Rāma-legends and Rāma-reliefs in Indonesia

Rāma-legends and Rāma-reliefs in Indonesia
Author: Willem Frederik Stutterheim
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
Total Pages: 82
Release: 1989
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9788170172512

The Work First Published In 1925 In The Series Der Indische Kulturkreis In Einzeldarstellungen Has Been Considered A Classic, But Has Not Been Alas Easily Accessible To The English Reading Public. Also For Long, The Work Has Been Out Of Print. With The Publication Of The English Translation Many New Vistas Of Exploration Will Immediately Open Up. It Is Remarkable That Despite The Paucity Of Published Material, The Comparative Absence Of Structural Linguistic Models For The Study Of Languages And Theoretical Paradigms, The Late Professor Stutterheim Employs The Tools Of Structural Linguistic Analysis, Comparative Literature, And Historical Reconstruction. This Is A Far More Challenging Task Than Descriptive Archaeology And Stylistic Analysis. Fundamental To This Is His Ability To Correlate And Revaluate The Relationship Between The Written Texts And Oral Transmission. While All This Is Very Familiar To Contemporary Scholarship, A Reading Of This Monograph Convinces One That Professor Stutterheim Anticipated Modern Scholarship By Many Decades. His Concern Was Not Restricted To The Archaeological Features Of This Group Of Temples But Went Much Further Into Interpretation And Identification Of The Historical Processes Of Acculturization, Diffusion And Autochthonous Tendencies. Along With The Late Professor D.C. Sen, He May Be Considered The First Scholar To Draw Attention To The Role Of The Oral Enunciation Of The Rama Legends In Different Parts Of Asia. In This Monograph He Forcefully Argues That Valmiki S Ramayana Was Not The Basis Of The Indonesian Versions And Disagrees With The Hypothesis That Kamban Provided A Model Or Even That Hanuman-Nataka Was The Original Source. He Comes To The Interesting Conclusion That Perhaps Gujarat Was The Source. Much Has Been Written On The Subject During The Past Few Decades, However, Professor Stutterheim S Argument Remains Fresh. Perhaps Scholars Will Want To Re-Explore The Sources Of The Gujarati Version Of The Ramayana As Also The Panji Stories Of Java. The Monograph Will Also Stimulate Discussion Of A Most Contemporary Concern, I.E., The Relationship Of The Text And The Image: The Adherence, The Interpretations And The Deviations. Of Late, Many Art Historians Have Been Concerned In Their Respective Ways To Analyse The Interface Of Text And Image. The Monograph Is Of Immediate Contemporary Relevance As Theoretical Model For Modern Scholarship.

Violence and Serenity

Violence and Serenity
Author: Natasha Reichle
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2007-07-26
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0824829247

The mention of Buddhism in Indonesia calls to mind for many people the Central Javanese monument of Borobudur, one of the largest Buddhist monuments in the world and the subject of extensive scholarly scrutiny. The neglect of scholarship on Buddhist art from later periods might lead one to assume that after the tenth century Buddhism had been completely eclipsed by the predominantly Hindu Eastern Javanese dynasties. Yet, as the works discussed here illustrate, extraordinary Buddhist images were still being produced as late as the fourteenth century. Violence and Serenity offers a close examination of some of the impressive works from East Java and Sumatra and explores their political and religious roles. The number of clearly identifiable Buddhist works from the Singasari and Majapahit dynasties (1222–ca. 1520) is limited, yet existing examples are impressive. They demonstrate a remarkable level of craftsmanship and are exceptionally expressive, exhibiting a range of emotions from the ferocious to the serene. Following a brief discussion of the early history of Buddhism in Indonesia, Natasha Reichle focuses each chapter on a specific statue or group of statues and considers the larger issues evoked by the images. Through a rarely examined depiction of the last Singasari king, she explores the nature of religion in Java in the late thirteenth century and what we know about tantric practices and the syncretism of Hinduism and Buddhism. She reassesses the question of portraiture in ancient Javanese art while contemplating the famous Prajñāpāramitā from Singasari. Notions of kingship are discussed in light of a number of statues depicting the Buddhist deity Amoghapāśa and his attendants and the meanings of the Amoghapāśa maṇḍala. The final chapter examines the origins and significance of one of Indonesia’s most spectacular sculptures, a four-meter-high Buddhist bhairava (demon) discovered in West Sumatra.

The Javanese Travels of Purwalelana

The Javanese Travels of Purwalelana
Author: Judith E. Bosnak
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2021-06-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000462900

