Bima

The Bimanese, self-styled Dou Mbojo, are an Austronesian people of eastern Sumbawa in the Lesser Sunda Islands, their language closer to Flores and Sumba tongues than to western Sumbawanese. Their Hindu-Buddhist kingdom of Bima, or Mbojo, traditionally dated to 709, was by the late fifteenth century a commercial centre and rice exporter; around 1515 a Portuguese writer noted trade in cloth, horses and sappanwood, influence reaching Flores.

Makassarese expeditions of the seventeenth century opened Islam's way: Prince La Kai converted in 1621 and ruled as Sultan Abdul Kahir, founding the Bima sultanate under Gowa's tutelage. After the Dutch East India Company broke Makassarese power in 1667-1669, Bima submitted in 1669 with autonomy under a resident.

Highland Dou Donggo warriors kept old beliefs and semi-autonomous status within the sultanate, and in 1815 Mount Tambora's eruption brought ruin and famine to Bima.