The Datu of Luwu

Datu Andi Iwan Alamsyah Bau Djemma Barue of Luwu with his wife

In the very old time the rulers of Buginese Kingdom of Luwu were the main powers on the island of Sulawesi, which held sway over many Toraja peoples to. Later the kingdoms of Bone and Gowa in SW-Sulawesi began to be more powerfull, but Luwu remained a big power, having it's sphere of influence in a big area. So nowadays several non-Luwu districts/kabupatens on Sulawesi still have a very strong traditional relationships with Luwu. The datu's of Luwu also always stayed very selfconfident. Until the end of the Dutch rule in Indonesia. Of course the datu's also saw the good sides of Dutch rule, but always wanted to have independence for their area and country. The last in this line of freedomseekers kings was Datu Andi Djemma Barue (a later national hero). He ruled 1936-1946(deposed) and 1949-1959 as king;from 1957-1960 as bupati of Luwu. He died in 1965.His son Andi Achmad was bupati of Luwu 1968-1972.The traditional postion of his dynasty always remained strong.In the present time of revival of the cultural and social value of the Indonesian dynasties also here that has not happened without problems. In Luwu the succesion always was settled with the rule, that the new king,or queen had to be descended as much as possible form former monarchs. That is the so-called "being of pure royal blood" principle. Nowadays some dynasties, which did not use the latter principle of succesion also try to use the principle "a monarch will be followed by the oldest child". The hereby depicted Datu Iwan Alamsyah Bau Djemma Barue is the oldest son of Andi Bau Djemma gelar Tellu PoccoE, who is the only son from the marriage of Datu Andi Djemma Barue with his fullblooded royal daughter of a raja of Bone(the also as Indonesian national hero recognized Arumpone/Raja Andi Mappanjuki). He was installed as datu of Luwu in 2006. Before he already was considered as the semi-official dynastychief, but in 2003 some people in the dynasty network thought it also good to use the principle "oldest child is succesor", so another grandchild of Datu Andi Djemma Barue was respected from that time as the main person in the datu dynasty. This princess is Datu Andi Luwu;the daughter of the oldest son of Datu Andi Djemma, who always was a big help of his father before and also an important person in the independence struggle in Luwu after WW II. Nowadays you see, that also the traditional values are restored in Luwu in which the dynasty also plays an important role. You can see, that we live now in a time, where the good things of the old time are taken back and the unneccesary things are left behind. Also here it is hoped, that wishes of harmony will remain.

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The picture is from the collection of Forum Silaturahmi Keraton se-Nusantara