Bugis: from South Sulawesi to Riau, Johor and Selangor

A boat with a tall sail heads north across the Strait. On board are young men and women from South Sulawesi, with a few belongings and a name: Bugis (Bugis people, also written Buginese).

The story

The Bugis come from South Sulawesi in what is now Indonesia. In the 1700s many Bugis families moved across the sea to the Malay world. They settled in Riau, Johor, Selangor and nearby coasts.

A key source is a book called the Tuhfat al-Nafis (تحفة النفيس, "The Precious Gift"), a Malay history written in the 1800s by Raja Ali Haji. He was born in 1809 on Pulau Penyengat in Riau. His great-grandfather was Opu Daeng Chelak, one of the five Bugis brothers (the Opu Bugis Lima Bersaudara). "Opu" is a Bugis title of rank.

The book shows something important: Bugis and Malay families did not stay apart. They married each other. Opu Daeng Chelak married Tengku Mandak, a Malay lady of royal family. Other marriages bound Bugis families to the Johor-Riau houses. The writer himself carried both heritages, Bugis from Sulawesi and Malay.

In 1766 a descendant of Daeng Chelak, Raja Lumu (known as Sultan Salehuddin), was the founder of the Selangor sultanate. Branches of his family went on to Lingga, Johor and Selangor. The family lines of Bugis-Malay ancestry reach all three places today.

The writer himself shows how deep the mixing went. Raja Ali Haji had Bugis roots from South Sulawesi and Malay roots from the Malay world, and the scholars of the 2024 paper say his book shows that the royal houses of both sides were closely related. Malaysia and Indonesia are separated today by modern borders drawn in the 1900s. In the 1700s and 1800s the sea joined them, and families lived on both shores.

This page does not rank any family or ruler, and it makes no claims about rule today. It tells one thing: people from Sulawesi became part of the Malay world, and the two grew together.

Where you can still see it today

Names and titles, with "Daeng" (a Bugis title before a name) in family names, and "Opu".
Selangor and Johor, where Bugis-Malay families live.
Riau and Pulau Penyengat, across the Strait, where Raja Ali Haji lived and wrote.
The Tuhfat al-Nafis, read in schools and libraries in both countries.

What DNA can tell, and what it cannot

A study of Malay sub-groups in Peninsular Malaysia found that those who call themselves Melayu Bugis, Jawa and Minang are genetically close to people in Indonesia. This matches the history. A region estimate may point toward the Indonesian islands for such families. A mother line or father line may too.

But DNA cannot say that you are Bugis, or that you belong to any family of rank. It cannot test a title or a claim. It does not decide race, religion or bumiputera status.