Luwu

Part of a series on the
History of Indonesia
Timeline
Prehistory Java Man 1,000,000 BP Flores Man 94,000–12,000 BP Buni culture 400 BCE
Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms Salakanagara Kingdom 130–362 Kutai Kingdom 350–1605 Tarumanagara Kingdom 358–669 Kalingga Kingdom 500s–600s Melayu Kingdom 600s Srivijaya Kingdom 600s–1200s Sailendra Kingdom 800s–900s Galuh Kingdom 669–1482 Sunda Kingdom 669–1579 Medang Kingdom 752–1006 Bali Kingdom 914–1908 Kahuripan Kingdom 1006–1045 Kediri Kingdom 1045–1221 Dharmasraya Kingdom 1183–1347 Singhasari Kingdom 1222–1292 Majapahit Kingdom 1293–1500
Rise of Muslim states Spread of Islam 1200–1600 Ternate Sultanate 1257–1914 Samudera Pasai Sultanate 1267–1521 Pagaruyung Kingdom 1347–1833 Brunei Sultanate 1368–1888 Malacca Sultanate 1400–1511 Sulu Sultanate 1405–1851 Cirebon Sultanate 1445–1677 Demak Sultanate 1475–1548 Aceh Sultanate 1496–1903 Banten Sultanate 1526–1813 Kalinyamat Sultanate 1527–1599 Mataram Sultanate 1500s–1700s Johor Sultanate 1528s–1877 Surakarta Sunanate 1745–1946 Yogyakarta Sultanate 1755–1945 Siak Sultanate 1725–1946 Deli Sultanate 1814–1946 Riau-Lingga Sultanate 1824–1911
Christian kingdom Larantuka Kingdom 1600–1904
European colonisation Portuguese 1512–1850 Dutch East India Company 1602–1800 French and British interlude 1806–1815 Netherlands East Indies 1800–1942 1945–1950
Emergence of Indonesia National Awakening 1908–1942 Japanese occupation 1942–1945 National Revolution 1945–1950
Independence Liberal democracy 1950–1957 Guided Democracy 1957–1965 Transition 1965–1966 New Order 1966–1998 Reformasi 1998–present
By topic Currency Economy Military
Indonesia portal

The Kingdom of Luwu (also Luwuq or Wareq) is the oldest kingdom in South Sulawesi. In 1889, the Dutch Governor of Makassar placed Luwu’s heyday between the 10th and 14th centuries, but offered no evidence. The La Galigo, an epic poem in an archaic form of the lontara language, is the likely source of Braam Morris’ dating. The La Galigo depicts a vaguely defined world of coastal and riverine kingdoms whose economies are based on trade. The important centers of this world are Luwu and the kingdom of Cina (pronounced Cheena but identical in Indonesian pronunciation to China), which lay in the western Cenrana valley, with its palace centre near the hamlet of Sarapao in Pamanna district. The incompatibility of the La Galigo’s society and political economy with the reality of the Bugis agricultural kingdoms led Bugis historians to propose an intervening period of chaos to separate the two chronologically.^[1]

Archaeological and textual research carried out since the 1980s has undermined this chronology.^[2] Extensive surveys and excavations in Luwu have revealed that it is no older than the earliest agricultural kingdoms of the southwest peninsula. The new understanding is that Bugis speaking settlers from the western Cénrana valley began to settle along the coastal margins around the year 1300. The Gulf of Bone is not a Bugis-speaking area: it is a thinly populated region of great ethnic diversity. Speakers of Pamona, Padoe, Toala, Wotu and Lemolang languages live on the coastal lowlands and foothills, while the highland valleys are home to groups speaking various other Central and South Sulawesi languages. The Bugis are found almost solely along the coast, to which they have evidently migrated in order to trade with Luwu’s indigenous peoples. It is clear both from archaeological and textual sources that Luwu was a Bugis-led coalition of various ethnic groups, united by trading relationships.

Luwu’s political economy was based on the smelting of iron ore brought down, via the Lémolang-speaking polity of Baebunta, to Malangke on the central coastal plain. Here the smelted iron was worked into weapons and agricultural tools and exported to the rice-growing southern lowlands. This brought the kingdom great wealth, and by the 14th century Luwu had become the feared overlord of large parts of the southwest and southeast peninsula. The first ruler for which we have any real information was Dewaraja (ruled c. 1495-1520). Stories current today in South Sulawesi tell of his aggressive attacks on the neighboring kingdoms of Wajo and Sidenreng. Luwu’s power was eclipsed in the 16th century by the rising power of the southern agrarian kingdoms, and its military defeats are set out in the Chronicle of Bone.

On 4 or 5 February 1605, Luwu’s ruler, La Patiwareq, Daeng Pareqbung, became the first South Sulawesi ruler to embrace Islam, taking as his title Sultan Muhammad Wali Mu’z’hir (or Muzahir) al–din. He is buried at Malangke and is referred to in the chronicles as Matinroe ri Wareq, ‘He who sleeps at Wareq’, the former palace–centre of Luwuq. His religious teacher, Dato Sulaiman, is buried nearby. Around 1620, Malangke was abandoned and a new capital was established to the west at Palopo. It is not known why this sprawling settlement, the population of which may have reached 15,000 in the 16th century, was suddenly abandoned: possibilities include the declining price of iron goods and the economic potential of trade with the Toraja highlands.

By the 19th century, Luwu had become a backwater. James Brooke, later Rajah of Sarawak, wrote in the 1830s that ‘Luwu is the oldest Bugis state, and the most decayed [...] Palopo is a miserable town, consisting of about 300 houses, scattered and dilapidated [...] It is difficult to believe that Luwu could ever have been a powerful state, except in a very low state of native civilisation.’^[3] In the 1960s Luwu was a focus of an Islamic rebellion led by Kahar Muzakkar. Today the former kingdom is home to the world’s largest nickel mine and is experiencing an economic boom fueled by inward migration, yet it still retains much of its original frontier atmosphere.

See also

• History of Indonesia

References

1. ↑ Pelras, C. 1996. The Bugis. Oxford: Blackwell.
2. ↑ Bulbeck, D. and I. Caldwell. 2000. Land of iron; The historical archaeology of Luwu and the Cenrana valley. Hull: Centre for South East Asian Studies, University of Hull.
3. ↑ Brooke, J. 1848. Narrative of events in Borneo and Celebes down to the occupation of Labuan. From the Journals of James Brooke, Esq. Rajah of Sarawak and Governor of Labuan [. . .] by Captain Rodney Mundy. London: John Murray.

Coordinates: 3°00′S 120°12′E / 3°S 120.2°E / -3; 120.2