Languages.—In spite of Sundanese, Madurese and the intrusive Malay, Javanese has a right to the name. It is a rich and cultivated language which has passed through many stages of development and, under peculiar influences, has become a linguistic complex of an almost unique kind. Though it is customary and convenient to distinguish New Javanese from Kavi or Old Javanese, just as it was customary to distinguish English from Anglo-Saxon, there is no break of historical continuity. Kavi (Basa Kavi,i.e.the language of poetry) may be defined as the form spoken and written before the founding of Majapahit; and middle Javanese, still represented by the dialect of Banyumas, north Cheribon, north Krawang and north Bantam, as the form the language assumed under the Majapahit court influence; while New Javanese is the language as it has developed since the fall of that kingdom. Kavi continued to be a literary language long after it had become archaic. It contains more Sanskrit than any other language of the archipelago. New Javanese breaks up into two great varieties, so different that sometimes they are regarded as two distinct languages. The nobility use one form, Kråmå; the common people another, Ngoko, the “thouing” language (cf. Fr.tutoyant, Ger.dutzend); but each class understands the language of the other class. The aristocrat speaksto the commonalty in the language of the commoner; the commoner speaks to the aristocracy in the language of the aristocrat; and, according to clearly recognized etiquette, every Javanese plays the part of aristocrat or commoner towards those whom he addresses. To speak Ngoko to a superior is to insult him; to speak Kråmå to an equal or inferior is a mark of respect. In this way Dipå Negårå showed his contempt for the Dutch General de Kock. The ordinary Javanese thinks in Ngoko; the children use it to each other, and so on. Between the two forms there is a kind of compromise, the Madya, or middle form of speech, employed by those who stand to each other on equal or friendly footing or by those who feel little constraint of etiquette. For every idea expressed in the language Kråmå has one vocable, the Ngoko another, the two words being sometimes completely different and sometimes differing only in the termination, the beginning or the middle. Thus every Javanese uses, as it were, two or even three languages delicately differentiated from each other. How this state of affairs came about is matter of speculation. Almost certainly the existence side by side of two peoples, speaking each its own tongue, and occupying towards each other the position intellectually and politically of superior and inferior, had much to do with it. But Professor Kern thinks that some influence must also be assigned topamelaorpantang, word-taboo—certain words being in certain circumstances regarded as of evil omen—a superstition still lingering,e.g.even among the Shetland fishermen (see G. A. F. Hazeu,De taal pantangs). It has sometimes been asserted that Kråmå contains more Sanskrit words than Ngoko does; but the total number in Kråmå does not exceed 20; and sometimes there is a Sanskrit word in Ngoko which is not in Kråmå. There is a village Kråmå which is not recognized by the educated classes: Kråmå inggil, with a vocabulary of about 300 words, is used in addressing the deity or persons of exalted rank. The Basa Kedaton or court language is a dialect used by all living at court except royalties, who use Ngoko. Among themselves the women of the court employ Kråmå or Madya, but they address the men in Basa Kedaton.13Literature.—Though a considerable body of Kavi literature is still extant, nothing like a history of it is possible. The date and authorship of most of the works are totally unknown. The first place may be assigned to theBrata Yuda(Sansk.,Bharata Yudha, the conflict of the Bharatas), an epic poem dealing with the struggle between the Pandåwås and the Koråwas for the throne of Ngastina celebrated in parwas 5-10 of theMahābhārata. To the conception, however, of the modern Javanese it is a purely native poem; its kings and heroes find their place in the native history and serve as ancestors to their noble families. (Cohen Stuart published the modern Javanese version with a Dutch translation and notes,Bråtå-Joedå, &c., Samarang, 1877. The Kavi text was lithographed at the Hague by S. Lankhout.) Of greater antiquity probably is theArdjunå Wiwåhå(or marriage festival of Ardjuna), which Professor Kern thinks may be assigned to the first half of the 11th century of the Christian era. The name indicates itsMahābhārataorigin. (Friederich published the Kavi text from a Bali MS., andWiwåhå Djarwa en Bråtå Joedo Kawi, lithographed facsimiles of two palm-leaf MSS., Batavia, 1878. Djarwa is the name of the poetic diction of modern Javanese.) The oldest poem of which any trace is preserved is probably the mythologicalKåndå(i.e.tradition); the contents are to some extent known from the modern Javanese version. In the literature of modern Javanese there exists a great variety of so-calledbabadsor chronicles. It is sufficient to mention the “history” of Baron Sakender, which appears to give an account—often hardly recognizable—of the settlement of Europeans in Java (Cohen Stuart published text and translation, Batavia, 1851; J. Veth gives an analysis of the contents), and theBabad Tanah Djawi(the Hague, 1874, 1877), giving the history of the island to 1647 of the Javanese era. Even more numerous are thewayangsor puppet-plays which usually take their subjects from the Hindu legends or from those relating to the kingdoms of Majapahit and Pajajaram (seee.g.H. C. Humme,Abiåså, een Javaansche toneelstuk, the Hague, 1878). In these plays grotesque figures of gilded leather are moved by the performer, who recites the appropriate speeches and, as occasion demands, plays the part of chorus.Several Javanese specimens are also known of the beast fable, which plays so important a part in Sanskrit literature (W. Palmer van den Broek,Javaansche Vertellingen, bevattende de lotgevallen van een kantjil, een reebok, &c., the Hague, 1878). To the Hindu-Javanese literature there naturally succeeded a Mahommedan-Javanese literature consisting largely of translations or imitations of Arabic originals; it comprises religious romances, moral exhortations and mystical treatises in great variety.14Arts.—In mechanic arts the Javanese are in advance of the other peoples of the archipelago. Of thirty different crafts practised among them, the most important are those of the blacksmith or cutler, the carpenter, the kris-sheath maker, the coppersmith, the goldsmith and the potter. Their skill in the working of the metals is the more noteworthy as they have to import the raw materials. The most esteemed product of the blacksmith’s skill is the kris; every man and boy above the age of fourteen wears one at least as part of his ordinary dress, and men of rank two and sometimes four. In the finishing and adornment of the finer weapons no expense is spared; and ancient krises of good workmanship sometimes fetch enormous prices. The Javanese gold and silver work possesses considerable beauty, but there is nothing equal to the filigree of Sumatra; the brass musical instruments are of exceptional excellence. Both bricks and tiles are largely made, as well as a coarse unglazed pottery similar to that of Hindustan; but all the finer wares are imported from China. Cotton spinning, weaving and dyeing are carried on for the most part as purely domestic operations by the women. The usual mode of giving variety of colour is by weaving in stripes with a succession of different coloured yarns, but another mode is to cover with melted wax or damar the part of the cloth not intended to receive the dye. This process is naturally a slow one, and has to be repeated according to the number of colours required. As a consequence thebattiks, as the cloths thus treated are called, are in request by the wealthier classes. For the most part quiet colours are preferred. To the Javanese of the present day the ancient buildings of the Hindu periods are the work of supernatural power. Except when employed by his European master he seldom builds anything more substantial than a bamboo or timber framework; but in the details of such erections he exhibits both skill and taste. When Europeans first came to the island they found native vessels of large size well entitled to the name of ships; and, though ship-building proper is now carried on only under the direction of Europeans, boat-building is a very extensive native industry along the whole of the north coast—the boats sometimes reaching a burden of 50 tons. The only one of the higher arts which the Javanese have carried to any degree of perfection is music; and in regard to the value of their efforts in this direction Europeans differ greatly. The orchestra (gamelan) consists of wind, string and percussion instruments, the latter being in preponderancy to the other two. (Details of the instruments will be found in Raffles’Java, and a description of a performance in theTour du monde, 1880.)Chief Towns and Places of Note.—The capital of Java and of the Dutch East India possessions is Batavia (q.v.), pop. 115,567. At Meester Cornelis (pop. 33,119), between 6 and 7 m. from Batavia on the railway to Buitenzorg, the battle was fought in 1811 which placed Java in the hands of the British. In the vicinity lies Depok, originally a Christian settlement of freed slaves, but now with about 3000 Mahommedan inhabitants and only 500 Christians. The other chief towns, from west to east through the island, are as follows: Serang (pop. 5600) bears the same relation to Bantam, about 6 m. distant, which New Batavia bears to Old Batavia, its slight elevation of 100 ft. above the sea making it fitter for European occupation. Anjer (Angerlor, Anger) lies 96 m. from Batavia by rail on the coast at the narrowest part of the Sunda Strait; formerly European vessels were wont to call there for fresh provisions and water. Pandeglang (pop. 3644), 787 ft. above sea-level, is known for its hot and cold sulphur springs. About 17 m. west of Batavia lies Tangerang (pop. 13,535), a busy place with about 2800 or 3000 Chinese among its inhabitants. Buitenzorg (q.v.) is the country-seat of the governor-general, and its botanic gardens are famous. Krawang, formerly chief town of the residency of that name—the least populous of all—has lost its importance since Purwakerta (pop. 6862) was made the administrative centre. At Wanyasa in the neighbourhood the first tea plantations were attempted on a large scale.The Preanger regencies—Bandung, Chanjur, Sukabumi, Sumedang, Garut and Tasikmalaya—constitute the most important of all the residencies, though owing to their lack of harbour on the south and the intractable nature of much of their soil they have not shared in the prosperity enjoyed by many other parts of the island. Bandung, the chief town since 1864, lies 2300 ft. above sea-level, 109 m. south of Batavia by rail; it is a well-built and flourishing place (pop. 28,965; Europeans 1522, Chinese 2650) with a handsome resident’s house (1867), a large mosque (1867), a school for the sons of native men of rank, the most important quinine factory in the island, and a race-course where in July a good opportunity is afforded of seeing both the life of fashionable and official Java and the customs and costumes of the common people. The district is famous for its waterfalls, one of the most remarkable of which is where the Chi Tarum rushes through a narrow gully to leap down from the Bandung plateau. In the neighbourhood is the great military camp of Chimahi. Chanjur, formerly the chief town, in spite of its loss of administrative position still has a population of 13,599. From Sukabumi (pop. 12,112; 569 Europeans), a pleasant health resort among the hills at an altitude of 1965 ft., tourists are accustomed to visit Wijnkoopers Bay for the sake of the picturesque shore scenery. Chichalengka became after 1870 one of the centres of the coffee industry. Sumedang has only 8013 inhabitants, having declined since the railway took away the highway traffic: it is exceeded both by Garut (10,647) and by Tasikmalaya (9196), but it is a beautiful place well known to sportsmen for its proximity to the Rancha Ekek swamp, where great snipe-shooting matches areheld every year. For natural beauty few parts of Java can compare with the plain of Tasikmalaya, itself remarkable, in a country of trees, for its magnificent avenues. N.E. of the Preanger lies the residency of Cheribon15(properly Chi Rebon, the shrimp river). The chief town (pop. 24,564) is one of the most important places on the north coast, though the unhealthiness of the site has caused Europeans to settle at Tangkil, 2 m. distant. The church (1842), the regent’s residence, and the great prison are among the principal buildings; there are also extensive salt warehouses. The native part of the town is laid out more regularly than is usual, and the Chinese quarter (pop. 3352) has the finest Chinese temple in Java. The palaces of the old sultans of Cheribon are less extensive than those of Surakarta and Jokjakarta. Though the harbour has to be kept open by constant dredging the roadstead is good all the year round. A strange pleasure palace of Sultan Supeh, often described by travellers, lies about 2 m. off near Sunya Raja. Mundu, a village 4 m. south-east of Cheribon, is remarkable as the only spot on the north coast of the island visited by the ikan prut or belly-fish, a species about as large as a cod, caught in thousands and salted by the local fishermen. Indramayu, which lies on both banks of the Chi Manuk about 8 m. from the coast, is mentioned under the name of Dermayo as a port for the rice of the district and the coffee of the Preanger. The coffee trade is extinct but the rice trade is more flourishing than ever, and the town has 13,400 inhabitants, of whom 2200 are Chinese. It might have a great commercial future if money could be found for the works necessary to overcome the disadvantage of its position—the roads being safe only during the east monsoon and the river requiring to be deepened and regulated. Tegal has long been one of the chief towns of Java: commerce, native trade and industry, and fisheries are all well represented and the sugar factories give abundant employment to the inhabitants. The harbour has been the object of various improvements since 1871. The whole district is densely populated (3100 to the sq. m.) and the town proper with its 16,665 inhabitants is surrounded by extensive kampongs (Balapulang, Lebaksiu, &c.). In Pekalongan (pop. 38,211) and Batang (21,286) the most important industry is the production of battiks and stamped cloths; there are also iron-works and sugar factories. The two towns are only some 5 m. apart. The former has a large mosque, a Protestant church, an old fort and a large number of European houses. The Chinese quarters consist of neat stone or brick buildings. Pekalongan smoked ducks are well known. Brebes (13,474) on the Pamali is an important trade centre. Banyumas (5000) is the seat of a resident; it is exceeded by Purwokerto (12,610), Purbalinggo (12,094) and Chilachap (12,000). This last possesses the best harbour on the south coast, and but for malaria would have been an important place. It was chosen as the seat of a great military establishment but had to be abandoned, the fort being blown up in 1893. Semarang (pop. 89,286, of whom 4800 are Europeans and 12,372 Chinese) lies on the Kali Ngaran near the centre of the north coast. Up to 1824 the old European town was surrounded by a wall and ditch. It was almost the exact reproduction of a Dutch town without the slightest accommodation to the exigencies of the climate, the streets narrow and irregular. The modern town is well laid out. Among the more noteworthy buildings of Semarang are the old Prince of Orange fort, the resident’s house, the Roman Catholic church, the Protestant church, the mosque, the military hospital. A new impulse to the growth of the town was given by the opening of the railway to Surakarta and Jokjakarta in 1875. As a seaport the place is unfortunately situated. The river has long been silted up; the roadstead is insecure in the west monsoon. After many delays an artificial canal, begun in 1858, became available as a substitute for the river; but further works are necessary. A second great canal to the east, begun in 1896, helps to prevent inundations and thus improve the healthiness of the town. Demak, 13 m. N.E. of Semarang, though situated in a wretched region of swamps and having only 5000 inhabitants, is famous in ancient Javanese history. The mosque, erected by the first sultan of Demak, was rebuilt in 1845; only a small part of the old structure has been preserved, but as a sanctuary it attracts 6000 or 7000 pilgrims annually. To visit Demak seven times has the same ceremonial value as the pilgrimage to Mecca. The tombs of several of the sultans are still extant. Salatiga (“three stones,” with allusion to three temples now destroyed) was in early times one of the resting places of ambassadors proceeding to the court of Mataram, and in the European history of Java its name is associated with the peace of 1755 and the capitulation of 1811. It is the seat of a cavalry and artillery camp. Its population, about 10,000, seems to be declining. Ambarawa with its railway station is, on the other hand, rapidly increasing. Its population of 14,745 includes 459 Europeans. About a mile to the N. lies the fortress of Willem I. which Van den Bosch meant to make the centre of the Javanese system of defensive works; the Banyubiru military camp is in the neighbourhood. Kendal (15,000) is a centre of the sugar industry. Kudus (31,000; 4300 Chinese) has grown to be one of the most important inland towns. Its cloth and battik pedlars are known throughout the island and the success of their enterprise is evident in the style of their houses. A good trade is also carried on in cattle, kapok, copra, pottery and all sorts of small wares. The mosque in the old town has interesting remains of Majapahit architecture; and the tomb of Pangeran Kudus is a noted Mahommedan sanctuary. A steam tramway leads northward towards, but does not reach Japara, which in the 17th century was the chief port of the kingdom of Mataram and retained its commercial importance till the Dutch Company removed its establishment to Semarang. In 1818 Daendels transferred its resident to Pati. Ungaran, 1026 ft. above the sea, was a place of importance as early as the 17th century, and in modern times has become known as a sanatorium. Rembang, a well-built coast town and the seat of a resident, has grown rapidly to have a population of 29,538 with 210 Europeans. Very similar to each other are Surakarta or Solo and Jokjakarta, the chief towns of the quasi-independent states or Vorstenlanden. Surakarta (pop. 109,459; Chinese 5159, Europeans 1913) contains the palace (Kraton, locally called the Bata bumi) of the susuhunan (which the Dutch translated as emperor), the dalem of Prince Mangku Negårå, the residences of the Solo nobles, a small Dutch fort (Vastenburg), a great mosque, an old Dutch settlement, and a Protestant church. Here the susuhunan lives in Oriental pomp and state. To visitors there are few more interesting entertainments than those afforded by the celebration of the 31st of August (the birthday of the queen of the Netherlands) or of the New Year and the Puasa festivals, with their wayungs, ballet-dancers, and so on. Jokjakarta (35 m. S.) has been a great city since Mangku Bumi settled there in 1755. The Kraton has a circuit of 3½ m., and is a little town in itself with the palace proper, the residences of the ladies of the court and kampongs for the hereditary smiths, carpenters, sculptors, masons, payong-makers, musical instrument makers, &c., &c., of his highness. The independent Prince Paku Alam has a palace of his own. As in Surakarta there are an old Dutch town and a fort. The Jogka market is one of the most important of all Java, especially for jewelry. The total population is 72,235 with 1424 Europeans. To the south-east lies Pasar Gedeh, a former capital of Mataram, with tombs of the ancient princes in the Kraton, a favourite residence of wealthy Javanese traders. Surabaya (q.v.), on the strait of Madura, is the largest commercial town in Java. Its population increased from 118,000 in 1890 to 146,944 in 1900 (8906 Europeans). To the north lies Grissee or Gresih (25,688 inhabitants) with a fairly good harbour and of special interest in the early European history of Java. Inland is the considerable town of Lamongan (12,485 inhabitants). Fifteen m. S. by rail lies Sidoarjo (10,207; 185 Europeans), the centre of one of the most densely populated districts and important as a railway junction. In the neighbourhood is the populous village of Mojosari. Pasuruan was until modern times one of the chief commercial towns in Java, the staple being sugar. Since the opening of the railway to Surabaya it has greatly declined, and its warehouses and dwelling-houses are largely deserted. The population is 27,152 with 663 Europeans. Probolinggo (called by the natives Banger) is a place of 13,240 inhabitants. The swampy tracts in the vicinity are full of fishponds. The baths of Banyubiru (blue water) to the south have Hindu remains much visited by devotees. Pasirian in the far south of the residency is a considerable market town and the terminus of a branch railway. Besuki, the easternmost of all the residencies, contains several places of some importance; the chief town Bondowoso (8289); Besuki, about the same size, but with no foreign trade; Jember, a small but rapidly increasing place, and Banyuwangi (17,559). This last was at one time the seat of the resident, now the eastern terminus of the railway system, and is a seaport on the Bali Strait with an important office of the telegraph company controlling communication with Port Darwin and Singapore. It has a very mingled population, besides Javanese and Madurese, Chinese and Arabs, Balinese, Buginese and Europeans. The chief town of Kediri (10,489) is the only residency town in the interior traversed by a navigable river, and is exceeded by Tulungagung; and the residency of Madiun has two considerable centres of population: Madiun (21,168) and Ponorogo (16,765).Agriculture.—About 40% of the soil of Java is under cultivation. Bantam and Besuki have each 16% of land under cultivation; Krawang, 21%; Preanger, 23%; Rembang, 30%; Japara, 62%; Surabaya, 65%; Kedu, 66%; Samarang, 67%. Proceeding along the south coast from its west end, we find that in Bantam all the land cultivated on its south shore amounts to at most but 5% of that regency; in Preanger and Banyumas, as far as Chilachap, the land under cultivation amounts at a maximum to 20%. East of Surakarta the percentages of land on the south coast under cultivation decline from 30 to 20 and 10. East of the residency of Probolinggo the percentage of land cultivated on the south coast sinks to as low as 2. On the north coast, in Krawang and Rembang, with their morasses and double chains of chalk, there are districts with only 20% and 10% of the soil under cultivation. In the residencies, on the other hand, of Batavia, Cheribon, Tegal, Samarang, Japara, Surabaya and Pasuruan, there are districts having 80% to 90% of soil, and even more, under cultivation.The agricultural products of Java must be distinguished into those raised by the natives for their own use and those raised for the government and private proprietors. The land assigned to thenatives for their own culture and use amounts to about 9,625,000 acres. In western Java the prevailing crop is rice, less prominently cultivated in middle Java, while in eastern Java and Madura other articles of food take the first rank. The Javanese tell strange legends concerning the introduction of rice, and observe various ceremonies in connexion with its planting, paying more regard to them than to the proper cultivation of the cereal. The agricultural produce grown on the lands of the government and private proprietors, comprising an area of about 3½ million acres, consists of sugar, cinchona, coffee, tobacco, tea, indigo, &c. The Javanese possess buffaloes, ordinary cattle, horses, dogs and cats. The buffalo was probably introduced by the Hindus. As in agricultural products, so also in cattle-rearing, western Java is distinguished from middle and eastern Java. The average distribution of buffaloes is 106 per 1000 inhabitants, but it varies considerably in different districts, being greatest in western Java. The fact that rice is the prevailing culture in the west, while in eastern Java other plants constitute the chief produce, explains the larger number of buffaloes found in western Java, these animals being more in requisition in the culture of rice. The ordinary cattle are of mixed race; the Indian zebu having been crossed with the banting and with European cattle of miscellaneous origin. The horses, though small, are of excellent character, and their masters, according to their own ideas, are extremely particular in regard to purity of race. Riding comes naturally to the Javanese; horse-races and tournays have been in vogue among them from early times.Coffee is an alien in Java. Specimens brought in 1696 from Cannanore on the Malabar coast perished in an earthquake and floods in 1699; the effective introduction of the precious shrub was due to Hendrik Zwaardekron (see N. P. van den Berg, “Voortbrenging en verbruck van koffie,”Tijdschrift v. Nijverh. en Landb.1879; and the article “Koffie” inEncyc. Ned. Ind.Wiji kawih is mentioned in a Kavi inscription ofA.D.856, and the bean-broth in David Tappen’s list of Javanese beverages, 1667-1682, may have been coffee). The first consignment of coffee (894 ℔) to the Netherlands was made in 1711-1712, but it was not till after 1721 that the yearly exports reached any considerable amount. The aggregate quantity sold in the home market from 1711 to 1791 was 2,036,437 piculs, or on an average about 143 tons per annum; and this probably represented nearly the whole production of the island. By the beginning of the 19th century the annual production was about 7143 tons and after the introduction of the Van den Bosch system of forced culture a further augmentation was effected. The forced culture system was, in 1909, however, of little importance. Official reports show that from 1840 to 1873 the amount ranged from 5226 tons to 7354. During the ten years 1869 to 1878 the average crop of the plantations under state control was 5226 tons, that of the private planters about 810. The government has shown a strange reluctance to surrender the old-fashioned monopoly, but the spirit of private enterprise has slowly gained the day. Though the appearance of the coffee blight (Hemileia vastatrix) almost ruined the industry the planters did not give in. An immune variety was introduced from Liberia, and scientific methods of treatment have been adopted in dealing with the plantations. In 1887, a record year, the value of the coffee crop reached £3,083,333, and at its average it was about £1,750,000 between 1886 and 1895. The value was only £1,166,666 in 1896. The greatest difficulties are the uncertainties both of the crop and of its marketable value. The former is well shown in the figures for 1903 to 1905; government 17,900, 3949 and 3511 tons, and private planters 22,395, 15,311 and 21,395 tons. Liberia coffee is still produced in much smaller quantity than Java coffee; the latter on an average of these three years 21,360 tons; the former 7409.The cultivation of sugar has been long carried on in Java, and since the decline of the coffee plantations it has developed into the leading industry of the island. There are experimental stations at Pasuruan, Pekalongan and elsewhere, where attempts are made to overcome the many diseases to which the cane is subject. Many of the mills are equipped with high-class machinery and produce sugar of excellent colour and grain. In 1853-1857 the average crop was 98,094 tons; in 1869-1873, 170,831, and in 1875-1880, 204,678. By 1899-1900 the average had risen to 787,673 tons; and the crops for 1904 and 1905 were respectively 1,064,935 and 1,028,357 tons. Prices fluctuate, but the value of the harvest of 1905 was estimated at about £15,000,000.The cultivation of indigo shows a strange vitality. Under the culture system the natives found this the most oppressive of all the state crops. The modern chemist at one time seemed to have killed the industry by his synthetic substitute, but in every year between 1899 and 1904 Java exported between one million and one and a half million pounds of the natural product. Japan and Russia were the largest buyers. As blue is a favourite colour with the Javanese proper a large quantity is used at home.Tea was first introduced to Java by the Japanese scholar von Siebold in 1826. The culture was undertaken by the state in 1829 with plants from China, but in 1842 they handed it over to contractors, whose attempts to increase their profits by delivering an inferior article ultimately led to the abandonment of the contract system in 1860. In the meantime the basis of a better state of the industry had been laid by the Dutch tea-taster