A big island, thinly peopled, with a big bay on its east side with fresh water, timber and cajuput oil from the scrub inland.
It is the last shelter before the Manipa strait and the standard place to wait out weather on the run north (board). No settlement, chief or text is dated to 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- No overall chief shown for 1200: village chiefs
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Nothing is written about the rulers or headmen of this country for 1200. The structure is read from geography and from ethnography of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
What it holds
- Kayeli bay
- The coast landings
Allies and rivals
The Buru town record (Buru and Kayeli bay).
How things stand that morning
Not described for 1200; the villages are presumed to be farming, fishing and selling what the rivers and forests give.
Wealth
Water, timber, cajuput oil; no figures.
Military
Not known; boats, spears, shields and blowpipes in the later record. No numbers.
Threats
- Feuds and raiding between villages
- Flood, drought or fire
- A change in the trade that comes by sea
Places of note
- Namlea: Port on the bay (a later name).
- Kayeli: Bay (position approximate).
Where the sources disagree
- The ethnic names used here (Dayak, Kayan, Kenyah, Iban, Ngaju, Banjar and the rest) are later outsiders' or ethnographic names; the ethnic map of 1200 is not known and differs from the modern one.
Evidence: Geography and later ethnography only; no text of the period describes this country.
On the map: A rough outline of the people's country; the real extent of any village group in 1200 is not known, and nothing here is a border.
Sources and studies
- Background knowledge of Southeast Asian history (Wolters; Hall; Bellwood; Scott; Junker; Reid), recalled and not re-read in this pass
- The OMNIA board (September 2026) note for this place: a lead only, not a source
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.