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 tenth and fourteenth centuries AD, but offered no evidence. The La Galigo, an epic poem in an archaic form of the Bugis 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), 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] Map showing South Sulawesi province within Indonesia South Sulawesi (Indonesian: Sulawesi Selatan) is a province of Indonesia, located on Sulawesi island. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Makassar, (Macassar, Mangkasar) is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. ... The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesias third largest island. ...

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 AD 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. Bone or Boni was a vassal state of the government of Celebes, Dutch East Indies, in the south-west peninsula of Celebes, on the Gulf of Boni. ...

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 fourteenth 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 sixteenth century by the rising power of the southern agrarian kingdoms, and its military defeats are set out in the Chronicle of Bone. Wajo is a state founded ca. ...

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. Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. ... Palopo (Indonesia) Palopo is the provincial capital of regency Luwu and the third largest city in the province of South Sulawesi. ... Carved wooden Torajan art - each panel is a stylised representation of a wish for goodwill of some form. ...

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. Sir James Brooke Sir James Brooke (the most legendary person ever!!)(29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868) was born in Coombe Grove, near Bath, educated at Norwich School, England and became the first White Rajah of Sarawak. ... State motto: United, Industrious, Dedicated (Malay: Bersatu, Berusaha, Berbakti ) Capital Kuching Governor T.Y.T Tun Datuk Patinggi Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Chief Minister Y.A.B. Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Haji Abdul Taib Bin Mahmud / Pehin Sri Dr. Hj. ... General Name, Symbol, Number nickel, Ni, 28 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10, 4, d Appearance lustrous, metallic and silvery with a gold tinge Standard atomic weight 58. ...

References

See also

Indonesia Portal

• History of Indonesia