Makassar

Lore & Background

Makassar is mentioned in the Nagarakretagama, a Javanese eulogy composed in the 14th century during the reign of Majapahit king Hayam Wuruk. The center of the dual kingdom was at Sombaopu, near the then mouth of the Jeneberang River, about 10 km south of the present city center, where an international port and a fortress were gradually developed. The VOC rebuilt the existing fort, renaming it Fort Rotterdam, but the city center was not relocated northward.

Reader's Guide

Makassar's significance lies in its long history as a major trading port and center of the Gowa Sultanate, which maintained a policy of free trade and resisted Dutch monopoly attempts. Today, Makassar is one of the four main cities of Indonesia according to the National Development Planning Agency, alongside Medan, Jakarta, and Surabaya, and has the second-highest commercial property values in Indonesia after Greater Jakarta, according to Bank Indonesia.

Did You Know?

• The name Makassar was long spelled Macassar in English and many other European languages, while the Portuguese spelled it Macáçar during their presence there in the 17th century.
• Makassar has the second-highest commercial property values in Indonesia, after Greater Jakarta, according to Bank Indonesia.

Maritime Heritage and the Phinisi Tradition

The Makassar people, alongside their close Bugis kin, are celebrated for a maritime tradition that stretches back centuries. Their most iconic contribution to global seafaring is the Phinisi, a boatbuilding craft originating in southern Sulawesi that has earned international recognition as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity through UNESCO. This joint Bugis-Makassar invention represents far more than a vessel—it encapsulates generations of navigational wisdom, hull design, and oceanic knowledge passed down through coastal communities. The Makassar Strait served as the primary departure point for countless voyages, and the people's command of the seas enabled them to spread specialized knowledge—particularly in the harvesting and processing of sea cucumbers—across the Indonesian Archipelago, into Oceania, and into parts of the Asia-Pacific region. Their seafaring identity is so deeply woven into cultural identity that even the language carries maritime roots, as seen in the word "taripang," the native term for sea cucumber from which the Australian English "trepang" derives.

Trepang, Trade, and Contact with Australia

At the industry's peak, roughly a thousand trepangers arrived each December with the north-west monsoon, ranging thousands of kilometres along the northern coastline. Their perahu or praus vessels could carry crews of up to thirty, and they established semi-permanent processing camps where they boiled and dried sea cucumbers before the four-month return voyage to sell their cargo to Chinese merchants. The Makassans named key regions: Marege' (literally "Wild Country") for the stretch from the Cobourg Peninsula to Groote Eylandt, and Kayu Jawa for the Kimberley fishing grounds from Napier Broome Bay to Cape Leveque. This sustained inter-native trade with Aboriginal Australians, particularly the Yolngu, represents one of the most significant documented cross-cultural commercial relationships of the pre-colonial era.

The Kingdom of Gowa and Imperial Ambition

The Kingdom of Gowa, flourishing from the fourteenth through the seventeenth century, stands as the political apex of Makassar civilization. Under its banner, the people forged a vast Islamic empire backed by a formidable naval force, extending territorial control across nearly all of Sulawesi, eastern Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, portions of West Nusa Tenggara, parts of Maluku, and surrounding smaller islands. Gowa's diplomatic reach was equally impressive: the kingdom negotiated treaties with Bali, coordinated with Malacca and Banten, and even struck agreements with the Portuguese. Yet this era was not without conflict—Gowa was locked in prolonged warfare with the Dutch until its eventual fall. The exploratory spirit that defined the Makassar people carried them far beyond the archipelago, with voyages reaching as far as South Africa, where a locality called "Macassar" persists today. Scholars suspect the local population there carries mixed indigenous and Makassar ancestry, and the name likely traces back to the ancestors' homeland in southern Sulawesi.

Diaspora and a Global Cultural Footprint

The Makassar diaspora today spans an extraordinary geographic range, a living testament to centuries of seafaring and trade. Within Indonesia, communities are scattered across the Nusa Tenggara islands, the Pangkajene islands, portions of the Sangkarang and Kangean archipelagos, the Selayar Islands (where descendants are known as Selayar people), the Sumenep and Pamekasan regions of Madura, and parts of Kalimantan. Beyond Indonesian borders, Makassar-origin communities exist in Australia, Thailand, Mozambique, and South Africa. A migration route is also believed to have carried Makassar ancestors to Madagascar, traveling from southern Sulawesi through southern Kalimantan, past Java near the Sunda Strait, and onward. The cultural footprint extends into language and commerce: in several Pacific nations, the Cananga odorata plant—used in Makassar oil for haircare—retains a name derived from "Makassar," spelled Mokasoi in Fiji, Mohokoi in Tonga, and Mosoʻoi in Samoa. This herbal oil, extracted from Makassar ebony blended with other botanical ingredients, was once a staple of Western European haircare.