Abstract
The Bugis sea charts are made by the Bugis living in South East Asia. The two originals discovered are known as the Madrid and the Utrecht and another miniature version called Batavia in black and white are also exist. The techniques used by the Bugis in making these maps were very much influenced by the end 17th to early 18th century European mapping knowledge and techniques. With the presence of the original maps and passed researches, the study is carried out to re-identify the physical presence of the places which was named in Lontara script in the maps and also the history it carries. The Madrid was used as the main reference material and the Utrecht as secondary and the Batavia was also used occasionally. During the course of study, evidence of the use and modification of characteristics of portolan charts were found in the Bugis maps, it further confirms that the Bugis map existence has its own value and practicality. By studying the physical presence of the name of the places in the Madrid, it helps to ascertain the time it was created. At the same time, study also find that even though the focus of all the existing Bugis maps were different but coincidently certain similarity were present. It is through these findings that it could be ascertain that these Bugis maps were created with commercial purposes in mind rather than for pirating activities.