How Many Polities Called Tanjungpura Have There Been in Borneo?

Abstract

Abstract:There has been extensive trade between Borneo and the outside world for at least 1000 years but there are considerable problems in establishing the precise locations of the major polities that were involved in this trade. One of them, Tanjungpura (with spelling variations), appears in Chinese, Javanese, Malay, and Portuguese records until the end of the 16th century CE and then disappears. The popular view is that it lay on the Pawan river and that Sukadana is its successor, but some maps show Tanjungpura in northerly locations in Borneo or in the south. This issue now deserves attention, particularly because a recently published oral history mentions more than one Tanjungpura in Borneo. This article reviews references to Tanjungpura in early records, to address the question in the title, and wider occurrences of the name in the Indonesian archipelago.