Blambangan Kingdom

{{Short description|Javanese Hindu kingdom (c. 13th-18th centuries CE)}} {{More citations needed|date=July 2017}}

{{Infobox Former Country | name = '''Blambangan Kingdom''' ꦑꦫꦠꦺꦴꦤ꧀ꦨ꧀ꦭꦩ꧀ꦧꦔꦤ꧀ | common_name = Blambangan | continent = | region = | image_map = Map of Blambangan.png | image_map_alt = | image_map_caption = Blambangan on the eastern tip of Java Island in the 16th century during the Mataram Sultanate era in Java | country = | religion = Hinduism (official) Buddhism Islam | image_flag =  | image_coat =  | symbol_type = | p1 = Majapahit | s1 = Dutch East Indies | flag_p1 = | flag_s1 = | year_start = 1478 | year_end = 1768{{efn|''De jure''}}/1777{{efn|''De facto''}} | event_start = Dissolution of Majapahit led to an independent Blambangan | event_end = Absorbed into the territory of Dutch East Indies | event1 = Blambangan was attacked by Balinese kingdom | date_event1 = 1501 | event2 = Batara Wijaya Girindrawardhana Ranawijaya fled to Panarukan{{efn|Blambangan region}} after Daha was controlled by Demak Sultanate | date_event2 = 1527 | event3 = Blambangan lost Pasuruan and Pajarakan because it was taken by Demak | date_event3 = 1545–1546 | event4 = Blambangan became the vassal of Mataram Sultanate aftermath of the war | date_event4 = 1635–1639 | event5 = Civil wars in Blambangan | date_event5 = 1691–1697 | capital = *Semboro (1478–1489) *Lamajang (1489–1501) *Kedawung (Menak Lumpat until Wilabrata period) *Macanputih (Tawang Alun II period) *Muncar (Prabu Danurejo until Pangeran Agung Wilis period) *Lateng (IGNK Dewa Kabakaba period) | common_languages = Old Javanese, Osing | government_type = Monarchy | title_leader = Menak/Gusti/Susuhunan/Prabu | leader1 = Mas Sembar | year_leader1 = 1478–1489 (first) | leader2 = Bima Koncar | year_leader2 = 1489–1501 | leader3 = Menak Pentor | year_leader3 = 1501–1531 | leader4 = Menak Pangseng | year_leader4 = 1531–1546 | leader5 = Menak Pati | year_leader5 = 1546–1601 | leader6 = Menak Lumpat | year_leader6 = 1601–1633 | leader7 = Menak Seruyu / Tawang Alun I | year_leader7 = 1633–1647 | leader8 = Wong Agung Wilis | year_leader8 = 1763–1764 (First period) 1767–1768 (Second period) | today = Indonesia * East Java }} The '''Blambangan Kingdom''' (Indonesian: ''Kerajaan Blambangan'', Javanese: ꦑꦫꦠꦺꦴꦤ꧀ꦨ꧀ꦭꦩ꧀ꦧꦔꦤ꧀ ) was the last Javanese Hindu kingdom that flourished between the 15th and 18th centuries, based in the eastern corner of Java.<ref name="Tempo-Blambangan">{{cite news | title = Menjejaki Sejarah Keagungan Kerajaan Blambangan | work = Tempo.co | date = 31 May 2010 | language = id | url = https://m.tempo.co/read/news/2010/05/31/180251395/menjejaki-sejarah-keagungan-kerajaan-blambangan}}</ref> The capital was at Banyuwangi.<ref name="Editors,2014">{{cite book|title=Java Adventure Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dM7ZAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT429|date=15 April 2014|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=978-1-4629-0927-8|page=429}}</ref> It had a long history of its own, developing contemporaneously with the largest Hindu kingdom in Java, Majapahit (1293–1527). At the time of the collapse of Majapahit in the late fifteenth century, Blambangan stood on its own as the one solitary Hindu state left in Java,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Andaya |first1=Barbara Watson |last2=Andaya |first2=Leonard Y |date=2015 |title=A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1400-1830 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Rh2BgAAQBAJ |access-date=2 April 2022 |page=154|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521889926 }}</ref> controlling the larger part of Java’s Oosthoek.<ref name="Kalyanaraman2011">{{cite book|author=S. Kalyanaraman|title=Rastram: Hindu History in United Indian Ocean States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HJYlMwf-rXgC&pg=PA404|year=2011|publisher=Sarasvati Research Center|isbn=978-0-9828971-1-9|page=404}}</ref>

