Self-governing peoples of Island Southeast Asia

Who rules

Title

No ruler: each community, lineage, river or island speaks for itself; no one speaks for all

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

Nothing in any source of the period names a ruler over these peoples as a whole, and the few Chinese, Javanese and Arab notices that list 'dependencies' are shipmasters' or courtiers' hearsay written decades or generations after 1200.

Overlord

None. Tribute lists of 1225 (Zhufan zhi) and 1365 (Nagarakretagama) claim many of these shores for Sanfoqi or Java; no enforcement is shown.

What the realm holds

• River mouths, rapids, portages, sago and rice land, camphor forests and swiftlet-nest caves (no export of nests to China before the Ming is shown), gold and diamond gravels, iron outcrops, pearl and trepang banks (the real wealth of the sheet)
• Pilotage and escort in the straits and the Sulu and Banda seas
• Shrines, burial grounds and the right to judge among their own

How it was acquired

By descent, settlement and use; no conquest or grant is recorded.

Allies and rivals

Each community trades with the nearest port and with Chinese, Javanese, Malay, Arab and Indian shipmasters; ports and peoples depend on each other (the port cannot reach the interior, the interior cannot reach the sea). Feuds and raiding across the Sulu, Celebes and Banda seas are normal; no alliance system is known.

The realm that morning

On 1 January 1200 no source describes any of these peoples at first hand. What stands is archaeology, later ethnography read backward, and a handful of Chinese and Javanese notices. The Dayak, Sama-Bajau, Mangyan, Ifugao and other names are outsiders' or later names, and the present-day spread of these peoples is not the spread of 1200 (the Iban, for example, came to the Rajang and Baram much later).

Wealth

Forest goods (camphor, gaharu, rattan, damar, wax; swiftlet nests are gathered but not shown as an export before the Ming), gold and diamonds, iron, pearls, trepang, tortoise shell, sago, rice, cloves and nutmeg: sold to whoever comes.

Military

Boats, spears, blowpipes and shields, fortified hill villages in a few places (Tanimbar, the Cordillera, the Kelabit and Kayan country). No numbers.

Threats

• Raiding between peoples (normal)
• Volcanic eruption (the Moluccas, Sangihe, Mayon, Taal) and typhoon (the Philippines)
• A falling Chinese demand for a particular good

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. About 1225Zhao Rukuo's Zhufan zhi lists Tan-jung-wu-lo (Tanjungpura), Ti-wu (Timor), Ping-ya-i (Banggai) and Wu-nu-ku (Maluku) among the dependencies of Java, and Ma-i and its like as independent trading shores; a report written after the date, not an event of 1200.Depends on: Shipmasters' hearsay reaching Quanzhou Stopped by: Not applicable
2. 1257The Samalas eruption on Lombok (on the Java and Bali side of the sheet) throws ash and sulphur over the region; local effects are not recorded for Borneo, the Philippines or the Moluccas.Depends on: A physical event with a firm date Stopped by: Nothing

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board's powers 'The Bornean river ports', 'The Dayak of the Bornean interior', 'The Sulu pearl coast', 'The barangay of the Philippine coasts', 'The Sulawesi coasts and highlands, no state attested' and 'The eastern islands, no state attested' are all folded into this colour; none is a state.
• The campaign board's 'secure, likely, contested' tags are its own guesses and are not used as evidence.

Evidence: The sheet-wide record is argued from the structure of the evidence: archaeology, later ethnography and a few foreign notices. It carries no ruler and no map part; the provinces carry the polygons.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: No polygon: the provinces of the three researchers draw the peoples' ground.