Tanjungpura

Tanjungpura was the name of a Malay kingdom in southwestern Borneo, remembered for its links to the diamond-bearing rivers of the interior. Its political centre moved during its history, and Sukadana became the best-known name of its coastal seat. The kingdom belonged to a network of courts and trading settlements facing Java and the wider Malay world.

Around the turn of the sixteenth century, tradition places the movement of the court from Negeri Baru to Sukadana. The latter port drew Dutch and English merchants seeking diamonds in the early seventeenth century. European maps continued for a time to record the older name Tanjungpura, although they did not agree on its position; Portuguese travellers also associated the name with the diamond trade. Its history reflects a polity whose identity outlasted changes in the location and name of its court.