Latest / Majapahit: The Empire That Once Ruled Indonesia — Fexingo History / Majapahit's Naval Power: The Jong and the Armada of Nusantara
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, we've talked a lot about Majapahit's land-based power — the rice, the temples, the infantry. But there's another side to this empire that doesn't get as much attention, and it's the reason the Palapa Oath could actually work. Luna: You mean their navy? Lucas: Exactly. Majapahit wasn't just a rice kingdom — it was a maritime empire that controlled the sea lanes from Sumatra to Papua. And the heart of that naval power was a ship called the jong. Lucas: The jong was a massive ocean-going vessel, built primarily on the north coast of Java — the pasisir region — especially in shipyards like those at Tuban and Gresik. These ships could carry up to 500 tons of cargo and over 500 men. That's the size of a small army, all packed into a single wooden hull. Luna: Wait, 500 tons? That's bigger than Columbus's ships, isn't it? Lucas: Much bigger. Columbus's Santa Maria was maybe 100 tons. A jong was five times that. Chinese chroniclers from the Ming dynasty described them as being so large that they needed multiple masts and a crew of hundreds. Some jong even had multiple decks and were armed with cannon-like swivel guns called cetbang. Lucas: The Negarakertagama, Mpu Prapanca's epic poem from 1365, mentions the fleet several times. It describes Hayam Wuruk's royal tour of the eastern provinces, where the king traveled with a massive flotilla of jong, carrying not just soldiers but also courtiers, priests, and supplies. Luna: So the jong were like floating palaces? Lucas: In a way, yes. But they were also tools of war. Gajah Mada's Palapa Oath, which you'll remember from episode 40, required conquering the entire Nusantara archipelago. You can't do that with just infantry. You need a navy to project power across thousands of kilometers of ocean. Lucas: And Majapahit had one. The Negarakertagama lists dozens of places that owed allegiance to Majapahit — from Palembang in Sumatra to Banda in the Moluccas. That's a distance of over 2,000 kilometers. Controlling that required a fleet that could transport troops, suppress rebellions, and protect trade routes. Luna: Did they actually fight naval battles, or was it more about showing the flag? Lucas: They did both. There are records of naval expeditions against rebellious regions, like the campaign against the kingdom of Malayu in Sumatra, which we covered in episode 32. But a big part of the navy's role was economic: protecting the spice trade from pirates and rivals. Lucas: The jong were also critical for diplomacy. When Majapahit sent envoys to China during the Ming dynasty — and we talked about that in episode 31 — they traveled in jong. The ships were symbols of Javanese power and sophistication. The Ming court was genuinely impressed by them. Luna: So what happened to these ships? Why don't we know more about them today? Lucas: Good question. Part of it is that very few physical remains of jong have been found. Wood doesn't survive well in tropical waters, and the Javanese didn't write detailed shipbuilding manuals. We rely on foreign accounts — Chinese, Portuguese, and later Dutch — plus visual evidence from temple reliefs and a few shipwrecks. Lucas: One of the best sources is Tomé Pires, a Portuguese apothecary who wrote the Suma Oriental around 1515. He described Javanese jong as being superior to Portuguese ships in many ways — larger, more seaworthy, and better able to handle the monsoon winds. But by his time, Majapahit was already in decline. Luna: And the rising power of Demak and later the Dutch took over the trade routes. Lucas: Exactly. The successor kingdoms, like Demak, continued building jong for a while. But the arrival of the Portuguese and later the Dutch East India Company shifted the balance. European ships were more heavily armed, and the jong gradually faded from the seas. The last known jong were built in the 17th century. Lucas: But there is a legacy. The shipbuilding traditions of the pasisir coast didn't disappear entirely. The perahu pinisi of the Bugis sailors, and even some of the fishing boats used in modern Indonesia, trace their design roots back to the jong. So the DNA of that Majapahit fleet is still out there, bobbing on the waves. Luna: It's amazing to think that an empire we usually think of as a land-based kingdom actually ruled the seas for centuries. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's a reminder that Southeast Asia's history is deeply maritime. Majapahit wasn't an exception — it was part of a long tradition of powerful sea kingdoms, from Srivijaya before it to the sultanates of the Moluccas after. The jong are just the most visible symbol of that tradition. Lucas: I think next time we're at the beach, we should look out at the horizon and imagine a fleet of jong sailing toward us, their sails full of spice and ambition. Luna: As long as they're not coming to conquer us. Lucas: No, no — just to trade. Or maybe to show off. The Majapahit fleet was as much about prestige as power. And in that sense, they've left us a pretty incredible image.