Banten is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Java Sea on the north, the Indian Ocean on the south, and the Sunda Strait on the west. The province covers an area of 9,662.82 km2 (3,730.84 sq mi). It had a population of over 11.9 million in the 2020 census, up from about 10.6 million in 2010. The estimated mid-2022 population was 12.25 million. Formerly part of the province of West Java, Banten become a province in 2000. The northern half has recently experienced rapid rises in population and urbanization, and the southern half has a more traditional character but an equally fast-rising population.
A regency, sometimes incorrectly referred to as a district, is an administrative division of Indonesia, directly under a province and on the same level with city (kota). Regencies are divided into districts.
Kingdoms of Sunda refers to the monarchies of the Sundanese region prior to the establishment of Indonesia in 1945 AD. The history includes several eras:
- Salakanagara
- Tarumanagara
- The Sunda Kingdom and Galuh Kingdom
- Kingdom of Sumedang Larang, The Sultanate of Banten & The Sultanate of Cirebon
Tarumanagara or Taruma Kingdom or just Taruma was an early Sundanese Indianised kingdom, located in western Java, whose 5th-century ruler, Purnawarman, produced the earliest known inscriptions in Java, which are estimated to date from around 450 CE.
The Salakanagara Kingdom is the first historically recorded Indianised kingdom in Western Java. The kingdom existed between 130-362 AD. Claudius Ptolemaeus wrote about Java in his book, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις. He mentions the lands of Chryse and Argyre in Labadio. According to some historians, e.g. Edi S. Ekajati, Labadio means Dwipa-Javaka, Dwipa-Javaka or Java Dwipa, which is the ancient name of Java Island. At the time, the Salakanagara kingdom ruled west Java and its name means “Silver Nation” in old Sundanese language. According to some theories, Ptolemaeus may have visited Java in 160 AD. A more recent source, from the 17th century, Pustaka Rajya Rajya i Bhumi Nusantara describes Salakanagara as being founded by an Indian merchant from Pallava Kingdom.
Jakarta is Indonesia's capital and largest city. Located on an estuary of the Ciliwung River, on the northwestern part of Java, the area has long sustained human settlement. Historical evidence from Jakarta dates back to the 4th century CE, when it was a Hindu settlement and port. The city has been sequentially claimed by the Indianized kingdom of Tarumanegara, the Hindu Kingdom of Sunda, the Muslim Sultanate of Banten, and by Dutch, Japanese and Indonesian administrations. The Dutch East Indies built up the area before it was taken during World War II by the Empire of Japan and finally became independent as part of Indonesia.
The Sunda Kingdom was a Sundanese Hindu kingdom located in the western portion of the island of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering the area of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Central Java. The capital of the Sunda Kingdom moved several times during its history, shifting between the Galuh (Kawali) area in the east and Pakuan Pajajaran in the west.
The Luso-Sundanese padrão is a padrão commemorating a treaty between the kingdoms of Portugal and Sunda, better known as the Luso-Sundanese Treaty of Sunda Kalapa.
The Sultanate of Cirebon was an Islamic sultanate in West Java founded in the 15th century. It is said to have been founded by Sunan Gunungjati, as marked by his letter proclaiming Cirebon's independence from Pajajaran in 1482, although the settlement and the polity had been established earlier, in 1445. Sunan Gunungjati also established the Sultanate of Banten. It was one of the earliest Islamic states established in Java, along with the Sultanate of Demak.
Pakuan Pajajaran was the fortified capital city of Sunda Kingdom. The location is roughly corresponds to modern Bogor city in West Java, Indonesia, approximately around the site of Batu Tulis. The site is revered as the spiritual home of Sundanese people as it contains much of shared identity and history of Sundanese people.
Port of Tanjung Priok is the busiest and most advanced Indonesian seaport, handling more than 50% of Indonesia's trans-shipment cargo traffic. The port is located at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, which is operated by Indonesian state owned PT Pelindo. The port loaded and unloaded 6.2 million, 6.92 million, and 7.8 million TEUs of cargo during 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively, out of a total capacity of about 8 million TEUs. The container port ranked as 22nd busiest in the world by Lloyd's One Hundred Ports 2019.
The Tugu inscription is one of the early 5th century Tarumanagara inscriptions discovered in Batutumbuh hamlet, Tugu village, Koja, North Jakarta, in Indonesia. The inscription contains information about hydraulic projects; the irrigation and water drainage project of the Chandrabhaga river by the order of Rajadirajaguru, and also the water project of the Gomati river by the order of King Purnawarman in the 22nd year of his reign. The digging project to straighten and widen the river was conducted in order to avoid flooding in the wet season, and as an irrigation project during the dry season.
A good number of inscriptions written in Sanskrit language have been found in Malaysia and Indonesia. "Early inscriptions written in Indian languages and scripts abound in Southeast Asia. [...] The fact that southern Indian languages didn't travel eastwards along with the script further suggests that the main carriers of ideas from the southeast coast of India to the east - and the main users in Southeast Asia of religious texts written in Sanskrit and Pali - were Southeast Asians themselves. The spread of these north Indian sacred languages thus provides no specific evidence for any movements of South Asian individuals or groups to Southeast Asia.
Sumedang Larang is an Islamic Kingdom based in Sumedang, West Java. Its territory consisted of the Parahyangan region, before becoming a vassal state under the Mataram Sultanate.
Ciaruteun inscription also written Ciarutön or also known as Ciampea inscription is a 5th-century stone inscription discovered on the riverbed of Ciaruteun River, a tributary of Cisadane River, not far from Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. The inscription is dated from the Tarumanagara kingdom period, one of the earliest Hindu kingdoms in Indonesian history. The inscription states King Purnawarman is the ruler of Tarumanagara.
Kebonkopi II inscription or Pasir Muara inscription or Rakryan Juru Pangambat inscription is the oldest inscription that mentioned the toponymy Sunda dated from 854 Saka, discovered in Kebon Kopi village, Bogor, near Kebon Kopi I inscription, and named as such to differ it from this older inscription dated from Tarumanagara era.
Cidanghiang inscription, also called Lebak inscription, is an inscription from the Tarumanagara kingdom, estimated to be from the 4th century CE. The inscription was found in 1947 on the bank of Cidanghiang River in Lebak village, Munjul district, in Pandeglang Regency, Banten, Indonesia. The inscription is written in the Pallava script and composed in the Sanskrit language.
The history of Sunda Kingdom spanned almost a millennium, between 7th to 16th century. It is not sure however, whether the Sunda Kingdom was actually a continuous polity or not, nor whether its rulers belongs to a single continuous lineage of dynasty or not. This is because the scarcity of evidences, historical records and archaeological findings that plausibly connected to this kingdom.
