Pangeran Raja Abdul Gani Natadiningrat III Dekarangga of Cirebon-Kacirebonan

When 11 years ago this monarch succeeded his very popular grandfather Pangeran Mulyono Amir Natadingrat II he brought himself into trouble, because he then wanted to take the sultan's title, which was according to tradition not the title of the Cirebon-Kacirebonan king and so the Indonesian government thought of total abolishing the Cirebon-Kacirebonan palace. But all was settled later in peace.
Cirebon is one of the religious symbol places of Indonesia; in this case for W-Java. The rulers descent of one of the so called wali Songo, or 11 bringers of islam to Java. Later the dynasty was divided into 3 dynasties: that of Kasepuhan(the main one), Kanoman, Kacirebonan and even in the end of the 18th century a 4th dynasty; shortlived, came into being : that of Kaprobonan. Eact had it;s own spehere of influence in Cirebon town and also in the sultanate.
Because of not well-organised circumstances the Dutch decided to abolish the real sultan's government of Cirebon in 1819, but allowed the kings and their succesors to stay on as important symbols of the royal system. When the local people was seeking for their own identity in the struggle for independence after WW II they rediscovered their kings, who all the time had preserved the local culture and also most of ghe relguous old traditions. From that time on the kings were kings of their area again, but officially with no power.
Shortly before the abolishment of monarchy of Cirebon the monarchy of Cirebon-Kaprobonan was abolsihed and the area divided among some of the dynastybranches, although the dynastybranch of Cirebon-kaprobonan still exists until the present time.
Many say, that the palace of Cirebon-Kaprobonan has the most original Javanese atmosphere.

Donald Tick,
Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan-kerajaan Indonesia "Pusaka"
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Anak Agung Ngurah Ugrasena of Buleleng

Because the Dutch already put direct rule in Buleleng in 1872 after the deposition of the then monarch the relgious influence of the west also was more strong than elsehere on Bali. The last Raja of Buleleng became protestant Christian, but some of his familymembers remained Hindu, like the present dynastychief of Buleleng, who is a grandson of the last raja. The dynasty still has not decided fully, that he wil be the new king of Buleleng, because they want, that he must proff himself as a good and non-egoistic monarch.
He is doing much into tourism and is f.i. chief of the local board of tourism.
When the monarchies of Bali were restored in 1937, the greatgrandfather of the present dynastychief was put on the throne.He already was ruling then for 8 years as semi-independent monarch of Buleleng.

Donald Tick,
Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan-kerajaan Indonesia "Pusaka"
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Raja Muda H. Aji Bahrul Hadi of Gunung Tabur

Before the Sultan of Gunung Tabur ruled over the NE part of Indonesian Kalimantan and could be described as the most powerfull kings of that part of Kalimantan. That kingdom then was called berau and consisted of Gunung Tabur, Sam- baliung, Bulungan and the vasal area north of Bulungan. End 18th century Bulungan became a total independent kingdom, in the first quarter it was the turn for sambaliung to become an independent sultanate.
The present monarch of Gunung Tabur is the son of the last Sultan here: Sultan Aji Raden Muhammad Ayub.
Extraordinary enough, is that the palaces of Gunung Tabur and Sambaliung are lying to the opposite of each other; opposite of a river.
They are branches of the same dynasty. The Berau kingdom also existed for several centuries.
The Bulungan, Sambaliung, Gunung Tabur and Kutai dynasties are much related with each other.
Also here the feeling for their own historical identity is quite strong. The present monarch is a local politician.

