 1522 already had a palace, mosque, and alun-alun or public square on the west bank of the main river.

The internal layout of Banten Lama was described in detail by a participant in the first Dutch voyage of 1596 (De Eerste Schipvaart I, 107-108, quoted in Reid 1980, 249). Each section of the city was called a kampong; each kampong was enclosed within wooden or bamboo walls, and supervised by an official whose duties included directing the inhabitants during emergencies such as war or fire. A map of Banten Lama at the beginning of the 20th century (Serrurier 1902) divided the site among 33 kampongs. The names given to the kampongs are useful indications of which groups inhabited various areas. These names include specific occupations, features such as warehouses for pepper, or the names of the nobles who ruled them. It is likely though not certain that this pattern existed in the 16th and 17th centuries when the city was at its greatest extent.

Banten Lama is located in a small delta. The Cibanten forks at the site known as Kaibon where a palace was built for the sultan’s mother. Kaibon is thus located at the top of the delta, where the two branches or distributaries of the Cibanten split. Slightly west of Kaibon is Kesemen, an “indigenous village”. Aligned in a straight line north of Kaibon are six kampongs, which are, from south to north, Kesatrian (“military”), Karang Kepaten (unknown; a possibly literal translation is “stone of the Patih”, the title of a high minister), Kraton (“palace”), Pasar Anyar (Anyar Market; Anyar is also a town on the western coast of Banten), Pagebangan (unknown), and Kebantenan (residence of royal officials).

Surosowan Palace

Most extant Javanese palace complexes as well as some Malay examples consist of a public square or alun-alun, a mosque on the west, and a royal palace on the south. They date from the period after the conversion to Islam. We do not have a clear idea of the layout of pre-Islamic palace complexes. The layout of Majapahit’s capital at Trowulan has not been definitively determined, but it seems to have had a different layout: four quarters formed by two main roads running roughly north-south and east-west, with a palace in the southwest quadrant thus created. This layout has some parallels with Balinese ideas of cosmogony, in which the spot where the two roads cross must be left vacant for supernatural forces.

The first stage of the Surasowan palace built at Banten in the early 16th century was enclosed in a wall forming a square. This was later altered by an extension to form a rectangle with the long sides running from east to west. This is quite different from the palaces in Yogyakarta and Surakarta, where the long sides area oriented on a north-south axis.

The interior was densely occupied by a large number of buildings with brick foundations. The northern side seems to have had a reception area for guests, but the rest of the compound was reserved for royalty. A bathing area was constructed on the south side of the palace compound, furthest from the entrance, and nearest to the water source south of the palace, thus ensuring that the palace residents received the purest water.

The establishment of official compounds east of the Surosowan palace probably predates the construction of the Kaibon. Just before the fork in the river, on the right (east) bank are three kampongs: the furthest upstream is Kasunyatan, followed by Kemandalikan (named after the noble who lived there), and Karoya (signifying that it was inhabited by indigenous people, probably Sundanese). On the opposite (west) side are Tambak and Kajoran. “Tambak” in modern Indonesian refers to an artificial pool. Further west, in a relatively isolated position between the river and the aqueduct which supplied water to the Surosowan Palace, is Kebalen (signifying that Balinese lived there).

Several kampongs form the southwest boundary of the old city. South of the western corner of Surosowan is Kawiragunan, another settlement of palace officials, possibly with technical specialties. Cardeel, a Dutch bricklayer who became a renegade in the late 17th century and worked for Sultan Haji, was given the title Wiraguna, which signifies someone with architectural skills. West of the palace’s southwest corner is Pejantren, signifying weavers. North of them was Kepandean, metal smiths. These may all have been settlements for artisans attached to the palace. One kampong is located in the palace itself: Kapakihan, where the religious teachers lived.

North of the palace, the western branch of the Cibanten bends northwest. At some time a ditch was dug at the bend to feed water into a moat which ran west along the north side of the palace, then joined what may have been a natural branch of the Cibanten flowing west, then north where it rejoined the larger distributary. Just north of the spot where the moat branched off from the Cibanten was a kampong called Langen Maita. This is a Javanese-sounding name which has not been deciphered. Historical sources mention that the king’s elephant stable and boat house were located in this area. The people living here might have been charged with taking care of these two forms of ceremonial royal transport.

North of the Masjid Agung, which stands on the west side of the palace square or alun-alun, on the opposite side of the Cibanten distributary are four kampongs: Kapurban, Kaloran, and Wangsa, named after the nobles who lived there; and Penjaringan, village of netmakers. Thus, three noble families lived more or less side by side with a village where a fishing-related handicraft was practised. Perhaps netmakers were established there before the conquest of the port by Hasanuddin, but were allowed to continue to live there.