J. J. L. L. Jacobsen of the Nederlandsch Handel Maatschappij, who introduced not only fresh stock, but expert growers from China in 1852-1853. The tea-planters (often taking possession of the abandoned coffee-plantations) have greatly improved the quality of their products. Assam tea was introduced in 1878, and this has rapidly extended its area. The exports increased from 12,110,724 ℔ in 1898 to 25,772,564 in 1905. More than half the total goes to the Netherlands; the United Kingdom ranks next, and, far behind both, Russia.In 1854 the government introduced the culture of cinchona with free labour, and it had considerable success under F. Junghuhn and his successors, though the varieties grown were of inferior quality. Later seed of the best cinchona was obtained, and under skilful management Java has become the chief producer of quinine in the world. Cacao is produced in the Preanger regencies, Pekalongan, Semarang, Pasuruan, Besuki, Kediri and Surakarta. In 1903, a record year, 1,101,835 piculs (about 6540 tons) were produced.Broussonetia papyriferais grown for the sake of its bark, so well known in Japan (Jap.kodsu) as a paper material. The ground-nut (the widely spreadArachis hypogaeafrom South America), locally known as kachang china or tanah, is somewhat extensively grown. The oil is exported to Holland, where it is sold as Delft salad oil. Tapioca has long been cultivated, especially in the Preanger. The industry is mainly in the hands of the Chinese, and the principal foreign purchasers are English biscuit manufacturers. The kapok is a tree from tropical America which, growing freely in any soil, is extensively used throughout Java along the highways as a support for telegraph and telephone wires, and planted as a prop in pepper and cubeb plantations. The silky fibre contained in its long capsuloid fruits is known as cotton wool; and among other uses it serves almost as well as cork for filling life-belts; and the oil from its seed is employed to adulterate ground-nut oil. The quantity of wool exported nearly trebled between 1890 and 1896, in the latter year the total sent to Holland, Australia, Singapore, &c., amounting to 38,586 bales. The rapid exhaustion of the natural supply of india-rubber and gutta-percha began to attract the attention of government in the latter decades of the 19th century. Extensive experiments have been made in the cultivation ofFicus elastica(the karet of the natives),Castilloa elastica, andHevea brasiliensis. The planting of gutta-percha trees was begun about 1886, and a regular system introduced in the Preanger in 1901. ThePalaquium oblongifoliumplantations at Blavan, Kemutuk and Sewang in Banyumas have also been brought under official control. Java tobacco, amounting to about 35,200,000 ℔ a year, is cultivated almost exclusively in eastern Java. Among other products which are of some importance as articles of export may be mentioned nutmegs, mace, pepper, hides, arrack and copra.Particular Lands.—At different times down to 1830 the government disposed of its lands in full property to individuals who, acquiring complete control of the inhabitants as well as of the soil, continued down to the 19th century to act as if they were independent of all superior authority. In this way more than 1½ millions of the people were subject not to the state but to “stock companies, absentee landlords and Chinese.” According to theRegeerings Almanak(1906) these “particular lands,” as they are called, were distributed as follows: Bantam 21, Batavia 36, Meester Cornelis 163, Tangerang 80, Buitenzorg 61, Semarang 32, Surabaya 46, Krawang and Demak 3 each, Cheribon 2, and Pekalongan, Kendal and Pasuruan 1 each. In Meester Cornelis no fewer than 297,912 persons were returned in 1905 as living on these lands. Of the 168 estates there are not 20 that grow anything but grass, rice and coconuts. In Buitenzorg (thanks probably to the Botanic Gardens) matters are better: tea, coffee, cinchona and india-rubber appearing amongst the objects of cultivation; and, in general, it must be noted that these estates have often natural difficulties to contend against far beyond their financial strength.Minerals.—Of all the great islands of the archipelago Java is the poorest in metallic ores. Gold and silver are practically nonexistent. Manganese is found in Jokjakarta and various other parts. A concession for working the magnetic iron sands in the neighbourhood of Chilachap was granted in 1904. Coal occurs in thin strata and small pockets in many parts (Bantam, Rembang, Jokjakarta, &c.); and in 1905 a concession was granted to a company to work the coal-beds at Bajah close to the harbour of Wijnkoopers Bay, a port of call of the Koninklijk Paketvaart Maatschappij. The discovery by De Groot in 1863 of petroleum added a most important industry to the list of the resources of Java. The great Dort Petroleum Company, now centred at Amsterdam, was founded in 1887. The production of this company alone rose from 79,179kistenor cases (each 8.14 gall.) in 1891 to 1,642,780 in 1890, and to 1,967,124 in 1905. In 1904 there were no fewer than 36 concessions for petroleum. At the same time there is a larger importation of oil from Sumatra as well as from America and Russia. Sulphur is regularly worked in the Gunong Slamet, G. Sindoro, G. Sumbing, and in the crater of the Tangkuban Prahu as well as in other places in the Preanger regencies and in Pasuruan. Brine-wells exist in various parts. The bledegs (salt-mud wells) of Grobogan in the Solo Valley, Semarang, are best known. They rise from Miocene strata and yield iodine and bromine products as well as common salt. The natives of the district are allowed to extract the salt for their own use, but elsewhere (except in Jokjakarta) the manufactureof salt is a government monopoly and confined to the districts of Sumenep, Panekasan and Sampang in Madura, where from 3000 to 4000 people are hereditarily engaged in extracting salt from sea water, delivering it to the government at the rate of 10 fl. (nearly 17s.) per koyang (3700 ℔). The distribution of this salt (rough-grained, greyish and highly hygroscopic) is extremely unsatisfactory. The waste was so great that in 1901 the government paid a prize of about £835 (10,000 fl.) to Karl Boltz von Bolzberg for an improved method of packing. Between 1888 and 1892 the annual amount delivered was 71,405 tons; in the next five years it rose to 89,932; and between 1898 and 1902 sank again to 88,856. The evil effects of this monopoly have been investigated by J. E. de Meyer, “Zout als middel van belasting,”De Ind. Gids.(1905). The scarcity of salt has led to a great importation of salted fish from Siam (upwards of 6600 tons in 1902).Communications.—Roads and railways for the most part follow the fertile plains and table-lands along the coast and between the volcanic areas. The principal railways are the Semarang-Jokjakarta and Batavia-Buitenzorg lines of the Netherlands-Indian railway company, and the Surabaya-Pasuruan, Bangil-Mulang, Sidoarjo-Paron, Kertosono-Tulung Agung, Buitenzorg-Chianjur, Surakarta-Madiun, Pasuruan-Probolinggo, Jokjakarta-Chilachap and other lines of the government. The earliest lines, between Batavia and Buitenzorg and between Semarang and the capitals of the sultanates, were built about 1870 by a private company with a state guarantee. Since 1875, when Dr van Goltstein, then a cabinet minister and afterwards Dutch minister in London, had an act passed for the construction of state railways in Java, their progress has become much more rapid. In addition, several private companies have built either light railways or tramways, such as that between Semarang and Joana, and the total length of all lines was 2460 in 1905. There are some 3500 miles of telegraph line, and cables connect Java with Madura, Bali and Sumatra, and Port Darwin in Australia. Material welfare was promoted by the establishment of lines of steamships between Java and the other islands, all belonging to a Royal Packet Company, established in 1888 under a special statute, and virtually possessing a monopoly on account of the government mail contracts.Administration.—Each village (dessa) forms an independent community, a group of dessas forms a district, a group of districts a department and a group of departments a residency, of which there are seventeen. At the head of each residency is a resident, with an assistant resident and a controller, all Dutch officials. The officials of the departments and districts are natives appointed by the government; those of the dessa are also natives, elected by the inhabitants and approved by the resident. In the two sultanates of Surakarta and Jokjakarta the native sultans govern under the supervision of the residents. (For the colonial administration of Netherlands India seeMalay Archipelago.)
Languages.—In spite of Sundanese, Madurese and the intrusive Malay, Javanese has a right to the name. It is a rich and cultivated language which has passed through many stages of development and, under peculiar influences, has become a linguistic complex of an almost unique kind. Though it is customary and convenient to distinguish New Javanese from Kavi or Old Javanese, just as it was customary to distinguish English from Anglo-Saxon, there is no break of historical continuity. Kavi (Basa Kavi,i.e.the language of poetry) may be defined as the form spoken and written before the founding of Majapahit; and middle Javanese, still represented by the dialect of Banyumas, north Cheribon, north Krawang and north Bantam, as the form the language assumed under the Majapahit court influence; while New Javanese is the language as it has developed since the fall of that kingdom. Kavi continued to be a literary language long after it had become archaic. It contains more Sanskrit than any other language of the archipelago. New Javanese breaks up into two great varieties, so different that sometimes they are regarded as two distinct languages. The nobility use one form, Kråmå; the common people another, Ngoko, the “thouing” language (cf. Fr.tutoyant, Ger.dutzend); but each class understands the language of the other class. The aristocrat speaksto the commonalty in the language of the commoner; the commoner speaks to the aristocracy in the language of the aristocrat; and, according to clearly recognized etiquette, every Javanese plays the part of aristocrat or commoner towards those whom he addresses. To speak Ngoko to a superior is to insult him; to speak Kråmå to an equal or inferior is a mark of respect. In this way Dipå Negårå showed his contempt for the Dutch General de Kock. The ordinary Javanese thinks in Ngoko; the children use it to each other, and so on. Between the two forms there is a kind of compromise, the Madya, or middle form of speech, employed by those who stand to each other on equal or friendly footing or by those who feel little constraint of etiquette. For every idea expressed in the language Kråmå has one vocable, the Ngoko another, the two words being sometimes completely different and sometimes differing only in the termination, the beginning or the middle. Thus every Javanese uses, as it were, two or even three languages delicately differentiated from each other. How this state of affairs came about is matter of speculation. Almost certainly the existence side by side of two peoples, speaking each its own tongue, and occupying towards each other the position intellectually and politically of superior and inferior, had much to do with it. But Professor Kern thinks that some influence must also be assigned topamelaorpantang, word-taboo—certain words being in certain circumstances regarded as of evil omen—a superstition still lingering,e.g.even among the Shetland fishermen (see G. A. F. Hazeu,De taal pantangs). It has sometimes been asserted that Kråmå contains more Sanskrit words than Ngoko does; but the total number in Kråmå does not exceed 20; and sometimes there is a Sanskrit word in Ngoko which is not in Kråmå. There is a village Kråmå which is not recognized by the educated classes: Kråmå inggil, with a vocabulary of about 300 words, is used in addressing the deity or persons of exalted rank. The Basa Kedaton or court language is a dialect used by all living at court except royalties, who use Ngoko. Among themselves the women of the court employ Kråmå or Madya, but they address the men in Basa Kedaton.13
Literature.—Though a considerable body of Kavi literature is still extant, nothing like a history of it is possible. The date and authorship of most of the works are totally unknown. The first place may be assigned to theBrata Yuda(Sansk.,Bharata Yudha, the conflict of the Bharatas), an epic poem dealing with the struggle between the Pandåwås and the Koråwas for the throne of Ngastina celebrated in parwas 5-10 of theMahābhārata. To the conception, however, of the modern Javanese it is a purely native poem; its kings and heroes find their place in the native history and serve as ancestors to their noble families. (Cohen Stuart published the modern Javanese version with a Dutch translation and notes,Bråtå-Joedå, &c., Samarang, 1877. The Kavi text was lithographed at the Hague by S. Lankhout.) Of greater antiquity probably is theArdjunå Wiwåhå(or marriage festival of Ardjuna), which Professor Kern thinks may be assigned to the first half of the 11th century of the Christian era. The name indicates itsMahābhārataorigin. (Friederich published the Kavi text from a Bali MS., andWiwåhå Djarwa en Bråtå Joedo Kawi, lithographed facsimiles of two palm-leaf MSS., Batavia, 1878. Djarwa is the name of the poetic diction of modern Javanese.) The oldest poem of which any trace is preserved is probably the mythologicalKåndå(i.e.tradition); the contents are to some extent known from the modern Javanese version. In the literature of modern Javanese there exists a great variety of so-calledbabadsor chronicles. It is sufficient to mention the “history” of Baron Sakender, which appears to give an account—often hardly recognizable—of the settlement of Europeans in Java (Cohen Stuart published text and translation, Batavia, 1851; J. Veth gives an analysis of the contents), and theBabad Tanah Djawi(the Hague, 1874, 1877), giving the history of the island to 1647 of the Javanese era. Even more numerous are thewayangsor puppet-plays which usually take their subjects from the Hindu legends or from those relating to the kingdoms of Majapahit and Pajajaram (seee.g.H. C. Humme,Abiåså, een Javaansche toneelstuk, the Hague, 1878). In these plays grotesque figures of gilded leather are moved by the performer, who recites the appropriate speeches and, as occasion demands, plays the part of chorus.
