Where does 'Pengiran' come from?

When I posted about Sultan Majid who died in China, there were three comments:-

(1) Bro, the son of Sultan Abdul Majid Hassan is actually called Hsia-wang which means "Raja Kecil". His sister, Puteri Ratna Dewi, was married to Hwang Sinpeng (Awang Sinpeng or Ong Sum Ping)who was later bestowed with the title Pengiran Maharaja Lela. Again, the word Pengiran, I heard from somewhere is a chinese word (Peng-i-ren) meaning a royal family member. Wallahu'alam.

(2) But I didn't hear any Chinese word call Peng I Ren. Are you sure the correct pronounciation?

(3)Hypothetically speaking if 'Pengiran' is derived from Chinese word, then the most probable term would be '本籍人', it's pronounce as 'Ben Ji Ren' in Mandarin and close pronunciation to 'Pengiran' in some Southern Chinese dialects.'本籍人' means people of the same district, ancestor or clan, with the word '本籍' (Ben Ji) meaning native district, own ancestral or clan and '人' (Ren) means people as in the Malay word 'Orang'.


The third comment was yesterday. An interesting hypothesis. What do you all think?

Comments

SB said…
Assalamualaikum, I was told by my Nini Bongsu that 'Pengiran' came from Jawa as in 'Pengeran Dipo Nogoro' bcos Brunei was once under the Majapahit Empire before, especially during Awang Alak Betatar times. Anyway, please feel free to surf my blog www.pergo-et-perago.blogspot.com maybe we can share some infos on 'Pengiran' there also. Thank you.
Erwin said…
First of all I would like occupy some of your time in explaining how I got to this blog.

Recently I’ve bought a book titled ‘Malaysian Protocol & Correct Forms of Address’ by Datuk Abdullah Ali, this book describes various titles of ‘Orang Besar’, ‘Orang Kaya’, ‘Tun’, ‘Datuk Seri’, ‘Datuk’ etc. at the federal and various state level.

As I was doing research on those titles I came across this blog and its comments on ‘Pengiran’, and got interested in the Chinese derivation theory.

Please pardon my limited knowledge in the Malay language; may I know what’s the meaning of ‘Pengeran Dipo Nogoro’?

I would like to share what I’ve found out about the word ‘Cheteria’; I’ve read from some article that it’s derived from the name of the Hindu warrior caste, 'kshatriya'.
Erwin said…
I found a more probable theory on the title "Pengiran".

Chieftains of ancient Tondo (around the Bay of Manila, Philippines) were address as "panginuan" or "panginoon" which probably mean "lord".

Brunei in the 1500s formed an alliance with them and established a city, which would later become Manila. It is very much possible that through alliance there's much cultural exchanges between the two.

I find this much more possible than the "Chinese" theory I've speculated years ago.
Unknown said…
As I am from Indonesia,
I can explain that Pangeran Diponegoro is our National Hero.

"Pangeran" is a title, means "Prince"
"Diponegoro" is his name.

As he was the eldest son of Sultan Hamengkubuwono III, King of Yogyakarta, so his title was "Pangeran" (Prince).
So maybe "Pengiran" has an exact meaning with "Pangeran" which is "Prince".

You can read his story here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diponegoro

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