At the western mouth of the Cibanten, where the customs house and the Chinese temple were established, and Fort Speelwijk was built in 1685, were two kampongs on the west side of the river, thus outside the wall: Pabean and Pamerican. Pabean was where the port duties were collected; Pamerican was where pepper, one of the major commodities which made Banten wealthy, was stored. Foreign Muslims including Chinese and Europeans lived south of this entry point.

Seven kampongs stood in the northeast corner of the walled city, near the eastern mouth of the Cibanten: Pasulaman, Pratok, Pakojan, Pawilahan, Pakawatan. Pamarangsaan, and Pawilahan. Just outside the wall here was the port of Karangantu, where foreign Muslims lived and where a major market was held. The first denotes embroiderers, who probably worked for the nobles. Pratok is thought to denote some other handicraft makers. Pakojan denotes the location where foreign Muslims lived. Pamarangsaan and Pawilahan are named after keris makers and bamboo workers.

Banten’s Commerce

The geographical range of Banten’s trade is indicated by the list of foreign traders given previously. In addition to those already named, merchants from many parts of Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Sumbawa, Makassar, Banda, and Ambon) also lived in the port. There were also Burmese from Pegu, and even Abyssinians from Ethiopia (Uka 1975, 193). Perhaps the most influential were south Indians; in 1596 the harbourmaster was from Sao Tome, south of Madras, India (Mollema 1936, 231); his predecessor also came from south India (Fruin-Mees 1922, II, 45-46). The importance of west Asians and Gujeratis declined rapidly in Banten after 1600 as Chinese status rose (Meilink-Roelofsz 1962, 242).

The custom according to which foreigners were allotted separate quarters existed in Java (and many parts of the world including China) in pre-Islamic times. A Muslim burial ground at Troloyo, near Trowulan, east Java, perhaps indicates the location of an Islamic quarter there during the 15th century. Majapahit inscriptions frequently mention juru Cina and juru Keling, heads of these foreign communities (Keling = Kalinga, a kingdom on the east coast of India). Quarters for foreign and indigenous people existed in all ports in Java where foreign merchants resided in the 16th century, and in all probability had since the first foreign merchants began to reside in Indonesia.

There were three markets in Banten: one within the city wall, one in Pacinan (Mollema 1936, 224), and one in the eastern (Muslim) quarter, called Karangantu, which was the largest. Many moneylenders operated there. Merchants included Gujeratis, Bengalis, Burmese, Thais, Arabs, and Persians (Uka 1975, 225-227; Mollema 1936, 224). It was said that Banten merchants themselves seldom went abroad, preferring to lend funds to merchants from other places who handled retail distribution (Fruin-Mees 1922, II, 40). As van Leur described it, “Here, then, was the exchange, the meeting place of merchant gentlemen and ships’ captains. The fair of the western European Middle Ages and the exchange of the western European early capitalistic period were as it were brought together on the market field at Bantam” (van Leur 1960, 114).

Many of the traders at the Karangantu market were women (van der Chijs 1881, 54). Even fire brigades were composed of women; men remained at home to guard against robbery. One historian estimated that nine-tenths of the population of Banten consisted of females, though this is open to debate (van der Chijs 1881, 66-67).

The basic medium of exchange in Banten was Chinese coinage. These coins were made of copper until about 1590, when lead coins inscribed with characters of the period CE 998-1004 made in Quanzhou were introduced (Blussé 1979). In the early 1600s Chinese in Banten began to import lead and cast coins in Banten. These coins were replaced by silver by 1664 and remained in circulation elsewhere until about 1780 (Blussé 1979, 43-44).

In 1596 Banten was a rich city, linked to all major trading nations of Asia and Europe, with a heterogeneous population and sophisticated financial institutions. Five to ten small Chinese ships and four to six large ones came to Banten each year to buy pepper and silver (Meilink-Roelofsz 1962, 245). Chinese called Banten Ha-gang, “Lower River/Port” (Groeneveldt 1960, 56-57); this may denote a memory of Banten Girang, “Upstream Banten”.

Banten was not only a major node on the long-distance spice trade route; it also formed part of a complex network of internal Southeast Asian trade (Sutjipto Tjiptoadmodjo 1983). Little documentation of this trade exists, but it was definitely an important part of Banten’s economy.

