The Kapuas above Sintang to Putussibau, the seasonal lake country of Danau Sentarum (lakes that fill and drain with the river) and the headwaters toward the Muller range.
The peoples are later known as Embaloh (Maloh), Taman, Kantu', Kayan (Mendalam) and others. The Iban, whose ancestors lived in this country by later tradition, moved west to the Batang Lupar, Saribas and Rajang from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Putussibau is the last reach a loaded boat can work before the portage over the divide to the Mahakam.
Who holds it
- Title
- No overall chief: village or longhouse headmen, elders and war leaders, each answering for their own people
- 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
- The river stages above Sintang
- The lake fisheries
- The portage to the Mahakam
- Forest goods
Allies and rivals
The Kapuas longhouse heads (Kapuas longhouses) hold the stages and the portage.
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
Forest goods, fish, gold; 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
- Putussibau: Head of loaded-boat navigation.
- Danau Sentarum: Seasonal lake country.
- Ketungau: Western tributary country (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
- The isa regional brief (ISA_BRIEF.md) and assignment ise.txt
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.