History Of Java

In this story Javanese history begins with a migration, rather than a creation myth which considering the successive movements of people from South-East Asia into the Indonesian archipelago is hardly surprising. The harmful spirits which inhabited Java were pushed into the mountain and forests or into the ocean, the helpful ones were adopted as protectors and advisors.

The island’s exceptional fertility allowed the development of an intensive sawah agriculture which in turn required close co-operation between villages for the maintenance of the irrigation systems.