Banten Girang: Archaeology

Banten Girang in the 1980s was a small village, the main attribute of which was a shrine (keramat) believed to be sanctified by association with the first resident of the area to convert to Islam (Sajarah Banten pupuh 18, 19, 20). In the 1980s the shrine was rebuilt, making future archaeological research on the structure impossible.

The main toponym now associated with the zone where archaeological remains are found is Kampong Telaya. This may be derived from Tirtalaya, the Sanskrit words for “holy water” and “place”, a name applied to the site in 1682 during the war between the Dutch and Sultan Agung (Guillot et al. 1996, 27). The name may have been coined by Sultan Agung to refer to a country estate created on the site for him. It was common for Indonesian kings to create such rural retreats. Agung built one for himself in the lowlands called Tirtayasa; see below.

Portuguese sources record that Hasanuddin conquered Banten Girang in 1526 or early 1527 (Guillot et al. 1996, 31). The Sajarah Banten (XVIII, 50/51) says he stayed there long enough for his wife, a princess of Demak, to have several children before his father Sunan Gunung Jati ordered him to move to the mouth of the Cibanten in the 1530s. Later rulers of Banten Lama occasionally resided at Banten Girang, including Sultan Agung in 1674 and Haji in 1678 (Guillot et al. 1996, 32). In 1682 some of Agung’s family moved there, presumably to escape the battle then raging at Surosowan between Haji and Agung (Djajadiningrat 1983, 124). Banten Girang was then ruled by one of Agung’s main officials, who fortified an old palace, the ruins of which Raffles (1817, II, 33) could still see. According to local tradition, when the sultanate was abolished in 1813, a resort or pesanggrahan was still located there.

The first systematic archaeological research at Banten Girang in 1976 recovered evidence of pre-Islamic settlement (Mundardjito et al. 1978). In 1988 a Franco-Indonesian team excavated four test pits at Banten Girang, but found only highly disturbed deposits (Guillot, Lukman Nurhakim and C. Salmon 1990).

In 1989 a project at Banten Girang sponsored by the Ford Foundation (Tim Mahasiswa 1989) confirmed the presence of manmade earthworks (perhaps fortifications), a road, a brick structure possibly intended as a dam, iron production, and locally-made pottery with paddle-impressed motifs. Approximately 30 per cent of the ceramic assemblage consisted of imported Chinese wares, of which the most common types dated to the Song-Yuan period (12th –14th centuries), followed by Ming (14th-16th centuries). A small proportion consisted of 15th-century Southeast Asian (Thai and Vietnamese) ware.

This data is consistent with the conclusion that Banten Girang was a significant site during the pre-Islamic period, the population of which had access to a plentiful supply of imported pottery. This proportion of local to imported Chinese ware at Banten Girang is approximately the same as at Kota Cina, a Song-period port site in northeast Sumatra (Miksic 1979, 164), suggesting that despite its location 13 km from the coast, Banten Girang was probably a port which had access to large quantities of imported ceramics.

A Franco-Indonesian team conducted more excavations from 1990 to 1992 (Guillot, Lukman Nurhakim, and Sonny Wibisono 1996; hereafter Guillot et al 1996). The excavations yielded 10,072 imported sherds grouped according to a peculiar method which relies on questionable assumptions (Guillot et al 1996, 63-65). Since it is not possible to allocate all Chinese sherds to a specific century, the report attempts to compensate for this by dividing the sherds which could belong to more than one period into fractions; if 32 sherds are assigned to the 7th to 10th century, for instance, then eight sherds are arbitrarily assigned to the 7th century, eight to the 8th century, etc. This method has not been adopted by other scholars working on similar materials.

Dupoizat and Naniek Harkantiningsih (in Guillot et al 1996, 103-174) provide two tabulations: one for excavated ceramics using the method used in the earlier section, and another for surface finds, which roughly corresponds to the dynastic system. Unfortunately, the statistics do not distinguish porcelain from stoneware, so it is not possible to ascertain the proportions of fine glazed wares and coarse jars. This is an important variable which would enable us to analyse the importance of luxury wares versus utilitarian imported ceramics, thus providing a significant indication of the wealth of the society and the importance of commerce compared to industry and agriculture. At Kota Cina, for example, porcelain comprised 12.78 per cent of the ceramic assemblage, while stoneware comprised 22.55 per cent (Miksic 1979, 164).

