Old Javanese legal traditions in pre-colonial Bali

Law codes with their origins in Indic-influenced Old Javanese systems of knowledge comprise an important genre in the Balinese textual record. Written in Kawi—a term encompassing Old Javanese, Middle Javanese and High Balinese—the legal corpus forms a complex and overlapping web of indigenous legal texts and traditions that encompass the codification and administration of civil and criminal justice as well as concepts of morality and right conduct. The most significant codes include the Adhigama, Ku??ram?nawa, P?rw?dhigama, S?rasamuccaya, Swarajambu, Dew?gama (also called Kr?topapati) and Dewadanda. Each of these law codes belongs to a shared tradition of legal thought and practice that is linked to Sanskrit M?navadharma??stra traditions. Manu’s code, most notably the a??ada?awyawah?ra section detailing the eighteen grounds for litigation, was adopted as the model of legal textual principle in the early stages of contact between ancient India and the Indonesian archipelago. Over the course of many centuries, this model informed legal and juridical practice and was adapted and modified to suit indigenous needs. The law codes remained in use in Java until the advent of Islam towards the end of the fifteenth century, and in Bali until the colonial period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Balinese legal textual corpus comprises dozens of interrelated manuscripts, some complete and some fragmentary. They provide significant insights in to pre-colonial judicial practices and forms of government. This article provides a survey of the corpus of legal texts and explores the nature of law in pre-colonial Bali

Borobudur temple and the megalith villages of the Ngadha and Manggarai in the light of Indonesia’s tourist promotion; A legacy of colonial representation

As a foreign exchange earner for the Indonesian government, the tourism industry has currently prioritized ten tourist destinations. Problematically, this promotion of the beauty and diversity of nature and ethnicty marginalizes and exoticizes a number of ethnic group and their areas. This promotion, which can be traced back to colonial times, still reflects the Dutch colonial legacy, particularly Darwinian social evolution. To clarify this situation, this article illustrates tourism promotion in the historical and socio-cultural contexts of Borobodur in Java and the megalith villages of the Ngadha and Manggarai people of Flores. It investigates the representation and articulation of colonial perceptions which influence tourist promotion programmes, and their impact on the perceptions of tourists and local residents. An examination of the formation of the Indonesian tourist industry also reveals between the Dutch colonial control of knowledge, the vision of the Indonesian government, tourists desires, and local stakeholder expectation of this promotion. It ends with an outline of the efforts of local residents in the megalithic villages in Flores to decolonize the tourism promotion narratives of the Indonesian government

Balinese puri in historical perspective : the role of Puri Satria and Puri Pamacutan in social and political changes in Badung, South Bali, 1906-1950

Balinese puris are the residences of the traditional ruling elite of Bali, the ksatria. The puris provided the rajas and the lesser political leaders in Bali until the challenge to Satria hegemony posed by Dutch colonialism. In Badung (South Bali), Dutch ascendancy was marked by the massacre known as the puputan Badung, in 1906, which wiped out most of the royal families of puri Denpasar and puri Pamacutan. After the puputan, puri Denpasar and Pamacutan were replaced by puri Satria and puri Kanginan-Pamacutan respectively. Very few studies have been made of the Balinese puris in Badung, after the fall of puri Denpasar and Pamacutan so that the people of Badung themselves do not clearly understand the political role of these puris. This thesis is an attempt to study the rivalry between the resurgent puri Satria and its main local antagonist, puri Pamacutan. The latter co-operated with the Dutch colonial authority, while the survivors of the Badung massacre rebuilt puri Satria as a centre of opposition to the Dutch. The time frame (1906-1950) for this research reflects a period of turmoil and change in Bali, from the Dutch invasion (of South Bali), to the Japanese occupation, through the struggle for independence and the incorporation of Bali into the East Indonesian State to the eventual union with the Republic of Indonesia. The major topic of interest will be the strongly contrasting roles played by the traditional leadership of the two puris in the maintenance of political hegemony through the first half of the twentieth century

Piracy in World History

In a modern global historical context, scholars have often regarded piracy as an essentially European concept which was inappropriately applied by the expanding European powers to the rest of the world, mainly for the purpose of furthering colonial forms of domination in the economic, political, military, legal and cultural spheres. By contrast, this edited volume highlights the relevance of both European and non-European understandings of piracy to the development of global maritime security and freedom of navigation. It explores the significance of ‘legal posturing’ on the part of those accused of piracy, as well as the existence of non-European laws and regulations regarding piracy and related forms of maritime violence in the early modern era. The authors in Piracy in World History highlight cases from various parts of the early-modern world, thereby explaining piracy as a global phenomenon

Piracy in World History

In a modern global historical context, scholars have often regarded piracy as an essentially European concept which was inappropriately applied by the expanding European powers to the rest of the world, mainly for the purpose of furthering colonial forms of domination in the economic, political, military, legal and cultural spheres. By contrast, this edited volume highlights the relevance of both European and non-European understandings of piracy to the development of global maritime security and freedom of navigation. It explores the significance of ‘legal posturing’ on the part of those accused of piracy, as well as the existence of non-European laws and regulations regarding piracy and related forms of maritime violence in the early modern era. The authors in Piracy in World History highlight cases from various parts of the early-modern world, thereby explaining piracy as a global phenomenon

