Hulu Barito

Hulu Barito denotes the upper reaches of the Barito River in Borneo, where river travel connected inland Dayak communities with the markets downstream. Historical research places the upper basin within the Banjar sultanate's wider sphere from the sixteenth century, although this did not make its communities culturally uniform. Bakumpai traders played an important intermediary role, linking merchants at Muara Bahan and the Banjar estuary with traders from Hulu Barito and neighbouring watersheds. Their journeys carried goods as well as religious connections. A study of the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries describes Bakumpai settlement along the river and the spread of Islam through trade, marriage and friendship with other Dayak communities. Conversion was therefore part of continuing local relationships and movement, rather than a single event affecting the whole basin at once. The river joined settlements with different languages and religious practices into a commercial network, while the court at Banjarmasin represented a more distant layer of political authority.