Following the dynastic system, sherds of the Song period comprise about 15 per cent; those of the late Song or early Yuan period, about 15 per cent; those of the Yuan, 60 per cent; and later periods, about 10 per cent. These data clearly show that the late Southern Song and Yuan periods (roughly 1200–1350) represented the height of ceramic imports at Banten Girang. Chinese sherds cannot, however, be used as a proxy for trade as a whole; during the Ming period, Chinese ceramic exports declined due to changing economic policy in China. Some Thai and Vietnamese ceramics were exported during this period, but in smaller quantities. Guillot et al mention Vietnamese ceramics, probably of the 15th century, which, to some extent, filled the gap in ceramic imports. Fifteenth-century Thai ceramics were found in the 1988 Ford Foundation project, and have been reported by other scholars (e.g. Edwards McKinnon, personal communication, 1984). They were also found at Banten Lama; see below. Merchants from Siam and Vietnam were present in Majapahit; Javanese ships visited Vietnam in the 15th century (Pigeaud 1962, III, 38; Taylor 1982, 20-21).

The conclusions that “Banten Girang was definitely inhabited by the 10th century” and experienced a “disaster” in the 15th century (Guillot et al 1996, 65-66) are dubious because they rely too heavily on Chinese ceramics to draw inferences regarding Southeast Asian societies and events (Miksic 1996, 287-297). Guillot et al. speculate that the lack of Ming sherds in Banten Girang indicates political and economic decline in the 15th century because it was conquered by Pakuan (p. 67). In fact the dearth of 15th-century Chinese ceramics is paralleled at many other Southeast Asian sites, and is correlated with a self-imposed hiatus in Chinese trade with Southeast Asia lasting 150 years. A slight increase in Chinese sherds at Banten Girang beginning around 1500 is not likely to be due to Pakuan’s declining power over Banten Girang; it is correlated with the resumption of Chinese international trade, evidence for which is again found in many Southeast Asian sites.

Fifty-five Chinese coins were found at Banten Girang, of which two date from the Tang, the others from the Northern Song (Guillot et al 1996, 69-70). This does not prove that they were brought to Banten Girang at that time, but their presence does support the conclusion that commerce played an important role in Banten Girang’s economy. Chinese coins have been also found in large numbers at Kota Cina (11th through 13th centuries), and Singapore and Trowulan (14th to 16th centuries).

Beads are another important type of item found at Banten Girang (Sumarah Adhyatman 1996). Seven hundred ninety-five beads were found in the Franco-Indonesian project. Some were locally made of fired clay. Fifty-two are made of hard stone, mostly carnelian. Most (about 740) were made of glass. Ten belong to the well-known Indo-Pacific type made from glass tubes. Many more were made by the winding method which suggests that they were made in China; contemporary examples have been found in Singapore (Miksic 2013, 343-352).

Other materials worked at Banten Girang include metal, stone, and ceramics. Metals found on the site include bronze and iron (Guillot 1996). As at Bukit Sangkuriang, stone scrapers and adzes found on the site may also have been locally made (Lukman Nurhakim 1996). Two types of earthenware pottery were found: fine and coarse (Sonny Wibisono 1996). One red-slipped subtype of fine ware (designated H3) resembles sherds found at Trowulan, Majapahit’s capital.

Banten Lama: Architecture and Archaeology

As at Bukit Sangkuriang and Banten Girang, stone flakes, blades, cores, adzes, axes, stone and glass beads, and sherds of prehistoric style pottery have been found mixed with remains of the historic period at Odel, two km south of the Masjid Agung, as well as the districts of Sukadiri, Karadenan, and Kenari in the Banten Lama site (Indraningsih 1986). Traces of settlement found at Odel similar to Banten Girang include Chinese ceramics of the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, plus sherds of 15th-century Thai pottery (Indraningsih 1986: 245), including tuton sia kabarn figurines also found at Trowulan (Sumarah Adhyatman 1981, 83; Roxas-Lim 1984, 183; Miksic 1986, 226). As in Trowulan, but contrary to Sulawesi, sherds of Vietnamese stoneware of the 15th century outnumber those from Thailand (Guillot et al 1996, 99; Halwany Michrob 1983-1984, pages 79-82; Ongkodharma 1987). A stone statue of Siva’s bull Nandi found at the Cibanten’s mouth at Karangantu (Bosch 1918, 5) strongly hints at the existence of a Hindu temple there in pre-Islamic times.

