subject: Luwu: Still One Of The Major Kingdoms Bugis [print this page] Luwu also called Wareq, was one of the major kingdoms Bugis in Sulawesi and the oldest of all.Since at least the seventeenth century, Luwu is considered the most prestigious source of Bugis culture.
The Journey Galigo, center-piece of the mythology of the Bugis, described in vague, a world of principalities and coastal waterways whose economy is based on trade. The most important are Luwu and Cina (unrelated to China). The latter was located in the western part of the valley Cenrana. The palace was near the hamlet of Sarapao in the current kecamatan (district) Pamanna. The discrepancy observed between the society described in The Galigo and reality Bugis agrarian kingdoms has led some historians such as Christian Pelras propose a period of chaos that would separate the two periods .
Philological and archaeological research conducted since the 1980s contradict this chronology. Excavations at Luwu revealed that the kingdom is not prior to the early kingdoms of land southwest of the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. We now think that the first settlers came Bugis West Valley Cenrana have started to settle along the coastal strip in 1300 AD The Gulf of Bone is not a language area but Bugis a sparsely populated area, a great ethnic diversity.
The Pamona, the Pado, the Toala, the Wotu and Lemolang inhabit the coastal plains and foothills. The highland valleys are inhabited by groups speaking different languages sulawesiennes central and southern. The Bugis live almost exclusively in coastal communities where they settled to trade with the indigenous populations of Luwu.Archaeology as the texts describe Luwu as a confederation, led by Bugis different populations united by trade relations.
Luwu seems to be the only city in the state Bugis Desawarnana or Nagarakretagama, an epic poem written in 1365 to the court of the kingdom of Majapahit in East Java. The PAMORI Luwu, "burst of Luwu" reputation was forged in iron kris produced in the mines of Lake Matano, controlled Luwu, the high nickel reflections produced highly of the Javanese.
The economy was based Luwu effect on the melting of iron ore from the principality of lemolang Baebunta, and brought to Malangke in central coastal plain. The iron was then forged into weapons and tools for agriculture, which were exported to the rice fields of southern Sulawesi.
This trade enriched the kingdom, ensuring its power. In the fourteenth century, became the overlord Luwu feared a large part of southern peninsula. The first ruler on which we have information called Dewaraja (reigned about 1495-1520). The stories we tell again in southern Sulawesi tell his attacks against the principalities and neighboring Wajo Sidenreng.
In the sixteenth century, the power of Luwu is overshadowed by the rising agrarian principalities of the south. His military defeats are recounted in the chronicle of Bone.
On 4 or 5 February 1605 the ruler of Luwu, The Patiwareq Pareqbung Daeng, is the first king of the south Sulawesi to convert to Islam. He took the title Sultan Muhammad Wali Muzahir Aldin. Muzahir Malangke is buried. In chronic Bugis, it is called Matinroe Wareq laughed, "He who sleeps Wareq" after the name of the former royal residence of Luwu. His religious teacher, Dato Sulaiman, is buried nearby.
Around 1620, Malangke is abandoned. A new capital was founded in the west, Palopo. It is not known because of the sudden abandonment of the active site, whose population could reach 15,000 inhabitants in the sixteenth century. This may be the decline in the price of iron and the economic potential of trade relations with the payx Toraja, located in the mountains west of Luwu.
In the nineteenth century, Luwu is a mere shadow of its former grandeur. James Brooke, who later became rajah of Sarawak in the 1830s wrote that "Luwu is the oldest state Bugis, and more decadent. Palopo is a miserable hamlet consisting of some 300 houses, scattered and shattered .It is hard to believe that Luwu has never been a strong state, except in a very low indigenous civilization. Today is a Luwu kabupaten in the province of South Sulawesi.