Several Javanese specimens are also known of the beast fable, which plays so important a part in Sanskrit literature (W. Palmer van den Broek,Javaansche Vertellingen, bevattende de lotgevallen van een kantjil, een reebok, &c., the Hague, 1878). To the Hindu-Javanese literature there naturally succeeded a Mahommedan-Javanese literature consisting largely of translations or imitations of Arabic originals; it comprises religious romances, moral exhortations and mystical treatises in great variety.14
Arts.—In mechanic arts the Javanese are in advance of the other peoples of the archipelago. Of thirty different crafts practised among them, the most important are those of the blacksmith or cutler, the carpenter, the kris-sheath maker, the coppersmith, the goldsmith and the potter. Their skill in the working of the metals is the more noteworthy as they have to import the raw materials. The most esteemed product of the blacksmith’s skill is the kris; every man and boy above the age of fourteen wears one at least as part of his ordinary dress, and men of rank two and sometimes four. In the finishing and adornment of the finer weapons no expense is spared; and ancient krises of good workmanship sometimes fetch enormous prices. The Javanese gold and silver work possesses considerable beauty, but there is nothing equal to the filigree of Sumatra; the brass musical instruments are of exceptional excellence. Both bricks and tiles are largely made, as well as a coarse unglazed pottery similar to that of Hindustan; but all the finer wares are imported from China. Cotton spinning, weaving and dyeing are carried on for the most part as purely domestic operations by the women. The usual mode of giving variety of colour is by weaving in stripes with a succession of different coloured yarns, but another mode is to cover with melted wax or damar the part of the cloth not intended to receive the dye. This process is naturally a slow one, and has to be repeated according to the number of colours required. As a consequence thebattiks, as the cloths thus treated are called, are in request by the wealthier classes. For the most part quiet colours are preferred. To the Javanese of the present day the ancient buildings of the Hindu periods are the work of supernatural power. Except when employed by his European master he seldom builds anything more substantial than a bamboo or timber framework; but in the details of such erections he exhibits both skill and taste. When Europeans first came to the island they found native vessels of large size well entitled to the name of ships; and, though ship-building proper is now carried on only under the direction of Europeans, boat-building is a very extensive native industry along the whole of the north coast—the boats sometimes reaching a burden of 50 tons. The only one of the higher arts which the Javanese have carried to any degree of perfection is music; and in regard to the value of their efforts in this direction Europeans differ greatly. The orchestra (gamelan) consists of wind, string and percussion instruments, the latter being in preponderancy to the other two. (Details of the instruments will be found in Raffles’Java, and a description of a performance in theTour du monde, 1880.)
Chief Towns and Places of Note.—The capital of Java and of the Dutch East India possessions is Batavia (q.v.), pop. 115,567. At Meester Cornelis (pop. 33,119), between 6 and 7 m. from Batavia on the railway to Buitenzorg, the battle was fought in 1811 which placed Java in the hands of the British. In the vicinity lies Depok, originally a Christian settlement of freed slaves, but now with about 3000 Mahommedan inhabitants and only 500 Christians. The other chief towns, from west to east through the island, are as follows: Serang (pop. 5600) bears the same relation to Bantam, about 6 m. distant, which New Batavia bears to Old Batavia, its slight elevation of 100 ft. above the sea making it fitter for European occupation. Anjer (Angerlor, Anger) lies 96 m. from Batavia by rail on the coast at the narrowest part of the Sunda Strait; formerly European vessels were wont to call there for fresh provisions and water. Pandeglang (pop. 3644), 787 ft. above sea-level, is known for its hot and cold sulphur springs. About 17 m. west of Batavia lies Tangerang (pop. 13,535), a busy place with about 2800 or 3000 Chinese among its inhabitants. Buitenzorg (q.v.) is the country-seat of the governor-general, and its botanic gardens are famous. Krawang, formerly chief town of the residency of that name—the least populous of all—has lost its importance since Purwakerta (pop. 6862) was made the administrative centre. At Wanyasa in the neighbourhood the first tea plantations were attempted on a large scale.
The Preanger regencies—Bandung, Chanjur, Sukabumi, Sumedang, Garut and Tasikmalaya—constitute the most important of all the residencies, though owing to their lack of harbour on the south and the intractable nature of much of their soil they have not shared in the prosperity enjoyed by many other parts of the island. Bandung, the chief town since 1864, lies 2300 ft. above sea-level, 109 m. south of Batavia by rail; it is a well-built and flourishing place (pop. 28,965; Europeans 1522, Chinese 2650) with a handsome resident’s house (1867), a large mosque (1867), a school for the sons of native men of rank, the most important quinine factory in the island, and a race-course where in July a good opportunity is afforded of seeing both the life of fashionable and official Java and the customs and costumes of the common people. The district is famous for its waterfalls, one of the most remarkable of which is where the Chi Tarum rushes through a narrow gully to leap down from the Bandung plateau. In the neighbourhood is the great military camp of Chimahi. Chanjur, formerly the chief town, in spite of its loss of administrative position still has a population of 13,599. From Sukabumi (pop. 12,112; 569 Europeans), a pleasant health resort among the hills at an altitude of 1965 ft., tourists are accustomed to visit Wijnkoopers Bay for the sake of the picturesque shore scenery. Chichalengka became after 1870 one of the centres of the coffee industry. Sumedang has only 8013 inhabitants, having declined since the railway took away the highway traffic: it is exceeded both by Garut (10,647) and by Tasikmalaya (9196), but it is a beautiful place well known to sportsmen for its proximity to the Rancha Ekek swamp, where great snipe-shooting matches areheld every year. For natural beauty few parts of Java can compare with the plain of Tasikmalaya, itself remarkable, in a country of trees, for its magnificent avenues. N.E. of the Preanger lies the residency of Cheribon15(properly Chi Rebon, the shrimp river). The chief town (pop. 24,564) is one of the most important places on the north coast, though the unhealthiness of the site has caused Europeans to settle at Tangkil, 2 m. distant. The church (1842), the regent’s residence, and the great prison are among the principal buildings; there are also extensive salt warehouses. The native part of the town is laid out more regularly than is usual, and the Chinese quarter (pop. 3352) has the finest Chinese temple in Java. The palaces of the old sultans of Cheribon are less extensive than those of Surakarta and Jokjakarta. Though the harbour has to be kept open by constant dredging the roadstead is good all the year round. A strange pleasure palace of Sultan Supeh, often described by travellers, lies about 2 m. off near Sunya Raja. Mundu, a village 4 m. south-east of Cheribon, is remarkable as the only spot on the north coast of the island visited by the ikan prut or belly-fish, a species about as large as a cod, caught in thousands and salted by the local fishermen. Indramayu, which lies on both banks of the Chi Manuk about 8 m. from the coast, is mentioned under the name of Dermayo as a port for the rice of the district and the coffee of the Preanger. The coffee trade is extinct but the rice trade is more flourishing than ever, and the town has 13,400 inhabitants, of whom 2200 are Chinese. It might have a great commercial future if money could be found for the works necessary to overcome the disadvantage of its position—the roads being safe only during the east monsoon and the river requiring to be deepened and regulated. Tegal has long been one of the chief towns of Java: commerce, native trade and industry, and fisheries are all well represented and the sugar factories give abundant employment to the inhabitants. The harbour has been the object of various improvements since 1871. The whole district is densely populated (3100 to the sq. m.) and the town proper with its 16,665 inhabitants is surrounded by extensive kampongs (Balapulang, Lebaksiu, &c.). In Pekalongan (pop. 38,211) and Batang (21,286) the most important industry is the production of battiks and stamped cloths; there are also iron-works and sugar factories. The two towns are only some 5 m. apart. The former has a large mosque, a Protestant church, an old fort and a large number of European houses. The Chinese quarters consist of neat stone or brick buildings. Pekalongan smoked ducks are well known. Brebes (13,474) on the Pamali is an important trade centre. Banyumas (5000) is the seat of a resident; it is exceeded by Purwokerto (12,610), Purbalinggo (12,094) and Chilachap (12,000). This last possesses the best harbour on the south coast, and but for malaria would have been an important place. It was chosen as the seat of a great military establishment but had to be abandoned, the fort being blown up in 1893. Semarang (pop. 89,286, of whom 4800 are Europeans and 12,372 Chinese) lies on the Kali Ngaran near the centre of the north coast. Up to 1824 the old European town was surrounded by a wall and ditch. It was almost the exact reproduction of a Dutch town without the slightest accommodation to the exigencies of the climate, the streets narrow and irregular. The modern town is well laid out. Among the more noteworthy buildings of Semarang are the old Prince of Orange fort, the resident’s house, the Roman Catholic church, the Protestant church, the mosque, the military hospital. A new impulse to the growth of the town was given by the opening of the railway to Surakarta and Jokjakarta in 1875. As a seaport the place is unfortunately situated. The river has long been silted up; the roadstead is insecure in the west monsoon. After many delays an artificial canal, begun in 1858, became available as a substitute for the river; but further works are necessary. A second great canal to the east, begun in 1896, helps to prevent inundations and thus improve the healthiness of the town. Demak, 13 m. N.E. of Semarang, though situated in a wretched region of swamps and having only 5000 inhabitants, is famous in ancient Javanese history. The mosque, erected by the first sultan of Demak, was rebuilt in 1845; only a small part of the old structure has been preserved, but as a sanctuary it attracts 6000 or 7000 pilgrims annually. To visit Demak seven times has the same ceremonial value as the pilgrimage to Mecca. The tombs of several of the sultans are still extant. Salatiga (“three stones,” with allusion to three temples now destroyed) was in early times one of the resting places of ambassadors proceeding to the court of Mataram, and in the European history of Java its name is associated with the peace of 1755 and the capitulation of 1811. It is the seat of a cavalry and artillery camp. Its population, about 10,000, seems to be declining. Ambarawa with its railway station is, on the other hand, rapidly increasing. Its population of 14,745 includes 459 Europeans. About a mile to the N. lies the fortress of Willem I. which Van den Bosch meant to make the centre of the Javanese system of defensive works; the Banyubiru military camp is in the neighbourhood. Kendal (15,000) is a centre of the sugar industry. Kudus (31,000; 4300 Chinese) has grown to be one of the most important inland towns. Its cloth and battik pedlars are known throughout the island and the success of their enterprise is evident in the style of their houses. A good trade is also carried on in cattle, kapok, copra, pottery and all sorts of small wares. The mosque in the old town has interesting remains of Majapahit architecture; and the tomb of Pangeran Kudus is a noted Mahommedan sanctuary. A steam tramway leads northward towards, but does not reach Japara, which in the 17th century was the chief port of the kingdom of Mataram and retained its commercial importance till the Dutch Company removed its establishment to Semarang. In 1818 Daendels transferred its resident to Pati. Ungaran, 1026 ft. above the sea, was a place of importance as early as the 17th century, and in modern times has become known as a sanatorium. Rembang, a well-built coast town and the seat of a resident, has grown rapidly to have a population of 29,538 with 210 Europeans. Very similar to each other are Surakarta or Solo and Jokjakarta, the chief towns of the quasi-independent states or Vorstenlanden. Surakarta (pop. 109,459; Chinese 5159, Europeans 1913) contains the palace (Kraton, locally called the Bata bumi) of the susuhunan (which the Dutch translated as emperor), the dalem of Prince Mangku Negårå, the residences of the Solo nobles, a small Dutch fort (Vastenburg), a great mosque, an old Dutch settlement, and a Protestant church. Here the susuhunan lives in Oriental pomp and state. To visitors there are few more interesting entertainments than those afforded by the celebration of the 31st of August (the birthday of the queen of the Netherlands) or of the New Year and the Puasa festivals, with their wayungs, ballet-dancers, and so on. Jokjakarta (35 m. S.) has been a great city since Mangku Bumi settled there in 1755. The Kraton has a circuit of 3½ m., and is a little town in itself with the palace proper, the residences of the ladies of the court and kampongs for the hereditary smiths, carpenters, sculptors, masons, payong-makers, musical instrument makers, &c., &c., of his highness. The independent Prince Paku Alam has a palace of his own. As in Surakarta there are an old Dutch town and a fort. The Jogka market is one of the most important of all Java, especially for jewelry. The total population is 72,235 with 1424 Europeans. To the south-east lies Pasar Gedeh, a former capital of Mataram, with tombs of the ancient princes in the Kraton, a favourite residence of wealthy Javanese traders. Surabaya (q.v.), on the strait of Madura, is the largest commercial town in Java. Its population increased from 118,000 in 1890 to 146,944 in 1900 (8906 Europeans). To the north lies Grissee or Gresih (25,688 inhabitants) with a fairly good harbour and of special interest in the early European history of Java. Inland is the considerable town of Lamongan (12,485 inhabitants). Fifteen m. S. by rail lies Sidoarjo (10,207; 185 Europeans), the centre of one of the most densely populated districts and important as a railway junction. In the neighbourhood is the populous village of Mojosari. Pasuruan was until modern times one of the chief commercial towns in Java, the staple being sugar. Since the opening of the railway to Surabaya it has greatly declined, and its warehouses and dwelling-houses are largely deserted. The population is 27,152 with 663 Europeans. Probolinggo (called by the natives Banger) is a place of 13,240 inhabitants. The swampy tracts in the vicinity are full of fishponds. The baths of Banyubiru (blue water) to the south have Hindu remains much visited by devotees. Pasirian in the far south of the residency is a considerable market town and the terminus of a branch railway. Besuki, the easternmost of all the residencies, contains several places of some importance; the chief town Bondowoso (8289); Besuki, about the same size, but with no foreign trade; Jember, a small but rapidly increasing place, and Banyuwangi (17,559). This last was at one time the seat of the resident, now the eastern terminus of the railway system, and is a seaport on the Bali Strait with an important office of the telegraph company controlling communication with Port Darwin and Singapore. It has a very mingled population, besides Javanese and Madurese, Chinese and Arabs, Balinese, Buginese and Europeans. The chief town of Kediri (10,489) is the only residency town in the interior traversed by a navigable river, and is exceeded by Tulungagung; and the residency of Madiun has two considerable centres of population: Madiun (21,168) and Ponorogo (16,765).