In 1945 the Resident of Banten, Tb. K.H.A. Khatib, who was also the acting head of preservation and development of Banten’s palace and mosque, initiated communal efforts to clear the forest which had grown over the site. This endeavour continued until 1960 (Halwany Michrob 1984, 81). In 1968 the Department of Archaeology of Universitas Indonesia in cooperation with the National Institute of Archaeological Research (LPPN) conducted an excavation at Surosowan Palace. In 1969 the LPPN set up a park and cleared the area around some of the main standing structures including Surosowan and Fort Speelwijk. Drs. Uka Tjandrasasmita conducted an excavation in the square in front of the palace. In 1976 LPPN together with Universitas Indonesia excavated another part of the palace (Berita Penelitian Arkeologi 18, 1977). From 1977 to 1979 the LPPN (renamed PusPAN, subsequently changed to Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional, abbreviated Puslit Arkenas) continued excavations in the palace.

Beginning in 1976, the local government collaborated with Puslit Arkenas and the Direktorat Sejarah dan Purbakala (Directorate of History and Antiquity, abbreviated DSP) to carry out research and restoration at the site. In 1977, the Proyek Pemeliharaan dan Pemugaran Peninggalan Sejarah dan Purbakala (Project for Curating and Restoring Historical and Archaeological Remains) pioneered restoration at Banten and collected artefacts revealed in the course of the project (Halwany 1984, 159). Archaeological surveys and excavation continued through the 1980s, sometimes in conjunction with restoration.

Many sectors of the site have been sampled. By far the largest category of material consists of ceramics. In the 1980s over a million ceramics were collected (Halwany Michrob n.d., 1984, 1985). The ceramic trade of Banten Lama is well documented in archival sources (Volker 1954). In addition to ceramics for local consumption, Chinese wares were re-exported to other parts of Indonesia, India, and Europe. Between 1610 and 1624, Dutch ships transported about 500,000 ceramics from Banten to the Netherlands (Volker 1954, 25-28). Sultan Agung’s ships sometimes transported Chinese ceramics to Surat, northwest India (Volker 1954, 182-190)

One of the major features noted by the excavators is the considerable degree of disturbance throughout the site. Some of this is no doubt due to the fact that people have lived continuously at Banten Lama since the 15th century. Governor-General Daendels ordered the palace destroyed in 1813 (Halwany 1984, 54). Most strata in the site contain artefacts from the 16th through 20th centuries. This makes it difficult to ascertain the sequence of activities at particular locations and the chronology of local ceramic types.

Reports of excavations along the northeast bastion of the Surosowan Palace do not differentiate between those found inside and outside the wall. This is unfortunate because the Dutch built a structure named Fort Diamant against the outside wall here. It is not possible to separate the assemblages of these two zones. Excavations in 2009 recorded a dense concentration of clay tobacco pipes just outside the northeast wall of the palace (Ueda 2015, 85; figure 2.3), indicating the significance of distinguishing between the interior and exterior finds from the palace area.

Coins from China and the Netherlands East India Company as well as those made by the Sultanate were ubiquitous at the site (Prio Widiyono 1986), as were clay banks (one of which, found in the Surosowan Palace, is illustrated in Halwany Michrob 1984 208; see also illustration below.) Clay tobacco pipes and glass brandy bottles were also widespread, but they were mainly concentrated in specific areas, indicating that tobacco smoking was not universal. The bottles could have been reused after the original contents were drained, making it impossible to tell how widespread the drinking of alcohol was. Fishing equipment was also found in most parts of the site, but could have been deposited at different times. Fishermen now live in the Pekojan and Karangantu areas where foreign Muslim merchants once resided. Net weights found there could date from the 19th century. Nine were found in Surosowan (Halwany 1984, 209-210), where fishermen were unlikely to have lived until after the Sultanate was abolished.

Ceramics in Banten

A huge quantity of ceramics has been recovered from systematic research in Banten. As of 1985, 1,708,540 sherds had been recorded; almost 90 per cent of them were imported. China provided 90 per cent of the imports; two-thirds of them date from the Qing, one-third from the Ming. Japan was the source of 9 per cent of the ceramic assemblage (mostly from the late 17th and early 18th century, with Vietnamese (0.5 per cent) and Thai (0.3 per cent) providing the remainder (data compiled from tables in Sakai et al. 2007, 68-82; Halwany n.d. 1984, 1985).

