Kutai

The Kutai are the Malayic people of the Mahakam River basin in East Kalimantan. Their name comes from the ancient Hindu kingdom of Kutai Martapura, whose yupa stone pillars were raised near Muara Kaman in the fourth century under King Mulawarman, making it the earliest known Indianised state in the Indonesian archipelago.

Downriver at Kutai Lama a new court, Kutai Kartanegara, was founded around 1300, its rulers taking Hindu-Javanese titles. The Kutai descend from Mahakam Dayak clans who underwent Malayisation and converted to Islam, and the court became Muslim in 1575. In 1635 Kutai Kartanegara conquered and absorbed the old kingdom of Martapura, forging a single Kutai identity and pushing unconverted Dayak groups inland.

In 1782 the capital moved upriver to Tenggarong, from where the sultans controlled the Mahakam's forest and delta trade. Their Kutainese tongue was once written in the Jawi script.