Hubungan erat Kesultanan BRUNAI – SARAWAK – SUKADANA – SAMBAS – MATAN

Sunday, December 28, 2008

ABOUT 200 years before the Brookes became the White Rajah of Sarawak, Sarawak was under the control of the Brunei Sultanate. Not much has been known how Sarawak was governed by the Brunei Sultanate but presumably there was an equivalent of a governor then.

Not many know that around 1598, Sarawak had its first and only Sultan. How did this come about?

When Sultan Muhammad Hassan, Brunei’s ninth Sultan who reigned from 1582 to 1598 died, the throne was ascended by his eldest son, Sultan Abdul Jalilul Akbar.

Sultan Abdul Jalilul Akbar had a younger sibling named Pengiran Muda Tengah Ibrahim Ali Omar Shah or was better known as Raja Tengah.

According to oral tradition, Pengiran Muda Tengah wanted to become the Sultan of Brunei as well. He argued that his elder brother was born when his father was not yet the Crown Prince whereas he was born when Sultan Muhammad Hassan was anointed as the Crown Prince. This, argued Pengiran Muda Tengah, made him more suited to be the Sultan than his elder brother.

Sultan Abdul Jalilul Akbar was a wise man. He understood his younger sibling’s intention and he tried to accommodate his brother’s wishes. One way out for Sultan Abdul Jalilul Akbar was to appoint Pengiran Muda Tengah as a Sultan somewhere else. And so Pengiran Muda Tengah was appointed as the Sultan of Sarawak, since Sarawak was then owned and governed by Brunei.

According to the Salsilah Raja-Raja Brunei, Pengiran Muda Tengah accepted the appointment and he made preparation to go to Sarawak. When he went to Sarawak, more than 1,000 warriors of Sakai, Kedayan and Pulau Bunut origins accompanied him. A few nobilities went along with him to help him administer the new country. Many of these are the forefathers of some of today’s Malay community in Sarawak.

The Sambas Treasure / Harta Karun dari SAMBAS

Silver Buddha on a bronze lotus base

From Borneo, Indonesia; probably made in Java 8th or 9th century AD

Sculpture from the Sambas Treasure

The right hand of the Buddha is held in the gesture of argument or discussion (vitarkamudra), his left holds his robes. He stands before an aura of light edged with flames. Above his head is a parasol, a reminder of his early life as a prince. This very fine image is solid cast in silver with a small gold inlay in the centre of his forehead (urna), a distinctive mark of the Buddha. Gold inlay is typical of many bronze images made in eastern India. Metal sculptures were carried to the islands of South-east Asia by pilgrims returning from the Buddhist holyland in eastern India. However, the style of this image is local, and it was probably made in Java.

This is one of a large group discovered at Sambas in western Borneo and thus known as the ‘Sambas Treasure’. Until the coming of Islam in the late thirteenth century, much of island South-east Asia professed Buddhism or Hinduism. This sculpture is one of the earliest found in this area of maritime South-east Asia. With this image were found eight other gold and silver images, either the Buddha or bodhisattvas, along with a unique bronze incense burner in the shape of a house. Sambas was important as an ancient source of gold in South-east Asia. The production of so many images in such prestigious materials as gold and silver suggest that they were made for a very wealthy patron.

N. Tarling (ed.), The Cambridge history of South (Cambridge University Press, 1992)

R.E. Fisher, Buddhist art and architecture (London, Thames & Hudson, 1993)

Source : British Museum dot org