Agriculture.—About 40% of the soil of Java is under cultivation. Bantam and Besuki have each 16% of land under cultivation; Krawang, 21%; Preanger, 23%; Rembang, 30%; Japara, 62%; Surabaya, 65%; Kedu, 66%; Samarang, 67%. Proceeding along the south coast from its west end, we find that in Bantam all the land cultivated on its south shore amounts to at most but 5% of that regency; in Preanger and Banyumas, as far as Chilachap, the land under cultivation amounts at a maximum to 20%. East of Surakarta the percentages of land on the south coast under cultivation decline from 30 to 20 and 10. East of the residency of Probolinggo the percentage of land cultivated on the south coast sinks to as low as 2. On the north coast, in Krawang and Rembang, with their morasses and double chains of chalk, there are districts with only 20% and 10% of the soil under cultivation. In the residencies, on the other hand, of Batavia, Cheribon, Tegal, Samarang, Japara, Surabaya and Pasuruan, there are districts having 80% to 90% of soil, and even more, under cultivation.
The agricultural products of Java must be distinguished into those raised by the natives for their own use and those raised for the government and private proprietors. The land assigned to thenatives for their own culture and use amounts to about 9,625,000 acres. In western Java the prevailing crop is rice, less prominently cultivated in middle Java, while in eastern Java and Madura other articles of food take the first rank. The Javanese tell strange legends concerning the introduction of rice, and observe various ceremonies in connexion with its planting, paying more regard to them than to the proper cultivation of the cereal. The agricultural produce grown on the lands of the government and private proprietors, comprising an area of about 3½ million acres, consists of sugar, cinchona, coffee, tobacco, tea, indigo, &c. The Javanese possess buffaloes, ordinary cattle, horses, dogs and cats. The buffalo was probably introduced by the Hindus. As in agricultural products, so also in cattle-rearing, western Java is distinguished from middle and eastern Java. The average distribution of buffaloes is 106 per 1000 inhabitants, but it varies considerably in different districts, being greatest in western Java. The fact that rice is the prevailing culture in the west, while in eastern Java other plants constitute the chief produce, explains the larger number of buffaloes found in western Java, these animals being more in requisition in the culture of rice. The ordinary cattle are of mixed race; the Indian zebu having been crossed with the banting and with European cattle of miscellaneous origin. The horses, though small, are of excellent character, and their masters, according to their own ideas, are extremely particular in regard to purity of race. Riding comes naturally to the Javanese; horse-races and tournays have been in vogue among them from early times.
Coffee is an alien in Java. Specimens brought in 1696 from Cannanore on the Malabar coast perished in an earthquake and floods in 1699; the effective introduction of the precious shrub was due to Hendrik Zwaardekron (see N. P. van den Berg, “Voortbrenging en verbruck van koffie,”Tijdschrift v. Nijverh. en Landb.1879; and the article “Koffie” inEncyc. Ned. Ind.Wiji kawih is mentioned in a Kavi inscription ofA.D.856, and the bean-broth in David Tappen’s list of Javanese beverages, 1667-1682, may have been coffee). The first consignment of coffee (894 ℔) to the Netherlands was made in 1711-1712, but it was not till after 1721 that the yearly exports reached any considerable amount. The aggregate quantity sold in the home market from 1711 to 1791 was 2,036,437 piculs, or on an average about 143 tons per annum; and this probably represented nearly the whole production of the island. By the beginning of the 19th century the annual production was about 7143 tons and after the introduction of the Van den Bosch system of forced culture a further augmentation was effected. The forced culture system was, in 1909, however, of little importance. Official reports show that from 1840 to 1873 the amount ranged from 5226 tons to 7354. During the ten years 1869 to 1878 the average crop of the plantations under state control was 5226 tons, that of the private planters about 810. The government has shown a strange reluctance to surrender the old-fashioned monopoly, but the spirit of private enterprise has slowly gained the day. Though the appearance of the coffee blight (Hemileia vastatrix) almost ruined the industry the planters did not give in. An immune variety was introduced from Liberia, and scientific methods of treatment have been adopted in dealing with the plantations. In 1887, a record year, the value of the coffee crop reached £3,083,333, and at its average it was about £1,750,000 between 1886 and 1895. The value was only £1,166,666 in 1896. The greatest difficulties are the uncertainties both of the crop and of its marketable value. The former is well shown in the figures for 1903 to 1905; government 17,900, 3949 and 3511 tons, and private planters 22,395, 15,311 and 21,395 tons. Liberia coffee is still produced in much smaller quantity than Java coffee; the latter on an average of these three years 21,360 tons; the former 7409.
The cultivation of sugar has been long carried on in Java, and since the decline of the coffee plantations it has developed into the leading industry of the island. There are experimental stations at Pasuruan, Pekalongan and elsewhere, where attempts are made to overcome the many diseases to which the cane is subject. Many of the mills are equipped with high-class machinery and produce sugar of excellent colour and grain. In 1853-1857 the average crop was 98,094 tons; in 1869-1873, 170,831, and in 1875-1880, 204,678. By 1899-1900 the average had risen to 787,673 tons; and the crops for 1904 and 1905 were respectively 1,064,935 and 1,028,357 tons. Prices fluctuate, but the value of the harvest of 1905 was estimated at about £15,000,000.
The cultivation of indigo shows a strange vitality. Under the culture system the natives found this the most oppressive of all the state crops. The modern chemist at one time seemed to have killed the industry by his synthetic substitute, but in every year between 1899 and 1904 Java exported between one million and one and a half million pounds of the natural product. Japan and Russia were the largest buyers. As blue is a favourite colour with the Javanese proper a large quantity is used at home.
Tea was first introduced to Java by the Japanese scholar von Siebold in 1826. The culture was undertaken by the state in 1829 with plants from China, but in 1842 they handed it over to contractors, whose attempts to increase their profits by delivering an inferior article ultimately led to the abandonment of the contract system in 1860. In the meantime the basis of a better state of the industry had been laid by the Dutch tea-taster J. J. L. L. Jacobsen of the Nederlandsch Handel Maatschappij, who introduced not only fresh stock, but expert growers from China in 1852-1853. The tea-planters (often taking possession of the abandoned coffee-plantations) have greatly improved the quality of their products. Assam tea was introduced in 1878, and this has rapidly extended its area. The exports increased from 12,110,724 ℔ in 1898 to 25,772,564 in 1905. More than half the total goes to the Netherlands; the United Kingdom ranks next, and, far behind both, Russia.
In 1854 the government introduced the culture of cinchona with free labour, and it had considerable success under F. Junghuhn and his successors, though the varieties grown were of inferior quality. Later seed of the best cinchona was obtained, and under skilful management Java has become the chief producer of quinine in the world. Cacao is produced in the Preanger regencies, Pekalongan, Semarang, Pasuruan, Besuki, Kediri and Surakarta. In 1903, a record year, 1,101,835 piculs (about 6540 tons) were produced.Broussonetia papyriferais grown for the sake of its bark, so well known in Japan (Jap.kodsu) as a paper material. The ground-nut (the widely spreadArachis hypogaeafrom South America), locally known as kachang china or tanah, is somewhat extensively grown. The oil is exported to Holland, where it is sold as Delft salad oil. Tapioca has long been cultivated, especially in the Preanger. The industry is mainly in the hands of the Chinese, and the principal foreign purchasers are English biscuit manufacturers. The kapok is a tree from tropical America which, growing freely in any soil, is extensively used throughout Java along the highways as a support for telegraph and telephone wires, and planted as a prop in pepper and cubeb plantations. The silky fibre contained in its long capsuloid fruits is known as cotton wool; and among other uses it serves almost as well as cork for filling life-belts; and the oil from its seed is employed to adulterate ground-nut oil. The quantity of wool exported nearly trebled between 1890 and 1896, in the latter year the total sent to Holland, Australia, Singapore, &c., amounting to 38,586 bales. The rapid exhaustion of the natural supply of india-rubber and gutta-percha began to attract the attention of government in the latter decades of the 19th century. Extensive experiments have been made in the cultivation ofFicus elastica(the karet of the natives),Castilloa elastica, andHevea brasiliensis. The planting of gutta-percha trees was begun about 1886, and a regular system introduced in the Preanger in 1901. ThePalaquium oblongifoliumplantations at Blavan, Kemutuk and Sewang in Banyumas have also been brought under official control. Java tobacco, amounting to about 35,200,000 ℔ a year, is cultivated almost exclusively in eastern Java. Among other products which are of some importance as articles of export may be mentioned nutmegs, mace, pepper, hides, arrack and copra.
Particular Lands.—At different times down to 1830 the government disposed of its lands in full property to individuals who, acquiring complete control of the inhabitants as well as of the soil, continued down to the 19th century to act as if they were independent of all superior authority. In this way more than 1½ millions of the people were subject not to the state but to “stock companies, absentee landlords and Chinese.” According to theRegeerings Almanak(1906) these “particular lands,” as they are called, were distributed as follows: Bantam 21, Batavia 36, Meester Cornelis 163, Tangerang 80, Buitenzorg 61, Semarang 32, Surabaya 46, Krawang and Demak 3 each, Cheribon 2, and Pekalongan, Kendal and Pasuruan 1 each. In Meester Cornelis no fewer than 297,912 persons were returned in 1905 as living on these lands. Of the 168 estates there are not 20 that grow anything but grass, rice and coconuts. In Buitenzorg (thanks probably to the Botanic Gardens) matters are better: tea, coffee, cinchona and india-rubber appearing amongst the objects of cultivation; and, in general, it must be noted that these estates have often natural difficulties to contend against far beyond their financial strength.