The historical record and the study of the Blambangan Kingdom are scarce, which contributed to the obscurity of its history. Contemporary Javanese mostly know the kingdom through its link to the popular epic folklore, the legend of Damarwulan and Menak Jingga. The fictional story which is set in the Majapahit period, told that the rebellious King of Blambangan named Menak Jingga desired the hand of Majapahit Queen Kencanawungu.<ref name="Tempo-Blambangan"/>

==History== ===Background=== During the Majapahit period c. 13th century, the eastern realm was regarded as a peripheral area of the Javanese kingdom, which centered in Trowulan, Majapahit, and surrounding Brantas River basin, whereas the eastern salient areas such as Lumajang were regarded as outlying provinces.<ref>{{cite book | title = Java in the 14th Century: A Study in Cultural History Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde |author = Theodore G.Th. Pigeaud | publisher = Springer | year = 2013 | isbn = 9789401771337 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cH_vCAAAQBAJ&q=Lumajang+Blambangan+Majapahit+province | page = 419}}</ref>

The Majapahit kingdom was established in 1293 by Raden Wijaya with the help of the cunning and able Arya Wiraraja, the Regent of Madura. As a reward of Wiraraja's support, in 1295, Raden Wijaya agreed to give the eastern salient of Java, which includes Blambangan areas with Lumajang as its capital.

The ''Nagarakretagama'', composed in 1365, mentioned that the central part of the eastern corner of Java was visited by King Hayam Wuruk in his royal tour in 1359. The poem contains interesting information about the region.<ref name="Pigeaud-Islamic States in Java 1500–1700">{{cite book | title = Islamic States in Java 1500–1700: Eight Dutch Books and Articles by Dr H.J. de Graaf, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde | author = Theodore Gauthier Th. Pigeaud | publisher = Springer Science & Business Media | year = 2013 | isbn = 9789401571876 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_BVJCAAAQBAJ&q=Blambangan&pg=PA19}}</ref>

=== Formation and growth === The eastern realm becomes a vassal or ''mancanagara'' (provinces) of Majapahit. Over time the Eastern realm steadily becomes more autonomous and where an Eastern court is situated, rivalling the Majapahit central authority. The rivalry erupted in the Regreg war (1404–1406), which was fought as a contest of succession between the Western court led by Wikramawardhana, against the Eastern court (which would become the Blambangan Kingdom) led by Bhre Wirabhumi. In 1406 the Western troops led by Bhre Tumapel, the son of Wikramawardhana, penetrated the eastern palace and defeated Bhre Wirabhumi.<ref name="Victor">{{cite book | title = From Majapahit and Sukuh to Megawati Sukarnoputri | author = Victor M Fic | publisher = Abhinav Publications | date = 2 Jan 2014 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gnh2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA104 | page = 104 | access-date = 2017-07-21 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141221002101/https://books.google.com/books?id=gnh2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq= | archive-date = 2014-12-21 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

After the collapse of Majapahit in the late 15th century, Blambangan stood alone as the sole Javanese Hindu polity in Java. The kingdom subsequently was contested and harassed by successive expansive Javanese Islamic states to the west, from Demak to Pajang and Mataram.<ref name="Tempo-Blambangan"/> On the eastern side across the strait, the Balinese courts of Gelgel and Mengwi also have invested their political interest in the region, as the Balinese regarded Blambangan as a buffer state to ward off Islamic expansive influences.<ref name="Tempo-Blambangan"/>

In the first decades of the 16th century, Tomé Pires' informants reported that the "heathen" Blambangan kingdom was the most powerful Javanese kingdom east of Surabaya.<ref name="Pigeaud-Islamic States in Java 1500–1700"/> At that time, the port of Panarukan was the commercial as well as the political center of the kingdom.

For almost three centuries, Blambangan was situated between two different political factions, the Islamic state of Mataram in the west, and various Hindu realms in Bali (Gelgel, Buleleng, and Mengwi) in the east. Both neighbouring powers simultaneously contested the territory of Blambangan to appease their own political and religious ambitions.