Donald Tick,
Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan-kerajaan Indonesia "Pusaka"
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Sultan Syarif Abubakar Alkadri of Pontianak

The Pontianak sultanate in W-Kalimantan only exists relative shortly: since 1772.
Then a businessman and descendant of the islamreligion founder Muhammad from S-Yemen; with contacts in several Kalimantan royal families, took a strategic area, which wasn't occupated because the people said was haunted by the spirits of mother, who died when given birth to babies.
Soon Pontianak became a sort of Singapore for W-Kalimantan and the dynasty now still is much occupied in business. It is also the main dynasty of W-Kalimantan in the field of political ambitious feelings.
In WW II all the kings at least of W-Kalimantan were murdured by the Japanese occupationforces, because being afriad, that the kings would work together again strongly with Holland. The present Sultan is son of the former crownprince, who also was killed in 1944.
The present Sultan is now married with a 2nd queen after the death of his first queen.
Pontianak is also called as the Venetia of W-Kalimantan and is actually an immigrants sultanate; consisted of several big group of peoples, who made agreements about the system of the state some centuries ago and where the sultan always worked closely together with the several peoples. He is the 9th sultan of Pontianak.

Donald Tick,
Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan-kerajaan Indonesia "Pusaka"
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Calon-Sultan Muhammad Abdurahman Daeng Raja Dewa of Sumbawa

Also called Daeng Muhammad Abdurahman Kaharuddin. He is the only son of the last ruling Sultan of Sumbawa and only has daughters, so probably he will be succeeded in due time by a grandson. This monarch is a rare example (together with for instance the Raja of Kupang on Timor) of a king, who says, that to serve his people is the main thing in his life and to be installed in glorious festivities as king of Sumbawa is a thing of later importance. Also he was in that field active in real politics and tried in 2005 to become Bupati of Sumbawa and even later to become Governor of Nusa Tenggara barat Province,but for that you already must have a political development locally.
He is former bankdirector and has a quite pilosophical mind.
Also one of the few Indonesian kings,who has a real crown.
The main royalty of the Sumbawa island are all family of each other.
The Sumbawa kingdom like some other big kingdoms in Indonesia already exists for several centuries.
In Sumbawa the Buginese and Makassarese influence from SW Sulawesi and family links also are quite big.

Donald Tick,
Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan-kerajaan Indonesia "Pusaka"
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Sultan Sri Kesuma Negara V of Sintang

Sintang is the only big kingdom which lies in the inland of West-Kalimantan.
In 2005 he was installed as the 29th monarch of Sintang with title Panembahan and in 2006 he found it the time to install himself as Sultan. That installation (see picture) was more official. On the picture the monarch in the middle of his installationceremony holds the royal statekeris, which is the main symbol of power of the Sintang kings.
1 month before his installation as king his wife Ratu Maria Ulfah died. Now he is maried again to a 2nd queen. Sintang was the most powerfull of the so-called Kapuas area and held more or less some sway, or at least influence over the little stateletts to the west.
The title Sultan wasn't much used in Sintang;mostly they spoke about Panembahan.
Nowadays the monarch also uses the title Pangeran Ratu to describe, that officially the monarch is now a moral king and not a government king (then he would only use the title Sultan).
Some years ago there was some problem, that the government would take the main palace of the kings and restaurate it and then put it into a museum, which was dome elsewhere in Indonesia for several times, but that plan was changed fortunately.
The Sintang area is knows for their enormous hunger to know about their history and culture in the modern time; the Melayu culture as well as the Dayak culture. It is very interesting to know, that the Sultan strongly works together with an original Dutch Roman Catholic Priest called Father Maessen and together they already could achieve very big results in the field of the preservance of the local culture and history, which are examplary for Indonesia.

Donald Tick,
Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan-kerajaan Indonesia "Pusaka"
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Sultan Mudzafar II Syah of Ternate

