Kotawaringin, or also spelled Kota Waringin, was a sultanate on the south coast of Borneo. It covered an area in what is now the western part of the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan. Its capital was the historic town of Waringin (or "Kota Waringin Lama"), situated to the northwest of Pangkalan Bun and on the east bank of the Lamandau River. It then had a brief existence as an autonomous "native state" in the United States of Indonesia between 1949 and 1950, before being formally created as a separate Kotawaringin Regency within what was then the Province of South Kalimantan (from which the western part, then consisting of three regencies — the kabupaten of Barito, Kapuas, and Kotawaringin, was split off in 1957 to form the new Central Kalimantan province). However, on 26 June 1959, Kotawaringin Regency was divided into a West Kotawaringin Regency and East Kotawaringin Regency.
Former territory On 10 April 2002 additional regencies were created by splitting the two existing regencies — Sukamara and Lamandau from parts of West Kotawaringin Regency, and Seruyan and Katingan from parts of East Kotawaringin Regency.
In recent years, there has been some research into local attitudes, with a view to the putative re-establishment of Kotawaringin as a separate province, separate from the rest of Central Kalimantan, based upon the recognition of a shared identity of "Orang Kotawaringin".https://iptek.its.ac.id/index.php/jsh/article/view/6160 Such a province would cover an area of some 71,552 km2 and would have a population as at mid 2025 of some 1.264 million people.Statistik Kependudukan, Jakarta, 27 February 2026, Provinsi Kalimantan Tengah Dalam Angka 2026 (Katalog-BPS 2101023.62)
KodeWilayah Name ofRegency Areainkm2 Pop'n2010Census Pop'n2020Census Pop'nmid 2025Estimate 62.01 West Kotawaringin 62.02 East Kotawaringin 62.08 Sukamara Regency 62.09 Lamandau Regency 62.07 Seruyan Regency 62.06 Katingan Regency Totals
See also East Kotawaringin Regency West Kotawaringin Regency
References
Further reading