Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A note on Galiyao and the early history of the Solor-Alor islands

1984; Brill; Volume: 140; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1163/22134379-90003420

2213-4379

Stefan Dietrich,

Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies

In two recent articles in Bijdragen (van Fraassen 1976, Barnes 1982) there was again some discussion about Majapahit dependencies. Van Fraassen picked out three places whose identification he felt to be hitherto unsatisfactory. His passing equation of Galiyao with the island of Kalao, between Flores and Saleier, obviously based on the phonetic similarity of the names, was taken up by Barnes, who con vincingly argued, on the basis of early Portuguese and Dutch reports, in favour of an identification of Galiyao with the island of Pantar. In different contexts, both articles referred to certain local traditions. I should like to elaborate along this line here, first focusing on some Java related local traditions, and then discussing the connection of the Solor Islands with the Moluccas, a perhaps crucial factor in the early political development in this area. When trying to find out something about the traditional political organization of Terong (South Adonara),1 the position of the clan Wai mahing was explained to me as follows: