A defended settlement on the Cibanten about ten kilometres above the sea, occupied from the tenth century and the working centre of the Sundanese north-west.
It is the best excavated Sundanese site (Guillot, 1988 to 1992): Chinese ceramics, glass beads, a ditch and bank and Hindu images in the central Javanese manner (the campaign board), tombs, a stepped pyramid and niches cut in cliffs (en.wikipedia). The Zhu Fan Zhi of about 1225 puts Sunda's pepper port under Sanfoqi, and scholars lean to Old Banten for the harbour. The sultanate of Banten (1526) and the move to the port are later.
Who holds it
- Title
- Lord of Banten Girang (see the lord record)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No name for 1 January 1200 appears in any source we could reach.
Lord in 1200
Not known; see the lord record.
Overlord
the king of Sunda, if any court answered
What the town holds
- The town, its river road and the pepper trade of the Banten hills
How things stand that morning
An active town of the tenth to fourteenth century phase; no event dated.
Communities
Not known: the Hindu images suggest a Shaiva elite.
Walls and castle
Ditch and bank (the campaign board's reading of the dig).
Trade and crafts
Pepper and forest produce out; Chinese ceramics and glass beads in.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry puts the town on the Ciujung; en.wikipedia on the Cibanten at Sempu village, Serang.
Evidence: Dug and reported; we read only secondary pages.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
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), Banten Girang (read in this pass): coordinates, Guillot's 1988-1992 work, Caringin statues, Zhu Fan Zhi on Sin-t'o
- 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), Zhu Fan Zhi (read in this pass): Zhao Rukuo, about 1225, Hirth and Rockhill 1911
- C. Guillot (ed.), Banten avant l'Islam: etude archeologique de Banten Girang (1994); recalled, not re-read
- 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.