Most of the earthenware used in everyday life at Banten Lama was probably locally made, including architectural elements such as roof and floor tiles. Archaeologists have identified two major pottery-making areas, Sukadiri and Panjunan, by pottery-making equipment found there (Mundardjito, Hasan Muarif Ambary, Hasan Djafar 1978, 23-24). The pottery of the Sunda region has not been studied in detail, but it seems to be characterised by plain functional forms and lack of decoration. Carinated body shapes typical of pottery in Sumatra seem to be absent, except for 89 sherds, all of which were found in the same month, thus probably in one area (Halwany Michrob 1984, 209-210). Other ceramic types suggest a connection with east Java, and especially Trowulan. These include zoomorphic clay money banks, one of which depicts a dog, with eyes made from sherds of Chinese blue and white porcelain; this practices of making zoomorphic piggy banks can be traced back to 14th-century East Java, where such banks were made in numerous shapes including pigs (the original ‘piggy banks”).

Pottery-making was also an important local occupation in Banten Lama. In addition to everyday domestic items such as bowls, jars, and cooking pots, local potters also made a range of decorative items and terracotta figurines, which at Banten Lama mainly take the shape of birds. A second connection with Trowulan is the production of many large jars, probably for storing water, decorated with stamped motifs. Several hundred of these motifs have been recorded (Mundardjito, Hasan Muarif Ambary, Hasan Djafar 1978 107-111; Halwany Michrob 1984, 224-225; Sakai et al 2007, 83-94).

Unfortunately the reports do not distinguish between porcelain and stoneware, but the most common shapes of imported ceramics were plates and bowls, not large jars (Naniek 1980, 50); this is quite different from the pattern found in late pre-Islamic sites such as Kota Cina and Singapore, where coarse stonewares, mainly jars, outnumber porcelain. This change could be linked to the replacement of ceramics by shipping containers made of some other material. It could also be indicative of differences between commodities shipped from China to Sumatra and those sent to Java. More research is necessary to solve this problem.

Many of the Chinese ceramics at Banten were imported from Zhangzhou, which were cheaper than those made at Jingdezhen (Adhyatman 2000; Naniek 1980, 70). The first Dutch visitors in 1596 recorded that when the season for Chinese shipping began in January, a thousand cash (equal to two Dutch florins) would buy five or six porcelain dishes; when supplies ran low toward the end of the year, the price rose by 40 per cent (Volker 1971, 21).

Chinese-style ceramics were exported from Hizen, Japan, beginning in 1647. When the Qing government banned foreign trade between 1656 and 1684, the Hizen kilns were well-positioned to take advantage of the vacuum in the market. Japanese had been forbidden to travel abroad after 1637; Hizen ceramics probably were distributed by Chinese. Hizen ware comprises about 19 per cent of the foreign ceramics of the late 17th century found in Banten (Ohhashi 2000). Most of these are concentrated in the Surosowan Palace site (Untoro 2000, 77).

Some European pottery has also been discovered in Banten Lama. This ware was not a major commodity of trade in Banten.

Metalworking

In addition to pottery-making and fishing, a third occupation which is well-documented in the archaeological record at Banten Lama is metal-working. In fact, judging from the density and distribution of remains of metal-working, this was one of the main activities carried on at Banten Lama. Unfortunately due to the lack of stratigraphic information, it is impossible to say how many metal-working shops were in operation at any one time.

When the site known as Kebalen (probably indicating a settlement of Balinese) was excavated in 1981 in preparation for the construction of the site museum, numerous bronze and iron fragments, slag, a very large stone anvil, and charcoal indicative of metallurgy were found (Halwany Michrob 1984). Excavations at three other sites (Sukadiri, Surosowan, and Jembatan Rantai) also yielded dense remains of metal-working (well-summarised in an unpublished study by Ronny Siswandi 1980). Metal-working may also have been carried out in Kepandean, Pajantran, Kagongan, and Kawiragunan, based on the village names (Ronny Siswandi 1980, 71, 146).

The oldest metal foundry was found in the district of Jembatan Rantai (“Chain Bridge”, a reference to a drawbridge, foundations of which still remain). The site is dated to the 16th and 17th centuries by Chinese ceramics and seven locally-minted tin coins, two of which were issued in 1580. Both bronze and iron were worked here. The site seems to have begun as a bronze atelier, with a later shift to iron working. Both phases included buildings with floors of brick. Remains associated with the craft include metallic remains, furnaces, anvils, and crucibles (Ronny Siswandi 1980, 79-82).

Sukadiri is located in the western sector of Banten Lama. Two areas were excavated. Mundardjito (1977) suggested that the area further west was used by gamelan makers, based on evidence that the metal worked there was bronze, and the recovery of many fragments of moulds used for lost-wax casting. Two rows of four furnaces each contained congealed bronze, copper and bronze particles, moulds, slag, and 908 crucibles. The artisans worked in a building with a brick wall and a floor partly of brick, partly dirt; at the modern site of Tihingan where a similar layout exists, workers use the lower dirt floor to stand on while hammering objects on top of the brick floor, making the job less back-breaking. Ceramics and two VOC coins suggest a date for the site from the early 17th to late 18th centuries (Ronny Siswandi 1980, 74-76).

