Four landings carry the Sundanese trade: the Banten roadstead, Kalapa at the mouth of the Ciliwung, the Cimanuk mouth and the Cirebon shore under the Ciremai.
The Chinese report of about 1225 describes a Sin-t'o harbour six fathoms deep with houses along both banks (the campaign board takes it for Kalapa; en.wikipedia leans to Old Banten) and says the country has no government, that robbery is common, and that foreign merchants seldom come. That reads as river-mouth headmen who trade with whoever comes and defend themselves. The Cimanuk is the last Sundanese landing before the Javanese country; Cirebon is a shrimp and salt shore, and the port that makes the name is three centuries away.
Who he is
- Title
- Headmen of the river-mouth ports
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
None is named. The only source near the date is Zhao Rukuo (about 1225), who says the country has no government.
Overlord
the king of Sunda, if any court answered; the Chinese report says none does
What it holds
- Landing dues and the right to sell pepper and forest goods at four river mouths
How things stand that morning
Loose. The harbours are real; no court is shown keeping them.
Wealth
Pepper, forest produce, salt and shrimp; no figures.
Threats
- Robbers and rival headmen
- Merchants avoiding the coast (about 1225)
Places of note
- Kalapa: Ciliwung mouth.
- Cimanuk mouth: Eastern harbour.
- Cirebon shore: Salt and shrimp shore.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry sunda-kelapa quotes the Chinese account as calling Kalapa six fathoms deep; en.wikipedia (Banten Girang and Sunda Kingdom) says the Zhu Fan Zhi does not say which Sunda port and that scholars lean to Banten. Treat the identification with Kalapa as open.
Evidence: One Chinese report written about 25 years after the date.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: Four small seeds.
Primary sources for Sunda
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.
- Old Javanese Charters (the Brandes and Krom corpus), including the Kediri inscriptions of Kamesvara and Srngga, Various (the Kediri kings and their officers), edited by J. L. A. Brandes and N. J. Krom (inscriptions of the 8th to 15th centuries; edited 1913). Kediri (Panjalu) in 1200 is known from a few royal charters on stone and copper, which this corpus first printed: the records of Kamesvara (about 1182 to 1194) and of Srngga, that is Kertajaya (from about 1194 to 1222), among them the Kamulan charter of 1194 and the Palah (Panataran) record of 1197, with the king's titles, his seal, the officials of the court and the villages freed from tax.
- 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 (en), Zhu Fan Zhi (read in this pass): Zhao Rukuo, about 1225, Hirth and Rockhill 1911
- 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
- Wikipedia (en), Sunda Kingdom (read in this pass): Sanghyang Tapak 952 Saka (1030), Kebon Kopi 932, Horren, Carita Parahyangan caveats, Zhu Fan Zhi on Sin-t'o, Bujangga Manik boundary
- Wikipedia (en), Banten Girang (read in this pass): coordinates, Guillot's 1988-1992 work, Caringin statues, Zhu Fan Zhi on Sin-t'o
- 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.