Lombok Travel Guide

Once upon a time in ... before 17 century, two persons, man and woman, together with many peoples from north western India or now we call Burma in waves of migration come across the sea to Java, then to Bali and the last, they stay in this land, now we call it gumi sasak (the land of sasaks) or in modern name, Lombok Island.

Not like me and other sasaks today who are moslem, my ancestors are budhist, or maybe hinduist. No one can sure about it.

One well known former kingdom establish by our ancestors are desa lae' kingdom in Sambelia county, East of Lombok today. Desa lae' name are the way, how sasaks tell you they cant be sure about that. Desa lae' mean old era village, that not the right name.

For some reasons, our ancestors, I don't know which generations, move from Sambelia to Sembalun in Aikmel county, closer to Rinjani mountain and establish a new Kindom, they call it Pamotan Kingdom.
But, not long after the establishment of Pamotan Kingdom, I don't know how many years, the Rinjani mountain are explode and our ancestors are spreads around Lombok island. Some of them establish a new kingdom named Suwung Kingdom.

The Suwung kingdom established by the king named Betara Indra, the seed of Selaparang kingdom. The famous kingdom era than before. The Suwung kingdom located on Perigi, in south Lombok.

The Gadjah Mada Expedition

In 1343, the biggest kingdom in nusantara, Majapahit, send out a Sumpah Palapa Expedition to the east nusantara. The chief of the expedition is Mpu Nala. They come first in Bali then to Lombok and Dompu.

The result is the establishment of four brotherhood kingdom in Lombok. Bayan kingdom in west of Lombok, Selaparang kingdom in east of Lombok, Langko kingdom in middle of Lombok, and Selaparang kingdom in south of Lombok.

The Dutch Colonials Era

The Dutch first visited Lombok in 1674 and settled the eastern part of the island, leaving the western half to be ruled by a Hindu dynasty from Bali. The Sasaks chafed under Balinese rule, and a revolt in 1891 ended in 1894 with the annexation of the entire island to the Netherlands East Indies (VOC).