A small roadstead behind a bar that sells the most valuable forest product of the age: Sumatran camphor, which crystallises in one kind of tree in the Batak forests behind this coast, and benzoin.
Arabic writers know the coast as Fansur from the ninth century (Sulaiman, 851) and the Zhufan zhi lists Pin-su among camphor lands. The Batak bring the camphor down and the buyers wait on the beach. Who rules the beach in 1200 is not recorded.
Who he is
- Title
- Chief of Barus
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source names the holder for any date near 1 January 1200.
Overlord
None named.
What it holds
- The camphor beach and its weighers
- The barter market at the foot of the range
How things stand that morning
Not recorded. The place works; who speaks for it is not known.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Fair: Arabic and Chinese texts and excavation; no source names a chief of 1200.
On the map: No drawn parts: the port's land is on its town record.
Primary sources for Malay ports
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.
- The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
- The Grahi (Chaiya) Buddha inscription and the Tambralinga records, Various (the officers of Grahi and the kings of Tambralinga), edited by George Coedes (the Chaiya bronze Buddha inscription 1183; the Nakhon Si Thammarat records 13th century; edited 1929, revised 1961). The peninsula in 1200 has one near-contemporary dated text: the Old Khmer inscription on the base of a bronze Buddha from Wat Hua Wiang at Chaiya, dated 1183, which records the image's casting by order of the mahasenapati Galanai, governor of Grahi, under the king Srimat Trailokyaraja Maulibhusanavarmadeva, a name that is argued to be either a Malayu (Srivijaya) overlord or a local king.
- 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 (English): Barus
- C. Guillot (ed.), Lobu Tua, Sumatra's oldest Tamil site (2003) and Histoire de Barus, read from memory, not rechecked
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.