When you want to make it complete you should put Masjur Kamo Lano behind his name. Before his predessors had even more elaborate titles.
When his father Sultan Iskandar Muhammad Djabir Syah (the last ruling sultan) died in 1975 his crownprince Mudafar became quite political active for his area and remained as such through out his life until now. In 1987 he installed himself as Sultan of Ternate, but in that time that wasn't recognized officially.
He is married now with his 4th wife, which is a princess of Surakarta.
In 2000 he was in the middle of a poltical crisis in the N-Moluccans, but now he is in more peacefull political waters. He laso was before chief of the main Indonesian political party in the N-Moluccans(Golkar)and chief of the local parliament,but now he shifted his activities more to the direct welfare of his people,business and his tasks as chief of the Forum Komunikasi dan Informasi Keraton se Nusantara;the 2nd biggest representative organisation of the Indonesian dynasties.
His crown is quite a religious symbol (in other parts of Indonesia the crown is just more a decorative symbol taken from the western culture). It is said, that it contains hair of the first muslim Sultan of Ternate, who ruled 5 centuries ago.To discuss about this item is now not important,more important, that Ternate before in history was only the 3rd dynasty of 4 of the Moluccans,but because of clever politics it became the first powerfull of the Moluccans. The raja dynasty of Loloda in West-Halmaheira says, that is is descended from a Ternate sultan and the Sultan's dynasty of Jailo was since several centuries under the political umbrella of Ternate. It's powerbase in the N-Moluccans is more to the west. Before the total Moluccans and the westpart of West-Paua was under the influence of the 4 N-Moluccan sultans.
Even in the Christian part of Indonesia the Sultan has family links, because his daughter Princess Mira Syah is maried with the Raja of Amarasi on Timor: Raja Robert Koroh.
The main issue now is to setle, is that not each of the 4 sultanate area's tries to make his area the most important, but to work together in true harmomny and that is everywhere in the world the most difficult thing.
In the N-Moluccans they have the Moloku Kie Raha system:the system of the 4 Kings of the mountains (the volcano's seen as mountains).
In Ternate they don't have a real father to son succesionsystem. A candidate is selected by the traditional system chiefs and the Sultan. That has not been done yet. Maybe the oldest som Prince Ismunandar Aim Syah will be the crownprince later.
The Sultan is known as a quite educated man and also still speaks even Dutch.
At least all educated Indonesian people are proud, that they are still friends with their former colonisers, from which they became free from 1945-1949. In Indonesia it is like: when the problemaffair is over there is no need to obstruct, that you can become friend again with your so-called former enemy.

Donald Tick,
Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan-kerajaan Indonesia "Pusaka"
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Tjokorda Ngurah Jambe Pemecutan;the 9th Tjokorda of Badung-Denpasar

The in SE-lying principality of Badung is in fact divided into 2 main raja branches of 1 dynasty: the one of Badung-Denpasar and the one of Badung-Pemecutan.
Because of historical developments the Denpasar-line had the opportunity to rule as paramount-ruler and the Pemecutan-line had more religious tasks. Then there was also the Badung-Kesiman line, which was ca. 150 years ago the most powerfull, but which withdrew from active politics of the total principality.
After the World War II the grandfather of the present Badung-Denpasar raja was asked to step down as paramount-ruler of Badung and the father of the present Badung-Pemecutan raja became his succesor.
In Bali you have the mebhiseka ratu rituals,which makes a raja a real monarch. Only a few dynastychiefs now are installed as such.But you can divide this ritual into 3 degrees. The mebhiseka ratu kecil(little), the mebhiseka ratu besar (big) and the mebhiseka ratu besar dan lengkap(most extended). The present Badung-Denpasar raja went through the last stage 25-11-2005.Before he was known as Tjokorda Ngurah Mayun Samirana.
He is not so really active in politics, but he has 2 cousins,who are Anak Agung Ngurah Ratmadi was before Bupati (districtchief) of Badung and his brother (former Lord Mayor of Denpasar town); Anak Agung Ngurah Puspayoga; won medio july 2008 the Governor elections for Bali.
This raja is however the chief of the Forum Silaturahmi Keraton se Nusantara( the Friendship Union of the Indonesian Palaces), which is the biggest representative organisation of the Indonesian dynasties.
When he was cornonated in 2005 they used a copy of the original glden crown is since the putting down of the Bali rebellion in 1906 onwards in a museum in Leiden. Maybe ever that will come back.
Both main rajas at least of badung have their own sphere of influence in Denpasar town for instance.The palace of the Badung-Denpasar raja is in the east of Denpasar. His oldest son is not installed as crownprince yet,because he still much learn a lot of the traditions of the royal court.

Donald Tick,
Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan-kerajaan Indonesia "Pusaka"
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