The power of prophecy; Prince Dipanagara and the end of an old order in Java, 1785-1855

National hero, Javanese mystic, pious Muslim and leader of the ‘holy war’ against the Dutch between 1825 and 1830, the Yogyakarta prince, Dipanagara (1785-1855, otherwise known as Diponegoro), is pre-eminent in the pantheon of modern Indonesian historical figures. Yet despite instant name recognition in Indonesia, there has never been a full biography of the prince’s life and times based on Dutch and Javanese sources. ‘The power of prophecy’ is a major study which sets Dipanagara’s life history against the context of the turbulent events of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century when the full force of European imperialism hit Indonesia like an Asian tsunami destroying forever Java’s ‘old order’ and propelling the twin forces of Islam and Javanese national identity into a fatal confrontation with the Dutch. This confrontation known as the Java War, in which Dipanagara was defeated and exiled, marked the beginning of the modern colonial period in Indonesia which lasted until the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945. The book presents a detailed analysis of Dipanagara’s pre-war visions and aspirations as a Javanese Ratu Adil (‘Just King’) based on extensive reading of his autobiography, the Babad Dipanagara as well as a number of other Javanese sources. Dutch and British records, in particularly the Residency Archives of Yogyakarta and Surakarta currently kept in the Indonesian National Archives, provide the backbone of this scholarly work. The book will be read with profit by all those interested in the rise of Western colonial rule in Indonesia, the fate of indigenous cultures in an age of imperialism and the role of Javanese Islam in modern Indonesian history. Peter Carey, Laithwaite tutor in History at Trinity College, Oxford, has made a lifetime study of Dipanagara and the history of early nineteenth century Java. His many works include the two-volume Archive of Yogyakarta (1980, 2000), The British in Java, 1811-1816; A Javanese account (1992) and Babad Dipanagara; An account of the outbreak of the Java War (1825-1830) (1981). He is one of Britain’s foremost historians of Southeast Asia and has also published on Cambodia, Burma and East Timor

Renegotiating boundaries

For decades almost the only social scientists who visited Indonesia’s provinces were anthropologists. Anybody interested in politics or economics spent most of their time in Jakarta, where the action was. Our view of the world’s fourth largest country threatened to become simplistic, lacking that essential graininess. Then, in 1998, Indonesia was plunged into a crisis that could not be understood with simplistic tools. After 32 years of enforced stability, the New Order was at an end. Things began to happen in - the provinces that no one was prepared for. Democratization was one, decentralization another. Ethnic and religious identities emerged that had lain buried under the blanket of the New Order’s modernizing ideology. Unfamiliar, sometimes violent forms of political competition and of rentseeking came to light. Decentralization was often connected with the neo-liberal desire to reduce state powers and make room for free trade and democracy. To what extent were the goals of good governance and a stronger civil society achieved? How much of the process was ‘captured’ by regional elites to increase their own powers? Amidst the new identity politics, what has happened to citizenship? These are among the central questions addressed in this book. This volume is the result of a two-year research project at KITLV. It brings together an international group of 24 scholars – mainly from Indonesia and the Netherlands but also from the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada and Portugal

The Syntax of Colophons

The present volume focuses on the colophons found in several pothi manuscripts from Central, South and South East Asia. Its contributions discuss the colophons’ defining features, thus exposing their ‘syntax’, focusing particularly on the tracing of recurring patterns. The information extrapolated from colophons is further analysed to obtain a better understanding of these distinct manuscript cultures

Treasures in Trusted Hands

This pioneering study charts the one-way traffic of cultural and historical objects during five centuries of European colonialism. It presents abundant examples of disappeared colonial objects and systematises these into war booty, confiscations by missionaries and contestable acquisitions by private persons and other categories. Former colonies consider this as a historical injustice that has not been undone. Former colonial powers have kept most of the objects in their custody. In the 1970s the Netherlands and Belgium returned objects to their former colonies Indonesia and DR Congo; but their number was considerably smaller than what had been asked for. Nigeria’s requests for the return of some Benin objects, confiscated by British soldiers in 1897, are rejected. As there is no consensus on how to deal with colonial objects, disputes about other categories of contestable objects are analysed. For Nazi-looted art-works, the 1998 Washington Conference Principles have been widely accepted. Although non-binding, they promote fair and just solutions and help people to reclaim art works that they lost involuntarily. To promote solutions for colonial objects, Principles for Dealing with Colonial Cultural and Historical Objects are presented, based on the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. They are part of a model to facilitate mediation in disputes about them. Europe, the former colonisers, should do more pro-active provenance research into the acquisitions from the colonial era, both in public institutions and private collections

The Syntax of Colophons

The present volume focuses on the colophons found in several pothi manuscripts from Central, South and South East Asia. Its contributions discuss the colophons’ defining features, thus exposing their ‘syntax’, focusing particularly on the tracing of recurring patterns. The information extrapolated from colophons is further analysed to obtain a better understanding of these distinct manuscript cultures