Sumba, the 'Sandalwood Island' of the Europeans, is a world of clan houses on the hills, led by ritual specialists (the rato) and nobles (the maramba), later documented; the east has dry grassland and sandalwood scrub behind the bay of Waingapu and the plains near Melolo, the wetter west round Kodi has more people and food and trades north to Sumbawa.
In the Nagarakretagama (1365) Sumba is a name in a Javanese list, which says nothing of rule. Nothing is recorded for 1200 except the island's role as a source of sandalwood in the Chinese trade (the Chinese Ta-kang has been read as Sumba; the reading is Hirth and Rockhill's, recalled).
Who he is
- Title
- Rato (ritual leaders of clans) and maramba (nobles)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The titles are recorded in the Dutch period and later (recalled). The Nagarakretagama (1365) lists Sumba among the places the Majapahit court counted as its own.
What it holds
- Clan villages and the sandalwood plains (inference)
How things stand that morning
No state attested.
Wealth
Sandalwood, horses (later), cloth; no figures.
Places of note
- Waingapu: Bay on the dry north coast.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Late titles and a Javanese list of 1365.
On the map: East Sumba only; the island is drawn in the province record.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (en), Nagarakretagama (read in this pass): completed 1365; canto 14 list of Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Timor and the east
- Wikipedia (en), Zhu Fan Zhi (read in this pass): Zhao Rukuo, about 1225, Hirth and Rockhill 1911
- 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)
- 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.