The eastern part of the Sukadiri site lies on the west bank of the Kapandean River (pande means “metal-smith”). Excavations here in 1976 and 1979 yielded evidence of iron working, including tuyères or pipes used for bellows approximately at the same period as the bronze workers were active in the western part of the village (Ronny Siswandi 1980, 77-78).

The third site was located inside the Surosowan palace wall. An area next to a water feature called Lara Denok was subject to a rescue excavation due to planned restoration of part of the palace. Lara Denok according to van de Wall was where the royal treasure was kept; it consisted of a pool with a stone structure in the middle. It is likely that both bronze and iron were worked here, based on slag and metal remnants. Other evidence included remains of bellows and crucibles. This site was dated to the early 18th to early 19th centuries, corresponding to Daendels’ destruction of the palace (Ronny Siswandi 1980, 83-85).

Traditional Indonesian blacksmithing was still practised near Banten Lama in the village of Kampung Dukuh in the 1980s. The forges still used traditional Indonesian bellows (ububan) made of bamboo.

The Tirtayasa Palace

In the late 1670s Sultan Agung, desiring to retire from government in favor of his son Sultan Haji, built himself a rural palace 25 km east of Banten Lama called Tirtayasa. Sultan Agung in his later years was often called Tirtayasa, after this country estate, the name of which incorporates two Sanskrit words: tirta, which in Indonesia refers to holy water, and yasa, “work, endeavor, undertaking” (Anon 2007, 10). It was common practice for Javanese rulers of the Islamic period to build country estates (pesanggrahan), but Sultan Agung was unique in initiating numerous engineering projects around Tirtayasa, including a road and canal network for transportation. He had already begun developing an irrigation system in 1663–64 at the mouth of the Cidurian River seven km east of Tirtayasa. A Chinese source concerning a Chinese ship which was going to Japan in 1675 mentioned Tirtayasa (Sakai et al 2000, 63).

The Cidurian and Ciujung drain a large area. The remainder of Agung’s canal is ten km long. Halfway downstream, near Tirtayasa, the canal splits into three branches leading shoreward. Perhaps Agung was thinking of building a new port there (Sakai et al 2000, 70).

In November 1681 tensions flared between Agung and Haji over policy toward the Dutch, as the result of which Haji declared himself the sole ruler of Banten, accusing his father of becoming senile. In February 1682 Agung attacked Surosowan. Haji sought refuge with the Dutch. In March a Dutch military expedition forced Agung to retreat until eventually he was surrounded in Tirtayasa. In 1683 Agung returned to Surosowan to meet Haji, whereupon the VOC arrested Agung, who remained incarcerated until he died in 1692 (Sakai et al 2000, 7-11).

Excavations at Tirtayasa in the 1990s and early 2000s documented remains of a walled compound, buildings within and outside the wall, and a ceremonial mound called Gunung Sewu (1,000 Mountains). The site is badly disturbed by a graveyard which has been in use since at least the 1930s. Artefacts discovered included much Japanese porcelain from the Hizen region, mostly from the Arita and Saga kilns, but also from Hasami, Nagasaki, and Seto-Mino (Ohashi Koji 2000, 60, in Sakai et al 2000; Anonymous 2007). This is consistent with a precipitous decline in Chinese ceramic exports in the late 17th century; the Qing imposed a ban on foreign trade in 1661. A large quantity of Chinese coins was found in one part of the site, near an old road (Sakai et al 2000, 11).

Conclusion: An Islamic City in Early Modern Indonesia

Banten Lama was first settled in the late 15th century by Sundanese who practised a form of Indic religion with elements of Buddhism and Hinduism, inflected with late prehistoric spirituality focused on ancestors and mountains. In the early 16th century the city was conquered by Muslims from Cirebon. Domestic earthenware objects from Banten Lama such as clay “piggy banks”, ewers called kendi, and large water storage jars closely resemble those found at Trowulan, a major capital city of the 14th and 15th centuries located in east Java. These ceramics have not yet been reported at other sites on Java’s north coast, but this may be due to lack of research. Their presence in Banten Lama is evidence of Javanese cultural influence and probably immigration to Banten Lama in the 16th century, which is consistent with literary sources.

