Gajah Mada

Gajah Mada (d. c. 1364) was the powerful chief minister, or Mahapatih, of the Majapahit Empire, a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom based on the island of Java that became one of the most influential states in maritime Southeast Asian history. He is traditionally credited with greatly expanding Majapahit's political and military influence across much of the Indonesian archipelago and parts of the surrounding region during the fourteenth century. According to Javanese chronicle tradition, he swore what is known as the Palapa Oath, vowing to abstain from worldly pleasures until he had brought the whole archipelago under Majapahit's influence. He remains a celebrated figure in Indonesian national history, invoked in the twentieth century as a symbol of the historical unity underlying the modern Indonesian state.