Page 246 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Language ties and other relationships have made the map
of the Melanesian area expand to include Maluku and East
5 - 2 Nusa Tenggara.. According to Flassy, the Melanesian people
25 - 5
50 - 1 include people in Timor, East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku.
In personal communication between the writer and
Don Flassy, he stated that the Melanesians also include
the Bima and Moro in the Philippines. In addition, it is also
known that there are Melanesians in Siberia. Furthermore, in
communication with Enos Rumansara, he said that Sulawesi is
a transition area, because the inhabitants there are grains and
tubers eaters. Tubers are one of the characteristic foodstuffs
of the Melanesians. Therefore it is necessary to do further
research on the Melanesian archipelago.

Early Contacts with the Outside World
The first contact between the Indonesian population of
Above: Map showing the extent Melanesians (Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara, and Papua) with the outside world took place
of the Melanesian region (in
green). Flassy in Mansoben et al. many centuries ago, but the exact time is not known with certainty. The existing written
(2011: 28) sources are generally Chinese news reports in the 7th century and writings from the
kingdom of Sriwijaya. Information about Maluku first appeared during the Tang Dynasty
between 618 and 906. The news said that the island of Bali was located on the east of
Kalling (identified as Java) and the west side of Ma-li-ku identified as Maluku. While the first
written statements about the region of Papua (New Guinea) have been recognized since
the eighth century through written historical sources of Sriwijaya kingdom. Sriwijaya’s
sources said that in the year 724 AD, the messengers of the kingdom of Sriwijaya gave the
Chinese Kingdom a number of prizes, including a Seng-ki girl. Seng-ki was interpreted to
be the same name as Zangge or Jangge in Javanese language referring to the people of
negrito race in the Indonesian archipelago at that time. Therefore, Krom suspected that
the Seng-ki girl came from the some of the negrito population in the islands of New Guinea
or Papua. In the 13 century, the name of Timor first appeared in the Chinese news written
th
by Chao Ju-Kua. It said that the kingdom of Sriwijaya or Su-chi-tan in Chinese included:
Sin-to (Sunda), Ma-li (Bali), Tan jung-wo-lu (Tanjung Pura Kalimantan), Tiwu (East) and
the Wa-nu- ku (Maluku)20. The news indicated that the Timor was part of the kingdom of
Sriwijaya and had already made contacts with the outside world much earlier. At that time,

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