Question

Who were the kalantar? Mention any four characteristics of this community.​

Answer 1

The Kalangs were a tribal community of Java.

Their four characteristics are:-

(i) They Were skilled forest cutters and shifting cultivators.

(ii) They had a great skill in building palaces.

(iii) They were so valuable that in 1755, when the Mataram kingdom of Java split, the 6000 Kalang families were equally divided between the two kingdoms.

(iv) The Kalangs worked, under the Dutch, when Dutch began to gain control over the forests in the 18th century.