These ceramics are quite different from those found 13 km inland at the site of Banten Girang, which dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, and was probably inhabited by Sundanese. Later sources suggest that political differences between the nobles of Banten Lama and the chiefs of the surrounding population were a permanent feature of Banten’s court and were correlated with a Javanese/Sundanese ethno-linguistic divide rather than religion.

The city of Banten Lama grew quickly in the 16th century, becoming the main hub for trade in Southeast Asian spices with Asia and Europe. The rulers took the Muslim title Sultan. A great mosque was built, with a tall minaret in Indo-Islamic style which could be seen far out to sea, serving as a landmark for ships approaching the anchorage as well as an advertisement for Islam (Miksic 1989b). Banten Lama was Southeast Asia’s pre-eminent port with a Muslim population in the 16th through 18th centuries.

To what extent was Banten Lama’s society and archaeological record shaped by Islam? What attributes did it share with Islamic cities in India or West Asia? Basic attributes of Banten Lama, including its layout, division into ethnic and occupational quarters, emphasis on water management, prominence of Islamic religious buildings, and importance of markets, are found in other early Islamic cities, but they are also present in non-Islamic civilisations. There is no ideal ground plan for the disposition of these areas in Islam. Banten Lama’s layout might have followed the city plan of Trowulan, capital of 14th-century Majapahit. Later Javanese capitals such as Surakarta and Yogyakarta also conformed to this plan.

Islam’s impact on Banten Lama was felt in less obvious ways. Islam was tolerant of foreign merchants. The Dutch and British were quickly accepted as trading partners upon their arrival at the end of the 16th century. In many aspects early Muslim ports of Indonesia were more cosmopolitan than those of Europe at that time. Despite Banten’s Islamic orientation, imported artefacts found in Banten almost all came from China or other parts of Southeast Asia. Chinese people, some of whom were converts to Islam, played a considerable role in Banten’s economy. In addition to having their own large quarter called Pacinan, Chinese traders served in Banten’s royal administration.

Traders from Muslim societies in India and other parts of the western Indian Ocean played a comparable role in the life and commerce of Banten Lama, but they do not show up in the archaeological record because their exports were perishable in nature. This fact illustrates the weakness of archaeology unsupported by other sources of data.

Another type of artefact which is notable by its scarcity in archaeological assemblages in Banten is locally-made coinage. Historical sources suggest that the importance of indigenous money in daily life was much greater than the tiny number of coins found by archaeologists would suggest (Blusse 1979).

Archaeology combined with history produces a fuller, more accurate picture than either discipline alone can provide. The sophistication and ubiquity of metal workshops found by archaeologists in Banten Lama is far greater than written sources suggest. There is a clear parallel to the archaeological record of metal-working in 14th century Singapore to be found in this respect.

Much more is known about Banten Lama’s history than about 14th-century Temasek. The detailed picture of Banten Lama which scholars have compiled contrasts with the limitations of research in Singapore, where archaeological and historical data are much scarcer.

Although Indonesian archaeologists and historians have conducted much important research on Banten, few results have yet been published. This brief summary of the work of Indonesian scholars illustrates the benefits which will accrue to international scholarship on early globalisation when more archaeological data from ports in Indonesia and Southeast Asia as a whole are acquired and disseminated.

Bibliography

Footnotes

1. Pigeaud 1960: III, 101-102. Translation of Nagarakrtagama Canto 86: “There is north of the Royal compound a plain called Bubat, renowned. Now the arrangement of Bubat is: an empty plain, very flat, with short grass, wide.…It is surrounded by bhawanas (large buildings), kuwus of mantris, densely crowded, in groups.” Some have argued that “manor” is redolent of European feudalism, but as a gloss it is accurate. ↩︎

2. In 19th-century Singapore, the royal palace, called Istana Kampong Glam, is located north of Sultan’s Gate, with the sea on the south. This orientation toward the sea is the reverse of the royal capitals of Surakarta and Yogyakarta in Java. The Masjid Sultan’s position northwest of the palace is however exactly the same as in the Javanese palace of Yogyakarta and the Surosowan Palace of Banten Lama. ↩︎

3. In modern Indonesia and Malaysia this term is often used in the sense of “village”; in earlier times it meant a ward of an urban area, analogous to kuwu; Miksic 1989. ↩︎

4. According to another theory, the name derives from paku, “nail” or “axis”. However, the word kuwu probably comes from the same root as kubu in modern Malay, meaning “walled enclosure, fort”. ↩︎

5. Dayeuh= Sundanese for “town”; Djajadiningrat 1982: 147. ↩︎