Minerals.—Of all the great islands of the archipelago Java is the poorest in metallic ores. Gold and silver are practically nonexistent. Manganese is found in Jokjakarta and various other parts. A concession for working the magnetic iron sands in the neighbourhood of Chilachap was granted in 1904. Coal occurs in thin strata and small pockets in many parts (Bantam, Rembang, Jokjakarta, &c.); and in 1905 a concession was granted to a company to work the coal-beds at Bajah close to the harbour of Wijnkoopers Bay, a port of call of the Koninklijk Paketvaart Maatschappij. The discovery by De Groot in 1863 of petroleum added a most important industry to the list of the resources of Java. The great Dort Petroleum Company, now centred at Amsterdam, was founded in 1887. The production of this company alone rose from 79,179kistenor cases (each 8.14 gall.) in 1891 to 1,642,780 in 1890, and to 1,967,124 in 1905. In 1904 there were no fewer than 36 concessions for petroleum. At the same time there is a larger importation of oil from Sumatra as well as from America and Russia. Sulphur is regularly worked in the Gunong Slamet, G. Sindoro, G. Sumbing, and in the crater of the Tangkuban Prahu as well as in other places in the Preanger regencies and in Pasuruan. Brine-wells exist in various parts. The bledegs (salt-mud wells) of Grobogan in the Solo Valley, Semarang, are best known. They rise from Miocene strata and yield iodine and bromine products as well as common salt. The natives of the district are allowed to extract the salt for their own use, but elsewhere (except in Jokjakarta) the manufactureof salt is a government monopoly and confined to the districts of Sumenep, Panekasan and Sampang in Madura, where from 3000 to 4000 people are hereditarily engaged in extracting salt from sea water, delivering it to the government at the rate of 10 fl. (nearly 17s.) per koyang (3700 ℔). The distribution of this salt (rough-grained, greyish and highly hygroscopic) is extremely unsatisfactory. The waste was so great that in 1901 the government paid a prize of about £835 (10,000 fl.) to Karl Boltz von Bolzberg for an improved method of packing. Between 1888 and 1892 the annual amount delivered was 71,405 tons; in the next five years it rose to 89,932; and between 1898 and 1902 sank again to 88,856. The evil effects of this monopoly have been investigated by J. E. de Meyer, “Zout als middel van belasting,”De Ind. Gids.(1905). The scarcity of salt has led to a great importation of salted fish from Siam (upwards of 6600 tons in 1902).
Communications.—Roads and railways for the most part follow the fertile plains and table-lands along the coast and between the volcanic areas. The principal railways are the Semarang-Jokjakarta and Batavia-Buitenzorg lines of the Netherlands-Indian railway company, and the Surabaya-Pasuruan, Bangil-Mulang, Sidoarjo-Paron, Kertosono-Tulung Agung, Buitenzorg-Chianjur, Surakarta-Madiun, Pasuruan-Probolinggo, Jokjakarta-Chilachap and other lines of the government. The earliest lines, between Batavia and Buitenzorg and between Semarang and the capitals of the sultanates, were built about 1870 by a private company with a state guarantee. Since 1875, when Dr van Goltstein, then a cabinet minister and afterwards Dutch minister in London, had an act passed for the construction of state railways in Java, their progress has become much more rapid. In addition, several private companies have built either light railways or tramways, such as that between Semarang and Joana, and the total length of all lines was 2460 in 1905. There are some 3500 miles of telegraph line, and cables connect Java with Madura, Bali and Sumatra, and Port Darwin in Australia. Material welfare was promoted by the establishment of lines of steamships between Java and the other islands, all belonging to a Royal Packet Company, established in 1888 under a special statute, and virtually possessing a monopoly on account of the government mail contracts.
Administration.—Each village (dessa) forms an independent community, a group of dessas forms a district, a group of districts a department and a group of departments a residency, of which there are seventeen. At the head of each residency is a resident, with an assistant resident and a controller, all Dutch officials. The officials of the departments and districts are natives appointed by the government; those of the dessa are also natives, elected by the inhabitants and approved by the resident. In the two sultanates of Surakarta and Jokjakarta the native sultans govern under the supervision of the residents. (For the colonial administration of Netherlands India seeMalay Archipelago.)
History.—The origin of the name Java is very doubtful. It is not improbable that it was first applied either to Sumatra or to what was known of the Indian Archipelago—the insular character of the several parts not being at once recognized. Jawa Dwipa, or “land of millet,” may have been the original form and have given rise both to the Jaba diu of Ptolemy and to the Je-pho-thi of Fahien, the Chinese pilgrim of the 4th-5th century. The oldest form of the name in Arabic is apparently Zábej. The first epigraphic occurrence of Jawa is in an inscription of 1343. In Marco Polo the name is the common appellation of all the Sunda islands. The Jawa of Ibn Batuta is Sumatra; Java is his Mul Jáwa (i.e.possibly “original Java”). Jåwå is the modern Javanese name (in the court speech Jawi), sometimes with Nusa, “island,” or Tanah, “country,” prefixed.
It is impossible to extract a rational historical narrative from the earlierbabadsor native chronicles, and even the later are destitute of any satisfactory chronology. The first great era in the history is the ascendancy of the Hindus, and that breaks up into three periods—a period of Buddhism, a period of aggressive Sivaism, and a period of apparent compromise. Of the various Hindu states that were established in the island, that of Majapahit was the most widely dominant down to the end of the 15th century; its tributaries were many, and it even extended its sway into other parts of the archipelago. The second era of Javanese history is the invasion of Islam in the beginning of the 15th century; and the third is the establishment of European and more particularly of Dutch influence and authority in the island. About 1520 the Portuguese entered into commercial relationship with the natives, but at the close of the same century the Dutch began to establish themselves. At the time when the Dutch East India company began to fix its trading factories on the coast towns, the chief native state was Mataram, which had in the 16th century succeeded to the overlordship possessed by the house of Demak—one of the states that rose after the fall of Majapahit. The emperors of Java, as the princes of Mataram are called in the early accounts, had their capital at Kartasura, now an almost deserted place, 6 m. west of Surakarta. At first and for long the company had only forts and little fragments of territory at Jakatra (Batavia), &c.; but in 1705 it obtained definite possession of the Preanger by treaty with Mataram; and in 1745 its authority was extended over the whole north-east coast, from Cheribon to Banyuwangi. In 1755 the kingdom of Mataram was divided into the two states of Surakarta and Jokjakarta, which still retain a shadow of independence. The kingdom of Bantam was finally subjugated in 1808. By the English occupation of the island (1811-1818) the European ascendancy was rather strengthened than weakened; the great Java war (1825-1830), in which Dipå Negårå, the last Javanese prince, a clever, bold and unscrupulous leader, struggled to maintain his claim to the whole island, resulted in the complete success of the Dutch. To subdue him and his following, however, taxed all the resources of the Dutch Indian army for a period of five years, and cost it the loss of 15,000 officers and soldiers, besides millions of guilders. Nor did his great influence die with him when his adventurous career came to a close in 1855 at Macassar. Many Javanese, who dream of a restoration of their ancient empire, do not believe even yet that Dipå Negårå is dead. They are readily persuaded by fanatical hadjis that their hero will suddenly appear to drive away the Dutch and claim his rightful heritage. Several times there have been political troubles in the native states of central Java, in which Dipå Negårå’s name was used, notably in 1883, when many rebellious chieftains were exiled. Similar attempts at revolt had been made before, mainly in 1865 and 1870, but none so serious perhaps as that in 1849, in which a son and a brother of Dipå Negårå were implicated, aiming to deliver and reinstate him. All such attempts proved as futile there as others in different parts of Java, especially in Bantam, where the trouble of 1850 and 1888 had a religious origin, and in the end they directly contributed to the consolidation of Dutch sway. Being the principal Dutch colony in the Malay Archipelago, Java was the first to benefit from the material change which resulted from the introduction of the Grondwet or Fundamental Law of 1848 in Holland. The main changes were of an economical character, but the political developments were also important. Since 1850 Dutch authority has steadily advanced, principally at the expense of the semi-independent sultanates in central Java, which had been allowed to remain after the capture and exile of Dipå Negårå. The power of the sultans of Jokjakarta and Surakarta has diminished; in 1863 Dutch authority was strengthened in the neighbouring island of Madura, and Bantam has lost every vestige of independence. The strengthening of the Dutch power has largely resulted from a more statesmanlike and more generous treatment of the natives, who have been educated to regard theorang blanda, or white man, as their protector against the native rulers. Thus, in 1866, passports for natives travelling in Java were abolished by the then governor-general, Dr Sloet van de Beele, who also introduced many reforms, reducing thecorvéein the government plantations to a minimum, and doing away with the monopoly of fisheries. Six years later a primary education system for the natives, and a penal code, whose liberal provisions seemed framed for Europeans, were introduced.
