The cool upland under Mount Dempo, growing rice and sending forest goods and iron down the Lematang to the Musi.
The carved stone figures scattered across these fields are far older than the age and their makers are unknown; we do not date them here. The people of the highland are not Palembang's subjects in any sense a lawyer would recognise, though the Musi is the road that links them to the port. Nothing is known of chiefs, villages or quarrels for 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- Chiefs of the Pasemah highlands, not named
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source names a holder for any date near 1 January 1200.
Overlord
None named; Palembang claims the Musi but is not shown to govern the highland.
What it holds
- Rice land, iron and forest goods
- The Lematang road to the Musi
Allies and rivals
Palembang downriver as the market; Kerinci and the Rejang to the north and west.
How things stand that morning
Not recorded. A highland world with no state in it.
Wealth
Iron, rice, forest goods.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Thin: later ethnography, the campaign board and geography; nothing dated near 1 January 1200 describes the people.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Drawn on the modern regencies (kabupaten) that match the people's later homeland; the boundaries of 1200 are not known.
Sources and studies
- OMNIA board note (a lead only, checked against the sources above)
- Nineteenth and twentieth century ethnography of the Batak, Minangkabau, Rejang and Lampung peoples (Dutch and later writers), read back to 1200 as a caution only, from memory, not rechecked
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.