Hulu Melawai

Hulu Melawai forms part of the upper Melawi river country, connected downstream with Sintang at the meeting of the Melawi and Kapuas. River junctions gave the court at Sintang a means to watch traffic, but upstream communities also supplied forces capable of challenging its power. In 1722, Kayan and Tebidah groups from the Melawi country launched a major attack on Sintang during the rule of Pangeran Tunggal.

The court's survival depended on an alliance reaching beyond the Melawi. Tunggal sought assistance through his sister, Putri Nyai Cili, whose marriage linked her to Mangku Melik of Embaloh in the upper Kapuas. Reinforcements from Iban and Batang Lupar groups helped force the attackers to withdraw. The episode places the upper Melawi within a political world of competing river communities and marriage alliances. Connections with downstream rulers could carry conflict and military obligations as well as commerce, without making every inland community a passive dependency of the court.