Banjarmasin (Jawi: بنجر ماسين) is the largest city in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. It was the capital of the province until 15 February 2022. The city is located on a delta island near the confluence of the Barito and Martapura rivers. Historically the centre of the Banjarese culture, and the capital of the Sultanate of Banjar, it is the biggest city in South Kalimantan and one of the main cities of Kalimantan. The city covers an area of 98.37 km2 (37.98 sq mi) and had a population of 625,481 as of the 2010 Census and 657,663 as of the 2020 Census; the official estimate as of mid 2025 was 682,360 (comprising 341,375 males and 340,985 females). It is the third most populous city on the island of Borneo.
Greater Banjarmasin, also known as Banjarbakula (an acronym for Banjarmasin-Barito Kuala-Tanah Laut) or Banjar Raya, is an urban agglomeration of over two million people covering an area of 6,737.70 km2 (2,601.44 sq mi), which includes Banjarbaru city and parts of Banjar Regency (including Martapura town), Barito Kuala Regency, and Tanah Laut Regency, and accounts for 2,076,771 inhabitants in mid 2024, amounting to almost half of the province's population.
Banjarmasin was the de jure seat of the South Kalimantan governor and the location of the provincial parliament, although some provincial buildings have been relocated to Banjarbaru. On 15 February 2022, the capital of South Kalimantan province was legally moved to Banjarbaru.
History
Etymology
"Banjarmasin" is thought to be a corrupted version of "Bandar Masih" (Port Masih), which was named for Patih Masih, who ruled the port and the surrounding villages. Patih Masih's name may have been a nickname. Masih originates from the Ngaju language. Oloh Masi refers to the coastal-dwelling Malay population in the language of the Dayaks, who lived in the interior and visited the port regularly to trade. Some of the Dayaks eventually settled in the port. They eventually contributed to the culture of the Banjar people, along with the Javanese and Malays.
Early history
European archeologist H. Kupper discovered several prehistoric sites around the region in 1939 and found implements such as choppers and other stone tools. Most of the artifacts found around the region and the province show signs of Neolithic culture. Migration from mainland Asia to Borneo may have been common while they were connected by the Sunda Shelf. Many stone tools have been found in Awang Bangkal, 50 km (31 mi) from the city.
Until the early 15th century, there were few written records found from the region. Outside records indicate it was home to several kingdoms such as Tanjungpuri—theorized to have been founded by Malay people from Srivijaya—and Negara Daha and Dipa, which were founded by Javanese people from Majapahit. Hinduism and Buddhism entered the region between the first and 15th centuries. There are two candis (temples) left in the region, Candi Laras and Candi Agung. The Ma'anyan people may have ruled the oldest kingdom in the archipelago, Nan Sarunai. Its existence is disputed; speculated by archeologists based on several carved stone tombs and a Ma'anyan folk song called "Usak Jawa", which is thought to tell the story of the Majapahit conquest of the kingdom.
The existence of Banjarmasin as a polity in southern Borneo has already been recorded in various foreign records, dating back as far as the 14th century, two centuries before the founding of the Sultanate of Banjarmasin in 1526. The oldest possible mention of Banjarmasin in foreign historical records comes from the account of Odoric of Pordenone, a Franciscan friar and explorer from Italy who lived in the late 13th century and journeyed through India, Indonesia, and China from 1318 to 1328. After his stop in Java, Odoric recalled his experiences of visiting a place called "Thalamasin":
Near to this country is another which is called Panten, but others call it Thalamasyn. The king whereof hath many islands under him. Here be found trees that produce flour, and some that produce honey, others that produce wine, and others a poison the most deadly that existeth in the world. [...] As for the trees that produce flour, 'tis after this fashion. These are thick, but not of any great height. They are cut into with an axe round about the foot of the stem, so that a certain liquor flows from them resembling size. Now this is put into bags made of leaves, and put for fifteen days in the sun; and after that space of time a flour is found to have formed from the liquor. This they steep for two days in sea-water, and then wash it with fresh water. And the result is the best paste in the world, from which they make whatever they choose, cates of sorts and excellent bread, of which I, friar Odoric, have eaten: for all these things have I seen with mine own eyes. And this kind of bread is white outside, but inside it is somewhat blackish.
Henry Yule, a Scottish Orientalist, identified "Thalamasin" with Banjarmasin. He proposed that "Thalamasin" or "Thalamasyn" is a corrupted form of the Malay phrase Tanah Masin ("the land of salt"). Yule argued that the geographical and cultural descriptions of "Thalamasin" point specifically to the southern region of Borneo, making its identification with Banjarmasin highly probable. Based on Odoric's account, Yule inferred that the inhabitants of Banjarmasin at the time subsisted primarily on sago rather than rice. Yule further noted that while Odoric's description of sago processing contains inaccuracies, likely due to his unfamiliarity with the method, it nonetheless constitutes a significant historical record of the economic life and agricultural practices in Banjarmasin during that period. Additionally, Yule interpreted Odoric's reference to trees yielding both honey and wine as evidence that the local population utilized the sap of the sugar palm not only to produce an alcoholic beverage (palm wine) but also to make palm sugar and a molasses-like sticky concoction, most likely dodol.
Odoric also mentioned about the custom of local inhabitants of "Thalamasin" in using a weapon that fits with the physical description of sumpit, a traditional blow-pipe that is usually used by the Dayak people for hunting. The section indicates the inhabitants of the polity were Dayaks or following Dayak ways of life as described:
And the men of this country being nearly all rovers, when they go to battle they carry every man a cane in the hand about a fathom in length, and put into one end of it an iron bodkin poisoned with this poison. And when they blow into the cane, the bodkin flieth and striketh whom they list, and those who are thus stricken incontinently die.
