The Tulangbawang is a river in southern Sumatra. During the VOC era it functioned as the border between the districts of Bantam and Palembang. The area supplied the best quality pepper to the VOC. Around 1738 the Company set up an observation post on the Tulangbawang River called Valkenoog or Valkenburg for the surveillance of the Company's pepper shipments. As a result of several local uprisings around 1750 it became impossible for the VOC to store up sufficient pepper for the return trip to the Netherlands. In order to avoid delaying the fleet's departure, the VOC was forced to buy in the far more expensive Malabar pepper.
