Sintang

Sintang stands at the meeting of the Kapuas and Melawi rivers in western Borneo. The junction made it a natural center for communities spread along the two great waterways, whose forested headwaters reach deep into the island. A kingdom developed here before the fifteenth century, joining local traditions of rule with connections to other courts along the Kapuas.

Over time Sintang became a Muslim sultanate; its ruler Abang Nata is remembered as the first of its rulers to embrace Islam. Relations between the Kapuas kingdoms were sustained by kinship and marriage as well as trade. Boats passing through Sintang could travel upstream into the Melawi country or follow the Kapuas westward toward the coastal ports, bringing its inland court into contact with a wider river world.