I can speak only for Southeast Asia, but if ever Asia had a “Golden Area” for piracy, it would probably be maritime Southeast Asia!

Maritime Southeast Asia has historically had an enormous amount of trade going through it. Maritime Southeast Asia itself produced exotic and valuable (and now, sometimes illegal) products like teak wood, rhinoceros horn, sea cucumber, bird’s nest, camphor, gold, diamonds, turtle shells and spices. The area also sits between the India China trade route, and when the Portuguese arrived in the 1500s seeking the source of valuable spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, they began the era of European trading in the region, adding even more shipping to the mix.

The geography of maritime Southeast Asia, being an archipelago, also lent itself to piracy. The region’s trade wealth was transported into, out of and within the region by boat, so raiding took the form of piracy rather than robbery on land. The area was stuffed full of islands that made for perfect pirate hideouts.

So attractive was Southeast Asia to pirates that even Chinese pirates would make the journey to the area to rob and plunder, with some of them settling in the area and making it their base of operations.

I do not know of any generally agreed upon “Golden Age” of piracy in Southeast Asia, however I can identify 2 periods which are especially interesting. One has a romantic, somewhat mythical tone, the other is especially dark and violent.

Orang Laut “Piracy” 1400 - 1699

The first “Golden Age” was perhaps more a Golden Age of privateering than piracy. It was centred around the Strait of Malacca, still the world’s second busiest shipping lane today. It links the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea, which puts it along several major shipping routes. For instance, it is the shortest sea route between oil suppliers in the Persian Gulf and Asian markets, between India and China, and between Europe and Asia.

Near its southern mouth, round the southern coast of Singapore (the same Singapore that Sao Feng is based in in Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End), is Phillip Channel, the strait’s narrowest point a mere 2.75 kilometres wide. This natural bottleneck funnels ships into a small area and makes them easier prey for pirates. Around Phillip Channel are the Riau islands - numerous small islands which, together with Singapore itself, were once ideal bases of operations for pirates.

The waters of this entire area - the Strait of Malacca and the Riau Islands - was home to a group known as the Orang Laut, literally translated as sea people, but also known as sea nomads and sea gypsies.

While others merely adopted the sea, the Orang Laut were born and bound to it. They lived full time on their boats, setting foot on shore only when necessary or when they wished to gather valuable coastal products. When it came to the waters of the strait and the Riau Islands, the Orang Laut were simply unmatched. They knew every current, every shoal, every danger. They knew the migratory patterns and breeding grounds of all the valuable sea creatures, and often hunted and harvested them for income.

Around 1400, the Orang Laut entered into a relationship with the new Sultanate of Malacca. The Sejarah Melayu, a history of the rulers in the rise of Malacca compiled in the 16th century by its successor state, the Sultanate of Johor, describes its mythical beginnings.

A great Palembang prince named Sri Tri Buana arrives in the Riau Islands and is greeted by 400 vessels commanded by the Orang Laut Queen of Bintan. Sri Tri Buana marries the Queen’s daughter and inherits the loyalty of the various Orang Laut groups. Now with the loyalty of the sea equivalent of the desert Fremen of Dune, Sri Tri Buana travels to Singapore, then Malacca, and founds his new sultanate.

No matter the truth of the origins of this relationship, for generations after, the Orang Laut in the area served only the descendents of Sri Tri Buana. Sultans of Malacca directed the Orang Laut to raid ships headed to rival ports, “encouraging” them to call at the port of Malacca alone. Traders that refused were attacked, their cargo was seized and a portion was presented to the Sultan of Malacca. In return, the sultans conferred upon the Orang Laut leaders titles and gifts in the way they would trusted subordinate allies.

In the Malay World, this was considered a normal part of statecraft, and the Orang Laut saw themselves as a navy and not a bunch of pirates. Indeed, part of their job was to repel “real” pirates. This was small comfort to Chinese and Portuguese traders who considered their activities state sanctioned piracy.

After the Portuguese conquered Malacca in 1511, the Orang Laut remained unwavering in their loyalty, so much so that Sri Tri Buana’s heirs were able to flee down the peninsula and found the Sultanate of Johor. The Orang Laut allowed this new sultanate to project naval power, exert some control over the strait and discourage attacks from their great Portuguese and Acehnese rivals. Consequently it was able to thrive and regain much of its glory. During a series of wars between Johor and Jambi (a Sumatran-based polity) in the 1660s and 70s, for instance, the sultan unleashed the Orang Laut’s “piracy not piracy” activities, harassing shipping towards Jambi, starving their rival of income and gaining the upper hand.

Sri Tri Buana’s bloodline came to an end in 1699 when the Johor sultan Mahmud Shah II was murdered. While he was succeeded by a new dynasty, Orang Laut loyalty was not to a state but to a bloodline. They refused to work with the new ruler and the 300-year-old relationship came to an end.

The Orang Laut looked for another partnership but nothing really worked out. Without the patronage of a land-based polity, they went back to an independent life. As the Malayan economy moved towards land-based activities such as plantations and mining, and as other seafaring communities took their place at the Sultans’ sides, the Orang Laut found themselves increasingly marginalised. Today, most of them have been assimilated into land communities. A few can still be found in tiny boats off the coast of Sabah.