Antiquities.—Ordinary traces of early human occupation are few in Java. The native bamboo buildings speedily perish. Stone weapons are occasionally found. But remains of the temples and monastic buildings of the Hindu period are numerous and splendid, and are remarkable as representing architecture which reached a high standard without the use of mortar, supporting columns or arches. Chandis (i.e.temples, though the word originally meant a depository for the ashes of a saint) are not found in western Java. They exist in two great zones: one in middle Java, one in eastern Java, each with its own distinguishing characteristics, both architectural and religious. The former begins in the Dyeng plateau, in the east of Banyumas, and extends into the east of Bagelen, Kedu and the neighbouring districts of Semarang, northern Jokjakarta, and the western corner of Surakarta. The latter lies mainly in Surabaya, Kediri and Pasuruan. A considerable number ofruins also exist in Probolinggo. Farther east they grow scarce. There is none in Madura. The remains of Macham Putih in Banyuwangi are possibly of non-Hindu origin. In the regency of Kendal (Semarang), to the north of Kedu, the place-names show that temples once existed.16Some of them are Sivaite, some Buddhist, some astoundingly composite. None of the Buddhist buildings shows traces of the older Himaryana form of the creed. The greatest of all is a perfect sculptural exposition of the Mahayana doctrine. As to the period during which these temples were erected, authorities are not agreed. Ijzerman assigns the central Java groups to between the 8th and the 10th centuries. The seven-storeyed vihara (monastery) mentioned in the famous Menang-Kabu inscription (Sumatra) as founded by Maharaja Dhiraya Adityadharma inA.D.656 is by some supposed to be Boro-Budur. A copper plate of 840 refers to Dyeng (Dehyang) as one of the sacred mountains of Java. One thing seems certain, that the temples of the eastern zone are of much more recent origin than most, at least, of the central zone. They are generally distinguished by the characteristics of a decadent and more voluptuous age, and show that the art of the time had become less Indian and more Javanese, with traces of influences derived from the more eastern East. At the same time it must be noted that even in Boro Budur there are non-Indian elements in the decoration, indicating that the Hindu architect employed native artists and to some extent left them a free hand.In his standard work onIndian and Eastern Architecture(London, 1876), James Fergusson asserted that the Javanese temples are in the Chalukyan style. But J. W. Ijzerman in an elaborate paper in theAlbum-Kerncontends that the learned historian of architecture was misled by basing his opinion mainly on inaccurate drawings reproduced by Raffles. The Javanese temples, with the solitary exception of Chandi Bima in the Dyeng, are Dravidian and not Chalukyan. The very temples quoted by Fergusson, when more carefully examined, disprove his statement: a fact not without its bearing on the history of the Hindu immigration.The wonderful scenery of the Dyeng plateau was already, in all probability, an object of superstitious awe to the aboriginal inhabitants of Java; and thus it would catch the attention of the earliest Hindu settlers. The old crater floor is full of traces of human occupation; though, in spite of the tradition of the existence of a considerable town, no sepulchral relics of the inhabitants have been discovered. There still remain five groups of temples—some well preserved, some mere heaps of stone—to prove the devotion their builders bore to Siva, his consort Durga, and Ganesha their son. The Arjuno group, in the middle of the plateau, consists of Chandi Arjuno (with its chapel or priests’ residence, Ch. Semar), Ch. Srikahdi, Ch. Puntadeva and Ch. Sembadro, each a simple square chamber with a portico reached by a flight of steps. The second group, Ch. Daravati and Ch. Parakesit, lies to the north-east. The third, now a ruined mound, lies to the east. The fourth, to the north-west, is a group of seven small temples of which Ch. Sanchaki is the most important, with a square ground plan and an octagon roof with a second circular storey. Of the fifth group, in the south, only one temple remains—the Chandi Bima—a small, beautiful and exceptionally interesting building, in “the form of a pyramid, the ribs of which stand out much more prominently than the horizontal lines of the niche-shaped ornaments which rest each on its lotus cushion.” How this happens to be the one Chalukyan temple amid hundreds is a problem to be solved. The plateau lies 6500 ft. above the sea, and roads and stairways, locally known as Buddha roads, lead up from the lowlands of Bagelen and Pekalongan. The stairway between Lake Menjur and Lake Chebong alone consisted of 4700 steps. The width of the roadway, however, is only some three or four feet. A remarkable subterranean tunnel still exists, which served to drain the plateau.Of all the Hindu temples of Java the largest and most magnificent is Boro-Budur, which ranks among the architectural marvels of the world. It lies in the residency of Kedu, a little to the west of the Progo, a considerable stream flowing south to the Indian Ocean. The place is best reached by taking the steam-tram from Magelang or Jokjakarta to the village of Muntilam Passar, where a conveyance may be hired. Strictly speaking, Boro-Budur is not a temple but a hill, rising about 150 ft. above the plain, encased with imposing terraces constructed of hewn lava-blocks and crowded with sculptures. The lowest terrace now above ground forms a square, each side 497 ft. long. About 50 ft. higher there is another terrace of similar shape. Then follow four other terraces of more irregular contour. The structure is crowned by a dome or cupola 52 ft. in diameter surrounded by sixteen smaller bell-shaped cupolas. Regarded as a whole, the main design, to quote Mr Sewell, may be described as “an archaic Indian temple, considerably flattened and consisting of a series of terraces, surmounted by a quasi-stupa capped by a dagoba.” It was discovered by the engineer J. W. Ijzerman in 1885 that the basement of the structure had been earthed up before the building was finished, and that the lowest retaining wall was completely concealed by the embankment. The architects had evidently found that their temple was threatened with a destructive subsidence; and, while the sculptors were still busy with the decoration of the lower façades, they had to abandon their work. But the unfinished bas-reliefs were carefully protected by clay and blocks of stone and left in position; and since 1896 they are gradually but systematically being exhumed and photographed by the Dutch archaeologists, who, however, have to proceed with caution, filling up one portion of the embankment before they go on to deal with another. The subjects treated in this lowest enceinte are of the most varied description, forming a picture-gallery of landscapes, scenes of outdoor and domestic life, mingled with mythological and religious designs. Among the genre class appear men shooting birds with blow-pipe or bow and arrow, fishermen with rod or net, a man playing a bagpipe, and so on. It would seem as if the architect had intended gradually to wean the devotees from the things of this world. When once they began to ascend from stage to stage of the temple-hill they were introduced to the realities of religion; and by the time they reached the dagoba they had passed through a process of instruction and were ready, with enlightened eyes, to enter and behold the image of Buddha, symbolically left imperfect, as beyond the power of human art to realize or portray. From basement to summit the whole hill is a great picture bible of the Mahayana creed.If the statues and bas-reliefs of Boro-Budur were placed side by side they would extend for 3 m. The eye of the spectator, looking up from the present ground-level, is caught, says Mr Sewell, by the rows of life-size Buddhas that adorn the retaining walls of the several terraces and the cage-like shrines on the circular platforms. All the great figures on the east side represent Akshobhya, the Dhyani Buddha of the East. His right hand is in the Chumisparsa mudra (pose) touching the earth in front of the right knee—“I swear by the earth.” All the statues on the south side are Ratnasam Chavu in the varada mudra—the right hand displayed upwards—“I give you all.” On the west side the statues represent Amitabha in the dhyana or padinasama mudra, the right hand resting palm upwards on the left, both being on the lap—the attitude of meditation. Those on the north represent Amogasiddhi in the abhaya mudra, the right hand being raised and displayed, palm outwards—“Fear not, all is well.”Other remarkable groups of Hindu temples exist near the village of Prambanan17(less correctly Brambanan) in Surakarta, but not far from the borders of Jokjakarta, with a station on the railway between the two chief towns. The village has been named after the temples, Prambanan signifying the place of teachers. The whole ecclesiastical settlement was surrounded by three lines of wall, of which only the inmost is now visible above ground. Between the second and third walls are 157 small temples, and in the central enclosure are the ruins of six larger temples in a double row with two smaller ones at the side. The middle temple of the western row is the main building, full of statues of purely Sivaite character—Siva as Guru or teacher, Siva as Kala or Time the Destroyer, Durga, Ganesha, and so on. But, just as many churches in Christendom are called not after the Christ but after the Virgin, so this is known as Lara (i.e.Virgin) Janggrang from the popular name of Durga. In the southern temple of the row is a very fine figure of a four-armed Brahma; in the northern there was a Vishnu with attendant figures. Of the other row the middle temple is again the largest, with Siva, his nandi or bull, and other symbolic sculptures. To the north lies the extraordinary cluster of temples which, though it does not deserve its popular name of Chandi Sewu, the thousand shrines, consists of at least 240 small buildings gathered round a great central temple, richly adorned, though roofless and partially ruined since the earthquake of 1867. Among the more noteworthy figures are those of the huge and ungainly guardians of the temple kneeling at the four main gateways of each of the principal buildings. Colonel Yule pointed out that there are distinct traces of a fine coat of stucco on the exterior and the interior of the buildings, and he compared in this respect “the cave walls of Ellora, the great idols at Bamian, and the Doric order at Selinus.” Other temples in the same neighbourhood as Chandi Sewu are Ch. Lumbung, Ch. Kali Bening (Baneng), with a monstrous Kala head as the centre of the design on the southern side, Ch. Kalong and Ch. Plaosan. Tradition assigns these temples to 1266-1296.Of the temples of the eastern zone the best known is Chandi Jago (or Tumpang), elaborately described in the Archaeological Commission’s monograph. According to thePararaton, a native chronicle (published in theVerhand. v. h. Bat. Gen. v. K. en W., 1896), it belongs to the 13th century, containing the tomb of Rangavuni or Vishnuvardhana, who died in 1272-1273. The shrine proper occupies the third of three platforms, the lowest of which forms asquare of 45 to 46 ft. each side. The building fronts the west, and is constructed of an andesitic tuff of inferior quality and dark colour. Of distinctly Buddhistic influence there is no trace. The makara (elephant-fish head) is notably absent. The sculptures which run round the base and along the sides of the platforms or terraces are of the most elaborate and varied description—kings on thrones, dwarfs, elephants, supernatural beings, diabolical and grotesque, tree-monsters, palaces, temples, courtyards, lakes, gardens, forests—all are represented. In one place appears a Chinese—or Burmese-looking seven-roofed pagoda; in another, a tall temple strangely split down the centre, with a flight of steps running up the fissure. The inscriptions are in the Devanagari character. In the same neighbourhood are Ch. Singossari, Ch. Kidal, &c. Another of the most beautiful of the eastern temples is Ch. Jabung, mentioned in 1330. It is built of red brick; and its distinctly Javanese origin is suggested by the frequency of the snake-motif still characteristic of modern Javanese art. It may be added that a comparison of the several buildings of the zone affords an interesting study in the development of the pilaster as a decorative rather than structural element.At Panabaram, near Blitar, Kediri, is another group of stone temples and other buildings. The chief temple is remarkable for the richness of its sculptures, which are peculiarly delicate and spirited in their details. The decoration of the mere robes of one of the free-standing stairway-guardians consists of scroll-work, interspersed with birds and animals rendered in a non-Indian style, reminiscent of Chinese or Japanese work. It has been described as one of the most beautiful pieces of sculpture in all the East.Sculptures from the temples are scattered far and wide throughout Java, and it is one of the greatest difficulties of the archaeologist to determine the origin of many of the most interesting specimens. This, too, is often the case with those that have found their way to the museums of Java and Europe (Batavia, Leiden, Haarlem, Berlin, &c.). Minor relics of the past are to be found alike in the palaces of the nobles and the huts of the highland peasants. Zodiac cups of copper or bronze dating from the 12th or 13th century are in daily use among the Tenggerese. The musical instruments used by the musicians of the native courts are often prized on account of their great antiquity.As many of the Chinese came from China centuries ago and have not ceased to hold intercourse with their native country, the houses of the wealthier men among them are often rich in ancient specimens of Chinese art. The special exhibition organized by Henri Borel and other enthusiasts showed how much of value in this matter might be brought together in spite of the reluctance of the owners to commit the sacrilege of exposing to public gaze the images of their ancestral gods and heroes. Borel has given exquisite examples of images of Kwan-yin (the Chinese Virgin-Goddess), of Buddhas, of the ghoulish god of literature, of Lie-tai-Peh (the Chinese poet who has gone to live in the planet Venus), &c., in illustration of his papers inL’Art flamand et hollandais, pt. v. (1900), a translation of his monograph published at Batavia.Authorities.—Besides the special works quotedpassim, see Sir Stamford Raffles,History of Java(London, 1830); F. Junghuhn,Java: seine Gestalt, Pflanzendecke, und innere Bauart(Ger. trans. by J. K. Hasskarl, Leipzig, 1854-1857); P. J. Veth,Java, Geographisch, ethnologisch, historisch(2nd ed., Haarlem, 1896-1903), a masterly compendium originally based largely on Junghuhn’s descriptions; L. van Deventer,Geschiedenis der Nederlanders op Java(2nd ed., Haarlem, 1895); L. W. C. van den Berg,Le Hadhramout et les colonies arabes dans l’archipel indien(Batavia, 1886); E. R. Scidmore,Java, the Garden of the East(New York, 1898); J. Chailley-Bert,Java et ses habitants(Paris, 1900); C. Day,The Policy and Administration of the Dutch in Java(London, 1904); E. S. de Klerck,De Java-Oorlog van1825-1830 (Batavia, 1905);Encyclopaedie v. N. Indië, art. “Java;”Guide à travers l’Exposition de Paris(The Hague, 1900), with articles by specialists on each department of the Dutch colonies, more particularly Java;Koloniale Verslagen en Regeerings-almanak van N. Indië, being official publications of the Dutch and Dutch East-Indian Government (see alsoMalay Archipelago).
Antiquities.—Ordinary traces of early human occupation are few in Java. The native bamboo buildings speedily perish. Stone weapons are occasionally found. But remains of the temples and monastic buildings of the Hindu period are numerous and splendid, and are remarkable as representing architecture which reached a high standard without the use of mortar, supporting columns or arches. Chandis (i.e.temples, though the word originally meant a depository for the ashes of a saint) are not found in western Java. They exist in two great zones: one in middle Java, one in eastern Java, each with its own distinguishing characteristics, both architectural and religious. The former begins in the Dyeng plateau, in the east of Banyumas, and extends into the east of Bagelen, Kedu and the neighbouring districts of Semarang, northern Jokjakarta, and the western corner of Surakarta. The latter lies mainly in Surabaya, Kediri and Pasuruan. A considerable number ofruins also exist in Probolinggo. Farther east they grow scarce. There is none in Madura. The remains of Macham Putih in Banyuwangi are possibly of non-Hindu origin. In the regency of Kendal (Semarang), to the north of Kedu, the place-names show that temples once existed.16Some of them are Sivaite, some Buddhist, some astoundingly composite. None of the Buddhist buildings shows traces of the older Himaryana form of the creed. The greatest of all is a perfect sculptural exposition of the Mahayana doctrine. As to the period during which these temples were erected, authorities are not agreed. Ijzerman assigns the central Java groups to between the 8th and the 10th centuries. The seven-storeyed vihara (monastery) mentioned in the famous Menang-Kabu inscription (Sumatra) as founded by Maharaja Dhiraya Adityadharma inA.D.656 is by some supposed to be Boro-Budur. A copper plate of 840 refers to Dyeng (Dehyang) as one of the sacred mountains of Java. One thing seems certain, that the temples of the eastern zone are of much more recent origin than most, at least, of the central zone. They are generally distinguished by the characteristics of a decadent and more voluptuous age, and show that the art of the time had become less Indian and more Javanese, with traces of influences derived from the more eastern East. At the same time it must be noted that even in Boro Budur there are non-Indian elements in the decoration, indicating that the Hindu architect employed native artists and to some extent left them a free hand.