Another earlier mention of Banjarmasin comes from the 14th-century Chinese book Daoyi Zhilüe (島夷誌略, "A Brief Account of Island Barbarians"). Written by the Yuan dynasty Chinese traveler Wang Dayuan and completed in 1349, the work includes a section describing a country called "Pa-nan-pa-hsi" (巴南巴西). William Woodville Rockhill, an American linguist and diplomat, identified "Pa-nan-pa-hsi" as Banjarmasin in his translation of the Daoyi Zhilüe. He suggested that this may represent one of the earliest, if not the first, mentions of Banjarmasin in Chinese historical records. The section describes the country as follows:
This country is south of the Ta-hsiang-shan (大響山) and spreads out many tens of li. The soil is poor; they raise beans. The temperature has sudden changes to cold. The customs are treacherous. Men and women are small in size and black; their eyes are round, their ears long, their arms reach to below their knees. They wear but a simple ssi-jung (絲絨). All the girls of this people who are pretty are taught by their parents from the age of seven to sing and dance. They can perform acrobatic feats, do impersonations and endless other uncommon acts. When they go to other countries and show their talents they are rewarded with small coins. The native products include very fine cotton, which the traders buy with tin.
The history of Banjarmasin itself began during the founding of the Sultanate of Banjar. According to folk stories and the Hikayat Banjar, Sukarama, the fourth king of Negara Daha, wanted his grandson, Raden Samudra, to be his successor in the kingdom instead of his direct son Prince Tumenggung. Prince Tumenggung later banished Raden Samudra and tried to reclaim the throne for himself. Raden Samudra fled to the region that would later be known as Banjarmasin. There, he met Patih Masih. Under Samudra's leadership, the port grew into the town of Bandar Masih. Tumenggung, who disliked Samudra's growing power, wanted to invade the town. Samudra allied with the Demak Sultanate, which agreed to help him. In return he would have to convert to Islam if he won. With the help of expeditionary forces from Demak, Samudra defeated the Tumenggung forces and proclaimed the Banjar Sultanate. He changed his name to Sultan Suriansyah I. The sultanate became more reliant on the Demak to the point that it was considered their protectorate. However, between 1546 and 1550, as conquests and the spice trade enriched the sultanate, it became independent and stopped sending tributes to Java. Nevertheless, Banjarmasin is one of two countries located in the present-day Indonesia which depicted in the Qing dynasty era monumental painting, Ten Thousand Nations Coming to Pay Tribute (萬國來朝圖 Wànguó láicháo tú); the other is Sunda Kelapa. The monumental painting depicts foreign delegations visiting and bringing presents and tributes to the Qianlong Emperor in the Forbidden city in Beijing during the late 1750s.
Colonial era
The first contact between Europeans and the Banjar people in the region came through trade. Starting in 1596, this mostly took place in Banten. European traders, largely Dutch, did not bother visiting the port until Banten's rulers banned them. The traders resorted to attacking ships from other countries, including ships under the Banjar Sultanate, to steal nutmeg. The Sultan took revenge against a Dutch ship visiting Banjarmasin on 17 July 1607 by hijacking it and massacring the crew. Similar incidents occurred several times between 1603 and 1636, ending when the sultanate reached a trade agreement that put the Dutch East India Company in control of the nutmeg trade from the sultanate and gave it a monopoly over trade in Banjarmasin. The company was expelled in 1638, however, after the sultan waged a war against the Dutch and burned much of the company's possessions around the port.
Similarly, an English company agreed upon a treaty with the sultanate in 1698 but was expelled from the region in 1707. Following the Napoleonic Wars, Banjarmasin was subject to British control, a situation complicated by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, which was seen to have mandated its transfer to Dutch authority. This directive paradoxically conflicted with a prior 1812 treaty between the British East India Company and the sultanate, which prohibited the region’s transfer to any other European power. This issue was navigated by the then Governor of Java, John Fendall, who argued that the 1812 treaty’s conditions were still valid. Sovereignty was therefore effectively transferred from the British East India Company to the Sultan in late 1816, and not directly to the Dutch. The dispute over sovereignty was finally settled when the Sultan of Banjarmasin settled an agreement with the Netherlands in January 1817, effectively confirming Dutch control over the region. A succession crisis between Sultan Adam and Tamjidillah II and a dispute over resource control of coal mines resulted in a war between the sultanate and the Dutch East Indies Company which led to the end of the sultanate in 1863. The war continued until 1905 under an emergency government set up by the sultanate called Pagustian. The last resistance was put down with the capture of Queen Zaleha in 1906. As a result of the war, many Banjar people from Borneo migrated to Sumatra, Singapore, and Malaysia and formed communities there.
20th century–present
When World War II broke out, the city was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. After the Battle of Banjarmasin, control was transferred to the Imperial Japanese Navy. Locals described Japanese rule under the navy as harsher compared to the army. This led many people to escape to Java, which remained under army rule. The city was liberated by Australian forces in September 1945. The return of Dutch rule, however, was opposed by the people and resulted in the Kalimantan Physical Revolution, four years of war between Indonesian nationalists and the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. This ended with the Dutch recognition of Indonesia in 1949. The city was briefly assigned as the capital of Great Dayak federal state before being absorbed into a single Kalimantan province. It later became the capital city of the newly formed South Kalimantan province. Frequent flooding led to a plan to relocate the provincial capital city to Banjarbaru. The process continued until 2011, and the provincial parliament remains in Banjarmasin. Banjarmasin was granted city status by the Indonesian government in 1959 under Law Number 27 of 1959.