Other lordship · Self-governing peoples of Island Southeast Asia · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Atoni usif

The Atoni of the Mutis highlands and the western plateau are the people on whose land the sandalwood grows.

Later sources know them under lords called usif and clan heads called amaf, in small domains round the high ground and the bay of Kupang; Dutch and Portuguese records from the seventeenth century name them. In 1200 nothing is recorded. The trade needs the highland people because Santalum album is a slow parasite that takes decades to make heartwood and so is cut and carried down, not farmed; the coast depends on them.

The Mutis range is the centre of that ground. Use usif and amaf as a label for headmen, not a list of kingdoms.

Who he is

Title
Usif (lords) and amaf (clan heads) of the Atoni
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Confidence
low

The titles and the polities (Sonbai, Amarasi, Amanuban, Amanatun and others) are recorded from the seventeenth century and later (recalled); nothing near 1200.

What it holds

  • Hill villages, the sandalwood groves and the tracks to the beaches (inference)

How things stand that morning

No state attested. Highland clan heads sell sandalwood to coastal buyers.

Wealth

Sandalwood, beeswax, honey, cattle; no figures.

Places of note

  • The Mutis uplands: Sandalwood highland.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Late titles; a Chinese notice of about 1225 for the trade.

On the map: A rough outline of the highland; the Atoni country is drawn in the province record.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia (en), Zhu Fan Zhi (read in this pass): Zhao Rukuo, about 1225, Hirth and Rockhill 1911
  2. Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua: his work on the Chinese and Arab trade (1911), chapters Sin-t'o (p. 70) and Shê-p'o (p. 75); the full text would not open in this pass, so every statement from it is recalled and marked
  3. General knowledge of Old Javanese and Old Balinese epigraphy and the archaeology of Java, recalled and not re-read in this pass (Boechari, Poerbatjaraka, Soekmono, Bernet Kempers)
  4. 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.