The Banjarese (, Jawi script: اورڠ بنجر; ) or simply Banjar, are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Banjar regions (notably Banjarmasin, Banjarbaru, Banjar Regency, etc.) in the southeastern Kalimantan regions of Indonesia. Nowadays, Banjarese diaspora can be found in neighbouring Banjar regions as well; including Kotabaru Regency, the southeastern regions of Central Kalimantan, southernmost regions of East Kalimantan, and some provinces of Indonesia in general. The Banjarese diaspora community also can be found in neighbouring countries of Indonesia, such as Brunei, Malaysia (notably in Perak, Selangor, Kedah, and Johor, with significant minorities in Sabah), and Singapore.
The Banjars form the major indigenous group within the southern coast of the South Kalimantan region, which is rich in history, traditional heritage, and various attire and language as well as customs. Beginning from their earliest Animist-Buddhist-Hindu kingdoms of Negara Dipa and Negara Daha, followed by the establishment of the Sultanate of Banjar in the 16th century after the massive Islamisation and subsequent interactions with the Europeans through both the British and the Dutch following the arrivals of the English East India Company (EIC) and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602 and 1603, which resulted in their rapid subsequent modernisation in the late 19th century through transition from a river-based agrarian society to a more integrated, urbanised, and administratively diverse community after the abolition of their sultanate by the Dutch in 1860.
They are further divided into three distinct sub-ethnics known as the Batang Banyu Banjar, Kuala Banjar, and Pahuluan Banjar and are acknowledged to be heavily influenced by both Malay and Dayak languages through phonological and morphological perspectives, with Banjar within the region of South Kalimantan classified into two main linguistic types: the Hulu Banjar and Kuala Banjar. The Pahuluan Banjar (Hulu Banjar) inhabits the upper lands and hills known for their agricultural areas, with a rather stiff, short, loud and fast dialect, while Kuala Banjar mostly inhabits the river banks, islands, estuaries and hamlets with a dialect that flows and meanders, which is not loud and very fast, with the differences not being too striking, perhaps only in the use of some vocabulary, resulting in the two language dialect speakers having no difficulty in communication or in conversation. The Batang Banyu dialect, meanwhile, is a distinct variant of the Banjarese language, featuring unique vocabulary and pronunciations that differ from the two major dialects of Kuala Banjar and Hulu Banjar.
Etymology
The word Banjar is believed to have originated from the word Banjarmasih, which was once a village for Malay ethnic groups located at the mouth of the Kuwin River, a tributary of the Barito River. Banjar carries the meaning of "village" while Masih is the name of a Malay tribal chief or Patih—the Ngaju Dayak people refer to this Malay tribal chief of "Patih Masih" as "Oloh Masih". Another version states that the word means "rows", which turns into a row of houses, villages, hamlets, or water villages along the South Kalimantan riverbank. The word Banjarmasih gradually changed to its current pronunciation of Bandjermasin (Banjarmasin) due to the Dutch pronunciation. Based on the Malay-English dictionary written by British colonial administrator and historian Richard James Wilkinson in 1908, banjar carries the meaning of row, which is also an Old Javanese language. The word is also derived from terminology in the Janyawai dialect of the Ma'anyan language, which is also rooted in Old Javanese. It is initially used to identified the Ma'anyan, Meratus Dayak, and Ngaju people who are already "Javanised" when the Javanese people arrived in the southeastern Kalimantan regions to establish their civilisation, as recorded in Ma'anyan poetry of "Nansarunai Usak Jawa". The term (ꦧꦚ꧀ꦗꦂ) itself in Javanese language is a short form of a verb (ꦩ꧀ꦧꦚ꧀ꦗꦂꦏꦺ), which means "to separate and rearrange" literally. It is 'common knowledge' within the communities of South Kalimantan that the Banjarese people were formerly part of larger Dayak community.
Background history and origin
Around 2500 BC, the Austronesian people began to migrate into Borneo from an area in South China through Taiwan and the Philippines archipelago. Later, in 400 AD, the Indianised cultural influences, rather than a direct mass migration solely from Sumatra, were spread to Borneo, as evidenced by the Yūpa inscriptions found in Kutai, East Kalimantan. In 520 AD, Sumatran immigrants further formed the Buddhist Kingdom of Tanjungpuri in the present-day region of Tanjung, Tabalong. This cultural fusion led to the birth of the Upper Banjar language (Bahasa Banjar Hulu). The what would be known as the Banjar people have inhabited several areas in Central and East Kalimantan since ancient times, particularly the lowlands and downstream areas of the region's rivers. This ethnic group are made up of the Bukit, Ma'anyan, Lawangan, and Ngaju tribes, which are heavily influenced by Malay and Javanese, which resulted in the Banjar people's origins as a mixture of several tribes, with Dayak becoming the dominant group.
In the 14th century, Empu Jatmika migrating from Keling, Kediri built the Hindu Kingdom of Negara Dipa by the river of Tapin. It later came to be ruled under Majapahit's Rajasa dynasty and became the start of the Javanese-style courts in South Kalimantan. This Hindu era in South Kalimantan remained influential period in South Kalimantan's history with Negara Dipa was succeeded by the Hindu Kingdom of Negara Daha in the 15th century. According to history, Prince Samudera, the rightful heir to the kingdom of Negara Daha, was forced to flee the court of because of his uncle's, Prince Tumenggung revolt against him. He was then accepted by the people of Bandar Masih (Bandar: port; Masih: Malay people) in 1525. Supported by the Sultanate of Demak in Java, he formed a new Islamic kingdom for the Banjar in 1526 with Bandar Masih as its capital. The conversion of the Banjar Kingdom into the Sultanate of Banjar was led by himself, who later became Sultan Surianshah of Banjar after embracing Islam following successful military assistance from the Sultanate of Demak to defeat his rival uncle. The conversion was a precondition given by the Demak Sultanate when Sultan Surianshah sought help in the battle against Prince Tumenggung.
The story of the early Banjarese kingdom is featured on the Hikayat Banjar (Tale of the Banjar), beginning from the 16th century, which underwent strong Javanese influence. The English East India Company (EIC) established trade relations with the Banjars in 1602, and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) followed suit in 1603, occasionally trading with the Banjarese until hostility grew against Dutch shipping. Several further expeditions were sent by the Dutch in 1606 and 1612 to conquer the sultanate, although this did not become fruitful. Following the death of Sultan Hamidullah (Sultan Kuning) in 1734 and the subsequent power struggle among the Banjarese, conflict with the Dutch escalated into the Banjarmasin War, which resulted in subsequent Dutch rule in the South Kalimantan region. The name of Bandar Masih was later changed to its present name of Bandjermasin (Banjarmasin) throughout the Dutch colonial rule.
In 1687, a Theatine missionary named was commissioned by Pope Innocent XI to preach Christianity in Borneo. On 16 January 1688, Ventimiglia arrived in Bandar Masih from Portuguese Macau after the Portuguese were given permission by Sultan (Sultan Adipati Anom) to bring a pastor and given land as part of their trade relations agreement. However, the Portuguese missionaries' journey to the island was not smooth since the first attempt by the missionaries into the interior jungles of Borneo to preach the Gospel among the indigenous pagan Dayaks resulted in the killings of several missionaries, with the British having received the same fate earlier in 1707. Since the 19th century, coupled with labour migration agreements for economical purposes throughout colonial rule between the Dutch and the British, migration of the Banjarese people went as far as the east coast of Sumatra and Malaysia. In Malaysia and Singapore, Banjarese people are classified as part of the ethnic Malays. The Banjarese in Singapore mostly reside within Kampong Glam, which is the melting pot between other ethnic groups, and they were categorised as part of the Malay Singaporeans. Based on the latest research and genetic studies in 2016, the Banjar are found to be the close ancestors of both the Malagasy of Madagascar and Comorians of the Comoros islands within southeast Africa.
Sub-ethnicities
The Banjar people can be divided into three main sub-ethnics based on the locations of the assimilation between the Malays, the local indigenous Dayaks (Hill Dayak (Bukit), Ma'anyan Dayak, Lawangan Dayak, Ngaju Dayak, Barangas Dayak, and Bakumpai), and the Javanese people with the main element that forms the Banjar tribe originating from the Dayak tribe. The Batang Banyu Banjar (also Batangbanyu) sub-ethnic group essentially refers to the Banjar ethnic group that predominantly resides in the Negara River valley. Researchers believe that the Batangbanyu were formed from a mixture of the Ma'anyan Dayak, Lawangan Dayak, Dusun Dayak and ancient Malay people of the Srivijaya era more than 1,500 years ago, where the people have absorbed a lot of Malay and Dayak culture, which has now become a distinctive culture of the Batangbanyu Banjar tribe. The Kuala Banjar is defined as the indigenous Banjar ethnic community who live around the Martapura and Barito rivers, namely the cities of Banjarmasin, Martapura, Banjarbaru and their surroundings. According to research, the Kuala Banjar was formed from a mixture of various indigenous Kalimantan ethnic groups such as Ngaju Dayak, Bakumpai, Ma'anyan, and Lawangan with Malay and Javanese ethnic groups from the Majapahit era with the word kuala or kwala itself in the Banjar language means "meeting" or "mixing". Pahuluan Banjar refers to various indigenous Dayak groups originating from the highlands or along the Meratus mountains, where these indigenous people still have many close ties with their ethnic groups, namely the Bukit ethnic group (or often referred to as Meratus Dayak) and Ma'anyan Dayak, the majority of whom inhabit the Meratus mountains and the northern part of South Kalimantan province. Due to the factor of Islamisation of the population of the Banjar sultanate around 500 years ago, gradually these native indigenous people began to absorb the Malay culture which was more closed and close to Islamic values and began to leaving their former culture and beliefs of Kaharingan until they called themselves the people of Banjar Hulu (Pahuluan). The Batang Banyu Banjar, who live in the valleys by the river of Negara. The Kuala Banjar, who live in Banjarmasin and Martapura. The Pahuluan Banjar, who live in the valleys by the upriver of Meratus mountain ranges.
Culture and society