Tenggarong

Tenggarong on the Mahakam was the seat of Kutai Kartanegara, and the wider Kutai region holds the oldest dated evidence of a state in Indonesia - the Mulawarman yupa inscriptions of about the fourth century, sacrificial posts in Sanskrit naming a king, which are the earliest written records in the archipelago and are held in the national museum. The former palace at Tenggarong, an Art Deco building of the 1930s replacing an earlier timber one, is now the Mulawarman Museum with regalia, ceramics, a large Chinese jar collection and royal tombs behind. The town is also remembered for the Kutai Kartanegara bridge, a suspension bridge over the Mahakam that collapsed suddenly in November 2011 during maintenance, killing around two dozen people; it has since been rebuilt.

History

The capital of the Kutai Kartanegara sultanate was once called Tepian Pandan; Sultan Aji Muhammad Muslihuddin renamed it Tangga Arung, "the house of the king", which the people shortened to Tenggarong. In late 1956 it became the capital of the Special Region of Kutai (Wikipedia, Tenggarong).

What's there

• The Mulawarman Museum - the 1930s palace with regalia, ceramics and tombs.
• The oldest Indonesian inscriptions - the Kutai yupa tradition from the fourth century.
• The Mahakam waterfront - the river the sultanate controlled.
• A rebuilt bridge - replacing the span that collapsed in 2011.

When to go

May to September; the Erau festival is usually mid-year. A day.

Good to know

The yupa inscriptions themselves are in Jakarta, not here. The museum is modest and captions are largely Indonesian. Tenggarong is a quiet town with limited facilities.

Nearby

Samarinda is downstream; the upper Mahakam Dayak country is far upriver.