Bantayan : An Early Makassarese Kingdom, 1200-1600 A.D

Wayne A. Bougas This article describes the development of Bantayan (Bantaeng), a pre-Islamic, Makassarese kingdom, on the south coast of South Sulawesi. The Nagara- Kertagama, a count poem written in Majapahit Java in 1365 A. D., indicates that Bantayan was one of the three most important centers in South Sulawesi at that time. The author uses four sources to explain Bantaeng' s rise : (1) an archaeological field survey of Bantaeng (2) accounts of grave robbers who looted Bantaeng' s major sites (3) myths describing the development of kingship in Bantaeng and (4) pre-Islamic, religious beliefs and rites. The author concludes that one of Bantaeng' s oldest kingdoms emerged along the Biangkeke River at Gantarang Keke in eastern Bantaeng. This kingdom may have traded with Majapahit. The expansion of wet rice agriculture and increased trade in the 14th and 15th centuries A. D. saw the rise of another powerful kingdom at Bissampole/Lembang Cina along the Calendu River in central Bantaeng. A third center rose at Kaili in west Bantaeng. Lembang Cina in central Bantaeng grew so powerful that it ultimately dominated the two other centers to the east and west. The article also explains how tomanurung veneration provided the religious and ideological basis for kingship in Bantaeng. Dynasties there and elsewhere in South Sulawesi were thought to have been founded by heavenly descended beings known as tomanurung. Finally, the paper concludes by providing some suggestions for Bantaeng' s subsequent decline in the 16th century.