The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

HISTORY OF BORNEO 15
cultures: Majapahit for Brahminism and Hindu
influence, Malacca for Islam and the more practical
civilisation of Arabia.
In the earliest years of the fourteenth century
Bruni was a dependency of Majapahit, but seems
to have recovered its independence during the
minority of the Javan king. It is to this time that
the tradition of the Kapuas Malays ascribes the
arrival of the Kayans in Borneo.^ Then Angka
Wijaya extended the power of Majapahit over
Palembang in Sumatra, Timor, Ternate, Luzon, and
the coasts of Borneo. Over Banjermasin he set his
natural son. In 1368 Javanese soldiers drove from
^ According to a Malay manuscript of some antiquity lent to us by the late
Tuanku Mudah, one of the kings {batara) of Majapahit had a beautiful daughter,
Radin Galo Chindra Kirana. This lady was much admired by Laiang Sitir
and Laiang Kemitir, the two sons of one Pati Legindir. On the death of the
king, Pati Legindir ruled the land and the beautiful princess became his ward.
He, to satisfy the rival claims of his two sons, promised that whoever should
kill the raja of Balambangan (an island off the north coast of Borneo), known
by the nickname of Manok Jingga, should marry the princess. Now at the
court there happened to be Damar Clan, one of the sons of Raja Matarem,
who had disguised his high descent and induced Pati Legindir to adopt him as
his son. This young man found favour in the princess's eyes, and she tried to
persuade her guardian to let her marry him. Pati Legindir, however, declared
that he would keep to his arrangement, and roughly told the lover to bring
Manok Jingga's head before thinking of marrying the princess. So Damar
Clan set out with two followers on the dangerous mission, which he carried
out with complete success. On his return he met his two rivals, who induced
him to part with the head of the royal victim, and then buried him alive in a
deep trap previously prepared. Pati Legindir, suspecting nothing, ordered his
ward to marry Laiang Sitir, who brought the trophy to the palace ; but the
princess had learned of the treachery from one of the spectators, and asked for
a week's delay. Before it was too late, Damar Clan, who had managed to
find a way out of what nearly proved a grave, reached the court and told his
tale, now no longer concealing his rank. He married the princess and afterwards
was entrusted by Pati Legindir with all the affairs of state. Having
obtained supreme power, Damar Olan sent his treacherous rivals to southern
Borneo, with a retinue of criminals mutilated in their ear-lobes and elsewhere
as a penalty for incest. These transported convicts, the ancestors of the
Kayans, landed near Sikudana and spread into the country between the
Kapuas and Banjermasin. It is interesting to see how this tale agrees with
other traditions. The Kayans state that they came across the sea at no distant
date. Javan history relates that Majapahit was ruled during the minority of
Angka Wijaya by his elder sister, the princess Babu Kanya Kanchana Wungu.
A neighbouring prince, known as Manok Jengga, took advantage of this
arrangement by seizing large portions of the young king's domains. One,
Daram Wulan, however, son of a Buddhist devotee, overthrew him and was
rewarded by the hand of the princess regent. When Angka Wijaya came of
age he entrusted the care of a large part of his kingdom to his sister and
brother-in-law.