Menggala

Menggala stands on the Tulang Bawang River in the eastern lowlands of Lampung. Its port connected the river's inland communities with ships entering from the Java Sea. The river country was known for pepper, a valuable crop that brought merchants and outside rulers to the area.

By the seventeenth century Tulang Bawang had become an important source of pepper for Banten across the Sunda Strait. Banten's influence grew as its merchants sought supplies for their own busy port. Lampung cultivators and local chiefs remained essential to this trade, while merchants carried pepper downstream and brought imported goods upriver. Menggala's position on the river made it a meeting place between the inland producers and the wider maritime networks of the archipelago.