Banten (town)

Not to be confused with the province of Banten in Java Island or the city of Batam in Riau Islands of Indonesia.

Banten city from illustration c. 1724.

Banten (sometimes called Bantam) near the western end of Java was a strategically important site and formerly a major trading city with a secure harbour at the mouth of Banten River that provided a navigable passage for light craft into the island's interior. The town is close to the Sunda Strait through which important ocean-going traffic passes between Java and Sumatra. Formerly Old Banten was the capital of a sultanate in the area.

History

Main article: Old Banten

In the 5th century Banten was part of the Tarumanagara kingdom. The Lebak relic inscriptions, found in lowland villages on the edge of Ci Danghiyang, Munjul, Pandeglang, Banten, were discovered in 1947 and contains 2 lines of poetry with Pallawa script and Sanskrit language. The inscriptions mentioned the courage of king Purnawarman. After the collapse of the kingdom Tarumanagara following an attack by the Srivijaya empire, power in western Java fell to the Kingdom of Sunda. The Chinese source, Chu-fan-chi, written c. 1200, Chou Ju-kua mentioned that in the early 13th Century, Srivijaya still ruled Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, and western Java (Sunda). The source identifies the port of Sunda as strategic and thriving, pepper from Sunda being among the best in quality. The people worked in agriculture and their houses were built on wooden poles (rumah panggung). However, robbers and thieves plagued the country. It is highly possible that the port of Sunda mentioned by Chou Ju-kua referred to the port of Banten.

According to Portuguese explorer, Tome Pires, in the early 16 th century the port of Bantam (Banten) was one of the important ports of the Kingdom of Sunda along with the ports of Pontang, Cheguide (Cigede), Tangaram (Tangerang), Calapa (Sunda Kelapa) and Chimanuk (estuarine of Cimanuk river).

As a trading city Bantam received an influx of Islamic influence in the early 16th century. Later in the 16th century Bantam became the seat of the powerful Banten Sultanate. The English, who started to sail to the East Indies from around 1600, established a permanent trading post in Bantam in 1603. In 1613 John Jourdain was appointed as Chief Factor there, holding the administrative post until 1616 (other than for a few months during 1615, when Thomas Elkington was Chief Factor); he was succeeded in 1616 by George Berkley, but from 1617 until 1630 the factory was under a chosen President. From 1630 until 1634 a succession of Agents were appointed annually, but from 1634 the series of Presidents resumed until 1652. Aaron Baker (1610-1683) served for 20 years as President of Bantam, as is recorded on his mural monument in Dunchideock Church, Devon. In the thirty years following 1603, the trading factories established by the English on the Coromandel Coast of India, such as those at Machilipatnam (estd. 1611) and Fort St. George (estd. 1639), reported to Bantam. The Dutch East India Company also established a trading factory at Bantam in 1603. During the 17th century the Portuguese and Dutch fought for control of Bantam. Eventually the fact that the Dutch found that they could control Batavia (trading factory estd. 1611) more thoroughly than Bantam may have contributed to Bantam's decline.

South-Bantam or Bantan-Kidoel or Lebak was the place where the eponymous character in Multatuli's novel Max Havelaar acted as the assistant-resident.

Today, Banten is a small local seaport, economically overpowered by the neighbouring port of Merak to the West and Jakarta to the East. In Banten, the Chinese are an important component of the community.

See also

• Old Banten
• East India Company
• English colonial empire
• Dutch East India Company in Indonesia