Sultanate of Bulungan

The Sultanate of Bulungan was an independent Malay sultanate on the eastern coast of Borneo, in the area of the present Indonesian province of North Kalimantan, which later became a special territory within the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia. According to local tradition its founders were a Kayan group known as the Dayak Hupan, who moved from the Apo Kayan highlands towards the coast, and the name Bulungan is said to derive from bulu tengon, "real bamboo", in reference to the bamboo from which the culture hero Jauwiru was born. The sultanate controlled the eastern shores of what is now North Kalimantan and extended its influence towards Tawau in Sabah, and it lived by trade in forest produce, rice and sea goods. Its capital was at Tanjung Selor on the Kayan river. The state lost its independence in the colonial period, when the Dutch concluded contracts with the sultan, and after Indonesian independence the royal house lost its remaining authority and the territory was reorganised as Bulungan Regency, which in 2012 was divided to create the new province of North Kalimantan.