Cirebon

Cirebon (chē"ribon') [key], formerly Tjirebon,port city (1990 pop. 254,477), district (1990 pop. 1,649,428), and seaport, N Java, Indonesia, on the Java Sea. Crops grown in the fertile coastal plain include sugar and rice. The city has diversified manufactures and is the seat of a private university. It was formerly the capital of a sultanate that was abolished after 1815. SW of Cirebon is the resort village of Linggajati, where in 1946 the short-lived Dutch-Indonesian agreement for the establishment of the United States of Indonesia under the Dutch crown was drafted. The name was also spelled Cheribon.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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