Holiday Ayo - Brunei Darussalam is a modern country located in the north of Kalimantan Island. The north side borders the South China Sea, while the south, west and east borders Sarawak, Malaysia. The Muslim-majority country became independent on January 1, 1984 after 96 years of British colonial rule.

Until now, the kingdom with an area equivalent to the island of Bali is the only country with a sultanate form of government in Southeast Asia. Its current king, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, is the 29th ruler of a line that has ruled for six centuries.

source: detikTravel

In pre-Islamic times, Brunei was already one of the important port areas in Kalimantan. This is in line with the lively trade flows connecting India, Indonesia and China since the second century BC (BC).

DS Ranjit Singh and Jatswan S Sidhu in the book Historical Dictionary of Brunei Darussalam (1997) say that Chinese people at that time called Brunei Po-ni. Po-ni state leaders are known to have sent a number of envoys to the Chinese emperor to ask for protection. Early relations with China later consolidated the country politically.

Of course, China is not the only empire that Brunei recognizes. Sriwijaya, Majapahit and Malacca were three large kingdoms that spread their control to the north of Kalimantan.

Therefore, Brunei is also trying to maintain conducive political and economic relations with them. In fact, in its history the country was once a vassal or conquest of the three.

Since the end of the 14th century, Brunei gradually became one of the great kingdoms in Southeast Asia. This coincided with the weakening of Majapahit's influence. After the deaths of Patih Gadjah Mada in 1364 and Hayam Wuruk in 1389, the empire which adhered to Hindu-Buddhist beliefs increasingly lost its dominance, especially in areas outside Java. Meanwhile, the spread of Islam is becoming increasingly widespread in various regions of the archipelago.

source: International Studies

Singh and Sidhu explained that the pillars of the spread of Islam in Brunei began when Awang Alak Betatar became a Muslim in the early 1360s. Historical records about the ancestors of the kings of Brunei are not so many.