The Javanese nobleman Radèn Mas Arya Candranegara V (1837–85), alias Purwalelana, journeyed across his homeland during the rapidly changing times of the nineteenth century. He travelled around 5,000 kilometres by horse and carriage between 1860 and 1875. His eye-witness account, The Travels of Purwalelana, gives an inside view of Java, at the time part of the Dutch East Indies. Candranegara explains habits and traditions of both the Javanese and the Dutch, he describes the architecture of cities and temples and he marvels about the beautiful tropical landscape as well as about the latest technological inventions such as steam trains, horse-drawn trams and gas lanterns. This Hakluyt publication, illustrated with contemporaneous images, presents the rare perspective of an Indonesian traveller living in colonial times. The author grew up as a member of a Javanese noble family in the hybrid world of the colonial upper class. He received a western-style education, but also learnt how to follow Javanese traditions and to be a good Muslim. In 1858 he was appointed to the high rank of Regent of Kudus by the colonial government. Candranegara wrote his book under the pseudonym Purwalelana, probably because he considered publishing to be an adventurous undertaking and possibly also because it gave him freedom to arrange the events in his own way. The Travels represents the first Javanese travelogue ever written and, as such, it broke with existing traditions. Candranegara used prose instead of poetry, wrote from a first-person perspective rather than a third-person, and he described present society rather than dwelling upon the common literary theme of kings in battle. The result is a lively story in which the armchair traveller shares his experiences on the road. It provides its readers with a range of people and topics pivotal to developments in nineteenth century Java, a treasure trove for historians and cultural anthropologists alike. The volume includes 24 colour illustrations.

Educating in the Arts

Educating in the Arts
Author: Lindy Joubert
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2008-06-19
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1402063873

Written by leaders in a wide range of creative fields and from all corners of the Asian region, this collection of essays presents arts and education programs which reflect traditional and contemporary practices. The volume aims to encourage the use of the arts in developing international understanding, celebrating cultural diversity, building cultural bridges and creating cross-cultural dialogue throughout the Asian region.

Patterned Splendour

Patterned Splendour
Author: Lesley Pullen
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2021-03-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 9814881856

There exist numerous free-standing figurative sculptures produced in Java between the eighth and fifteenth centuries whose dress display detailed textile patterns. This surviving body of sculpture, carved in stone and cast in metal, varying in both size and condition, remains in archaeological sites and museums in Indonesia and worldwide. The equatorial climate of Java has precluded any textiles from this period surviving. Therefore this book argues the textiles represented on these sculptures offer a unique insight into the patterned splendour of the textiles in circulation during this period. This volume contributes to our knowledge of the textiles in circulation at that time by including the first comprehensive record of this body of sculpture, together with the textile patterns classified into a typology of styles within each chapter.

Visions of Greater India

Visions of Greater India
Author: Yorim Spoelder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2023-11-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009403168

Shows how the transimperial knowledge networks of 'Greater India' energized the interwar nationalist, internationalist and anti-colonial imagination in British India.

The Multivalence of an Epic

The Multivalence of an Epic
Author: Parul Pandya Dhar
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 443
Release: 2023-10-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000991962

This volume examines The Rāmāyaṇa traditions of South India and Southeast Asia. Bringing together 19 well-known scholars in Rāmāyaṇa studies from Cambodia, Canada, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UK, and USA, this thought-provoking and elegantly illustrated volume engages with the inherent plurality, diversity, and adaptability of the Rāmāyaṇa in changing socio-political, religious, and cultural contexts. The journey and localization of the Rāmāyaṇa is explored in its manifold expressions – from classical to folk, from temples and palaces to theatres and by-lanes in cities and villages, and from ancient to modern times. Regional Rāmāyaṇas from different parts of South India and Southeast Asia are placed in deliberate juxtaposition to enable a historically informed discussion of their connected pasts across land and seas. The three parts of this volume, organized as visual, literary, and performance cultures, discuss the sculpted, painted, inscribed, written, recited, and performed Rāmāyaṇas. A related emphasis is on the way boundaries of medium and genre have been crossed in the visual, literary, and performed representations of the Rāmāyaṇa. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Sitting at the Feet of Gurus

Sitting at the Feet of Gurus
Author: Deena Burton
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2009-01-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1462835880

Deena Burton is well known for her accomplishments as a dancer, choreographer, producer, and scholar of Indonesian Arts. In the course of her research she came across the pioneering work of Claire Holt, who had written about art and culture in New York and Europe, especially the rise of Modern Dance, between the fi rst and second World Wars. During a trip to Indonesia in 1930 Claire Holt became enamored of Javanese dance. She stayed for many years, on and off, and was among the community of artists and anthropologists living in Bali at that time including Walter Spies, Colin McPhee, Miguel Covarrubias, Margaret Mead and others who were both deeply infl uenced by this ancient culture and obsessive in documenting Indonesias emergence into the 20th century. This book, which began as Deenas PhD dissertation, is a tribute to her own dedication and that of a kindred spirit - Claire Holt and their love for the arts and peoples of Indonesia. (Pictured above is a young Deena Burton beginning a masked dance).

Traces of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in Javanese and Malay Literature

Traces of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in Javanese and Malay Literature
Author: Ding Choo Ming
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2018-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9814786578

Local renderings of the two Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in Malay and Javanese literature have existed since around the ninth and tenth centuries. In the following centuries new versions were created alongside the old ones, and these opened up interesting new directions. They questioned the views of previous versions and laid different accents, in a continuous process of modernization and adaptation, successfully satisfying the curiosity of their audiences for more than a thousand years. Much of this history is still unclear. For a long time, scholarly research made little progress, due to its preoccupation with problems of origin. The present volume, going beyond identifying sources, analyses the socio-literary contexts and ideological foundations of seemingly similar contents and concepts in different periods; it examines the literary functions of borrowing and intertextual referencing, and calls upon the visual arts to illustrate the independent character of the epic tradition in Southeast Asia.