New Insight: Chinese Tombstone Inscription Found in Barrang Lompo’s Ancient Islamic Cemetery

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.200729.037How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Barrang Lompo, inscription, Islamic tomb, Makassar, Gowa-Tallo

Abstract

Barrang Lompo is an island in the Spermonde archipelago in Makassar, South Sulawesi. As reflected by diverse ancient tombs dating to the 17th century, this island has been inhabited by varied ethnic groups since the reign of the Gowa and Tallo kingdoms. Among the tombs discovered on the island, there are three that display Chinese inscriptions. This study aims to reveal the archeological and historical aspects of these tombs. The investigation utilizes archeological, historical, and philological analyses to achieve its objective. Archeologically, the shape and the orientation of one intact tomb reveals that the body it holds was buried as a follower of Islam in the 17th century. A historical text that explains the process of Islamization of the Gowa-Tallo kingdoms during the same period supports the religious orientation of this tomb. Further, the inscriptions engraved in Chinese, Lontara, and Arabic scripts on tombstones found in at the graveyard site contain names and burial dates. An investigation of the inscriptions confirms that these tombstones reflect the multicultural life of that era and testify to the harmony that prevailed among ethnicities within the insular context of the island. This new finding provides significant insights regarding the ethnic diversity of Moslems during the time the Gowa-Tallo kingdoms flourished.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Yadi Mulyadi
AU  - Irmawati Marwoto Djohan
AU  - Isman Pratama Nasution
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/07/30
TI  - New Insight: Chinese Tombstone Inscription Found in Barrang Lompo’s Ancient Islamic Cemetery
BT  - Proceedings of the International University Symposium on Humanities and Arts (INUSHARTS 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 187
EP  - 189
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200729.037
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.200729.037
ID  - Mulyadi2020
ER  -