Bantam (city)
Coordinates: 6°02′33″S 106°09′39″E / 6.0424495°S 106.1609316°E
Banten, also written as Bantam, is a small port town located near the western end of Java. It has a secure harbour at the mouth of Banten River that provides 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, was strategically important and a major centre for trade.
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.
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