The Tamil guild of Lobu Tua set up an inscription in Tamil dated Saka 1010 (1088) laying down the dues for shipmasters and traders.
A guild of this kind (the Five Hundred of the Thousand Directions) worshipped, endowed shrines and held temple rights wherever it settled; that is an inference from guilds elsewhere, and we found no shrine at Lobu Tua dated or described. The English Wikipedia article on Barus, citing Miksic, reports the site abandoned about the turn of the twelfth century, with a settlement at Bukit Hasang from the mid-twelfth, so on 1 January 1200 the shrines, if any, are probably a ruin. The campaign board's 'secure' is too strong for 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- The leaders of the Five Hundred, not named
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source names an abbot, priest or headman of this house for any date near 1 January 1200.
Overlord
None; the guild's own authority.
What it holds
- The shrine or temple and what the campaign board and the remains show of its endowment
How things stand that morning
Probably gone or moved by 1200; not pinned.
Places of note
- Lobu Tua: Excavated Tamil settlement north of Barus; the inscription is of 1088.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Thin: a dated guild inscription and an excavation; the shrine itself is an inference.
On the map: A point only: no land of its own is recorded.
Primary sources for Malay ports
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
- The Grahi (Chaiya) Buddha inscription and the Tambralinga records, Various (the officers of Grahi and the kings of Tambralinga), edited by George Coedes (the Chaiya bronze Buddha inscription 1183; the Nakhon Si Thammarat records 13th century; edited 1929, revised 1961). The peninsula in 1200 has one near-contemporary dated text: the Old Khmer inscription on the base of a bronze Buddha from Wat Hua Wiang at Chaiya, dated 1183, which records the image's casting by order of the mahasenapati Galanai, governor of Grahi, under the king Srimat Trailokyaraja Maulibhusanavarmadeva, a name that is argued to be either a Malayu (Srivijaya) overlord or a local king.
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (English): Barus
- C. Guillot (ed.), Lobu Tua, Sumatra's oldest Tamil site (2003) and Histoire de Barus, read from memory, not rechecked
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.