In his standard work onIndian and Eastern Architecture(London, 1876), James Fergusson asserted that the Javanese temples are in the Chalukyan style. But J. W. Ijzerman in an elaborate paper in theAlbum-Kerncontends that the learned historian of architecture was misled by basing his opinion mainly on inaccurate drawings reproduced by Raffles. The Javanese temples, with the solitary exception of Chandi Bima in the Dyeng, are Dravidian and not Chalukyan. The very temples quoted by Fergusson, when more carefully examined, disprove his statement: a fact not without its bearing on the history of the Hindu immigration.
The wonderful scenery of the Dyeng plateau was already, in all probability, an object of superstitious awe to the aboriginal inhabitants of Java; and thus it would catch the attention of the earliest Hindu settlers. The old crater floor is full of traces of human occupation; though, in spite of the tradition of the existence of a considerable town, no sepulchral relics of the inhabitants have been discovered. There still remain five groups of temples—some well preserved, some mere heaps of stone—to prove the devotion their builders bore to Siva, his consort Durga, and Ganesha their son. The Arjuno group, in the middle of the plateau, consists of Chandi Arjuno (with its chapel or priests’ residence, Ch. Semar), Ch. Srikahdi, Ch. Puntadeva and Ch. Sembadro, each a simple square chamber with a portico reached by a flight of steps. The second group, Ch. Daravati and Ch. Parakesit, lies to the north-east. The third, now a ruined mound, lies to the east. The fourth, to the north-west, is a group of seven small temples of which Ch. Sanchaki is the most important, with a square ground plan and an octagon roof with a second circular storey. Of the fifth group, in the south, only one temple remains—the Chandi Bima—a small, beautiful and exceptionally interesting building, in “the form of a pyramid, the ribs of which stand out much more prominently than the horizontal lines of the niche-shaped ornaments which rest each on its lotus cushion.” How this happens to be the one Chalukyan temple amid hundreds is a problem to be solved. The plateau lies 6500 ft. above the sea, and roads and stairways, locally known as Buddha roads, lead up from the lowlands of Bagelen and Pekalongan. The stairway between Lake Menjur and Lake Chebong alone consisted of 4700 steps. The width of the roadway, however, is only some three or four feet. A remarkable subterranean tunnel still exists, which served to drain the plateau.
Of all the Hindu temples of Java the largest and most magnificent is Boro-Budur, which ranks among the architectural marvels of the world. It lies in the residency of Kedu, a little to the west of the Progo, a considerable stream flowing south to the Indian Ocean. The place is best reached by taking the steam-tram from Magelang or Jokjakarta to the village of Muntilam Passar, where a conveyance may be hired. Strictly speaking, Boro-Budur is not a temple but a hill, rising about 150 ft. above the plain, encased with imposing terraces constructed of hewn lava-blocks and crowded with sculptures. The lowest terrace now above ground forms a square, each side 497 ft. long. About 50 ft. higher there is another terrace of similar shape. Then follow four other terraces of more irregular contour. The structure is crowned by a dome or cupola 52 ft. in diameter surrounded by sixteen smaller bell-shaped cupolas. Regarded as a whole, the main design, to quote Mr Sewell, may be described as “an archaic Indian temple, considerably flattened and consisting of a series of terraces, surmounted by a quasi-stupa capped by a dagoba.” It was discovered by the engineer J. W. Ijzerman in 1885 that the basement of the structure had been earthed up before the building was finished, and that the lowest retaining wall was completely concealed by the embankment. The architects had evidently found that their temple was threatened with a destructive subsidence; and, while the sculptors were still busy with the decoration of the lower façades, they had to abandon their work. But the unfinished bas-reliefs were carefully protected by clay and blocks of stone and left in position; and since 1896 they are gradually but systematically being exhumed and photographed by the Dutch archaeologists, who, however, have to proceed with caution, filling up one portion of the embankment before they go on to deal with another. The subjects treated in this lowest enceinte are of the most varied description, forming a picture-gallery of landscapes, scenes of outdoor and domestic life, mingled with mythological and religious designs. Among the genre class appear men shooting birds with blow-pipe or bow and arrow, fishermen with rod or net, a man playing a bagpipe, and so on. It would seem as if the architect had intended gradually to wean the devotees from the things of this world. When once they began to ascend from stage to stage of the temple-hill they were introduced to the realities of religion; and by the time they reached the dagoba they had passed through a process of instruction and were ready, with enlightened eyes, to enter and behold the image of Buddha, symbolically left imperfect, as beyond the power of human art to realize or portray. From basement to summit the whole hill is a great picture bible of the Mahayana creed.
If the statues and bas-reliefs of Boro-Budur were placed side by side they would extend for 3 m. The eye of the spectator, looking up from the present ground-level, is caught, says Mr Sewell, by the rows of life-size Buddhas that adorn the retaining walls of the several terraces and the cage-like shrines on the circular platforms. All the great figures on the east side represent Akshobhya, the Dhyani Buddha of the East. His right hand is in the Chumisparsa mudra (pose) touching the earth in front of the right knee—“I swear by the earth.” All the statues on the south side are Ratnasam Chavu in the varada mudra—the right hand displayed upwards—“I give you all.” On the west side the statues represent Amitabha in the dhyana or padinasama mudra, the right hand resting palm upwards on the left, both being on the lap—the attitude of meditation. Those on the north represent Amogasiddhi in the abhaya mudra, the right hand being raised and displayed, palm outwards—“Fear not, all is well.”
Other remarkable groups of Hindu temples exist near the village of Prambanan17(less correctly Brambanan) in Surakarta, but not far from the borders of Jokjakarta, with a station on the railway between the two chief towns. The village has been named after the temples, Prambanan signifying the place of teachers. The whole ecclesiastical settlement was surrounded by three lines of wall, of which only the inmost is now visible above ground. Between the second and third walls are 157 small temples, and in the central enclosure are the ruins of six larger temples in a double row with two smaller ones at the side. The middle temple of the western row is the main building, full of statues of purely Sivaite character—Siva as Guru or teacher, Siva as Kala or Time the Destroyer, Durga, Ganesha, and so on. But, just as many churches in Christendom are called not after the Christ but after the Virgin, so this is known as Lara (i.e.Virgin) Janggrang from the popular name of Durga. In the southern temple of the row is a very fine figure of a four-armed Brahma; in the northern there was a Vishnu with attendant figures. Of the other row the middle temple is again the largest, with Siva, his nandi or bull, and other symbolic sculptures. To the north lies the extraordinary cluster of temples which, though it does not deserve its popular name of Chandi Sewu, the thousand shrines, consists of at least 240 small buildings gathered round a great central temple, richly adorned, though roofless and partially ruined since the earthquake of 1867. Among the more noteworthy figures are those of the huge and ungainly guardians of the temple kneeling at the four main gateways of each of the principal buildings. Colonel Yule pointed out that there are distinct traces of a fine coat of stucco on the exterior and the interior of the buildings, and he compared in this respect “the cave walls of Ellora, the great idols at Bamian, and the Doric order at Selinus.” Other temples in the same neighbourhood as Chandi Sewu are Ch. Lumbung, Ch. Kali Bening (Baneng), with a monstrous Kala head as the centre of the design on the southern side, Ch. Kalong and Ch. Plaosan. Tradition assigns these temples to 1266-1296.
Of the temples of the eastern zone the best known is Chandi Jago (or Tumpang), elaborately described in the Archaeological Commission’s monograph. According to thePararaton, a native chronicle (published in theVerhand. v. h. Bat. Gen. v. K. en W., 1896), it belongs to the 13th century, containing the tomb of Rangavuni or Vishnuvardhana, who died in 1272-1273. The shrine proper occupies the third of three platforms, the lowest of which forms asquare of 45 to 46 ft. each side. The building fronts the west, and is constructed of an andesitic tuff of inferior quality and dark colour. Of distinctly Buddhistic influence there is no trace. The makara (elephant-fish head) is notably absent. The sculptures which run round the base and along the sides of the platforms or terraces are of the most elaborate and varied description—kings on thrones, dwarfs, elephants, supernatural beings, diabolical and grotesque, tree-monsters, palaces, temples, courtyards, lakes, gardens, forests—all are represented. In one place appears a Chinese—or Burmese-looking seven-roofed pagoda; in another, a tall temple strangely split down the centre, with a flight of steps running up the fissure. The inscriptions are in the Devanagari character. In the same neighbourhood are Ch. Singossari, Ch. Kidal, &c. Another of the most beautiful of the eastern temples is Ch. Jabung, mentioned in 1330. It is built of red brick; and its distinctly Javanese origin is suggested by the frequency of the snake-motif still characteristic of modern Javanese art. It may be added that a comparison of the several buildings of the zone affords an interesting study in the development of the pilaster as a decorative rather than structural element.
At Panabaram, near Blitar, Kediri, is another group of stone temples and other buildings. The chief temple is remarkable for the richness of its sculptures, which are peculiarly delicate and spirited in their details. The decoration of the mere robes of one of the free-standing stairway-guardians consists of scroll-work, interspersed with birds and animals rendered in a non-Indian style, reminiscent of Chinese or Japanese work. It has been described as one of the most beautiful pieces of sculpture in all the East.
Sculptures from the temples are scattered far and wide throughout Java, and it is one of the greatest difficulties of the archaeologist to determine the origin of many of the most interesting specimens. This, too, is often the case with those that have found their way to the museums of Java and Europe (Batavia, Leiden, Haarlem, Berlin, &c.). Minor relics of the past are to be found alike in the palaces of the nobles and the huts of the highland peasants. Zodiac cups of copper or bronze dating from the 12th or 13th century are in daily use among the Tenggerese. The musical instruments used by the musicians of the native courts are often prized on account of their great antiquity.
As many of the Chinese came from China centuries ago and have not ceased to hold intercourse with their native country, the houses of the wealthier men among them are often rich in ancient specimens of Chinese art. The special exhibition organized by Henri Borel and other enthusiasts showed how much of value in this matter might be brought together in spite of the reluctance of the owners to commit the sacrilege of exposing to public gaze the images of their ancestral gods and heroes. Borel has given exquisite examples of images of Kwan-yin (the Chinese Virgin-Goddess), of Buddhas, of the ghoulish god of literature, of Lie-tai-Peh (the Chinese poet who has gone to live in the planet Venus), &c., in illustration of his papers inL’Art flamand et hollandais, pt. v. (1900), a translation of his monograph published at Batavia.
Authorities.—Besides the special works quotedpassim, see Sir Stamford Raffles,History of Java(London, 1830); F. Junghuhn,Java: seine Gestalt, Pflanzendecke, und innere Bauart(Ger. trans. by J. K. Hasskarl, Leipzig, 1854-1857); P. J. Veth,Java, Geographisch, ethnologisch, historisch(2nd ed., Haarlem, 1896-1903), a masterly compendium originally based largely on Junghuhn’s descriptions; L. van Deventer,Geschiedenis der Nederlanders op Java(2nd ed., Haarlem, 1895); L. W. C. van den Berg,Le Hadhramout et les colonies arabes dans l’archipel indien(Batavia, 1886); E. R. Scidmore,Java, the Garden of the East(New York, 1898); J. Chailley-Bert,Java et ses habitants(Paris, 1900); C. Day,The Policy and Administration of the Dutch in Java(London, 1904); E. S. de Klerck,De Java-Oorlog van1825-1830 (Batavia, 1905);Encyclopaedie v. N. Indië, art. “Java;”Guide à travers l’Exposition de Paris(The Hague, 1900), with articles by specialists on each department of the Dutch colonies, more particularly Java;Koloniale Verslagen en Regeerings-almanak van N. Indië, being official publications of the Dutch and Dutch East-Indian Government (see alsoMalay Archipelago).