===Decline=== [[File:Mataram_Sultanate_in_Sultan_Agung_Reign_id.svg|thumb|Blambangan borders right at the eastern tip of the island of Java with the Mataram sultanate who is at war with Blambangan, also shows Blambangan's strong relationship with the kingdoms in Bali who always supply weapons against Mataram.]] The Balinese kingdoms used Blambangan as a vassal and buffer against the Islamic expansion initiated by Mataram from the west and also found it useful to bolster the economy of Bali which was heavily overshadowed by endemic warfare.

In the second half of the 16th century, a few Roman Catholic missionaries from the Portuguese colony in Malacca arrived in East Java to try to convert the local people. They visited Panarukan and Blambangan and reported that the port of Panarukan was contested between the Muslim rulers of Pasuruan allied with Surabaya, against the Hindu King of Blambangan and Panarukan.<ref name="Pigeaud-Islamic States in Java 1500–1700"/> The Balinese chronicle ''Babad Gumi'', which was first composed around the early 18th century, ascribed the fall of Blambangan around this period in the year 1520 śaka or 1598 AD. This is one of the first dates within the babad that can be positively proved to be correct by comparison with European materials of the same period. When the Dutch visited Bali in February 1597 a large expedition was being collected by the king of Gelgel in Bali to help the lord of Blambangan from the Pasuruan attack. The expedition must have been a failure, as another Dutch report from early 1601 mentioned that the Pasuruan army had taken Blambangan some years ago and exterminated the royal family therein.<ref name="Hägerdal">{{cite book | title = Candrasangkala: The Balinese Art of Dating Events | author = Hans Hägerdal | publisher = Department of Humanities, University of Växjö, Sweden | year = 2006 | url = http://lnu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A206791&dswid=-6016}}</ref>

Other accounts asserted that the conquest of Blambangan by the forces of Sultan Agung of Mataram took place in 1639, which was also the end of Panarukan's independence.<ref name="Pigeaud-Islamic States in Java 1500–1700"/> With the loss of its important port, Panarukan, the center of the Blambangan kingdom was reduced to inland south to present day Blambangan area, with its port in Banyuwangi. In 1665, Tawang Alun II Danureja, the 8th king of Blambangan, opened the forest of Sudiamara and established a new capital in Macan Putih, Kabat district (''Kecamatan Kabat'') located about 10 kilometres from Banyuwangi.<ref name="Tempo-Blambangan"/>

Of the nine rulers who once ruled Blambangan, Tawang Alun II (1665–1691) is considered one of the greatest kings of Blambangan. During his reign, Blambangan's territory reached Jember, Lumajang, Situbondo, and Bali. Blambangan society at that time lived peacefully and prosperous, after all time engaged in various warfare against the expansionist neighboring kingdoms to the west and east.<ref name="Tempo-Blambangan"/> The VOC archive mentioned the spectacular ''ngaben'' (cremation) ceremony of Tawang Alun II, that among his 400 wives, 271 of them performed ''suttee'' (self-immolation).<ref name="Tempo-Blambangan"/>

In 1697, the Balinese Kingdom of Buleleng sent its expedition to Blambangan, which established Balinese influence in the region.<ref name="Nordholt">{{cite book | title = The Spell of Power: A History of Balinese Politics, 1650-1940, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde | author = H.G.C. Schulte Nordholt | publisher = BRILL | year = 2010 | isbn = 9789004253759 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUVlAAAAQBAJ&q=Blambangan+Buleleng&pg=PA28}}</ref>

In the early 18th century, the Dutch and British contested each other’s political and economic power in the region. Internal disputes about the succession at the court of Blambangan impaired the kingdom, making it vulnerable to foreign intervention.

==See also== {{Portal|Indonesia}} *Hinduism in Java *Javanese Kshatriya *List of monarchs of Java *Majapahit *Osing people *Blambangan Express

==References== {{Reflist}} ===Notes=== {{notelist}}

==Further reading== # {{cite book|last=Margana|first=Sri|title=Java's last frontier : the struggle for hegemony of Blambangan, c. 1763-1813|year=2007|publisher=CNWS/TANAP, Faculty of Arts, Leiden University|url=https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/12547}}

Category:Hindu states Category:Precolonial states of Indonesia Category:History of East Java Category:Former kingdoms Category:States and territories disestablished in 1777