A block of forest in the hills of south Banten, in Lebak, held by people who farm dry rice by rotation, keep the outside world out and govern themselves (board).
As a named community the Baduy are attested only from the sixteenth century on, and they say themselves they are far older (board and en.wikipedia). The entry stands because this ground was never anybody's to administer: whether a community of this kind lived here in 1200 is not known, and the record is a placeholder with a real shape, not a report. The hills lie in the Kendeng range south of Rangkasbitung, some fifty kilometres south-south-east of Banten Girang on the Cibanten.
Who holds it
- Title
- The puun and elders of the Kanekes villages (later tradition)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
As a named community the Baduy are attested only from the sixteenth century on (en.wikipedia); the title puun belongs to that later record.
Overlord
the king of Sunda or the lord of Banten Girang, if any court reached the hills (no source)
What it holds
- Forest and swidden ground in the Kendeng hills
How things stand that morning
Unknown whether the community existed; if it did, it was self-governing and unvisited.
Wealth
Dry rice and forest produce; no figures.
Military
None attested.
Places of note
- Kanekes villages: The campaign board point in the Kendeng hills.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry kanekes-baduy-uplands marks the entry contested for its thin attestation. We agree: the name is first recorded in the sixteenth century.
Evidence: Nothing dated before the sixteenth century; the 1200 shape is inferred from the geography.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A rough outline round the campaign board point; the community may not have existed.
Primary sources for Sunda
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.
- Old Javanese Charters (the Brandes and Krom corpus), including the Kediri inscriptions of Kamesvara and Srngga, Various (the Kediri kings and their officers), edited by J. L. A. Brandes and N. J. Krom (inscriptions of the 8th to 15th centuries; edited 1913). Kediri (Panjalu) in 1200 is known from a few royal charters on stone and copper, which this corpus first printed: the records of Kamesvara (about 1182 to 1194) and of Srngga, that is Kertajaya (from about 1194 to 1222), among them the Kamulan charter of 1194 and the Palah (Panataran) record of 1197, with the king's titles, his seal, the officials of the court and the villages freed from tax.
- 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 (en), Baduy people (read in this pass): Kanekes in Lebak, puun, origin theories, nothing dated before 1500
- Wikipedia (en), Banten Girang (read in this pass): coordinates, Guillot's 1988-1992 work, Caringin statues, Zhu Fan Zhi on Sin-t'o
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.