History of Indonesia – The Early Kingdoms: Srivijaya, Shailendra & Mataram

The Sumateran Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya rose in the 7^th century AD and while its power has been absurdly romanticized, it nevertheless maintained a substantial international trade – run by Tamils and Chinese. It was the first major Indonesian commercial seapower, able to control much of the trade in South-East Asia by virtue of its control of the Straits of Melaka between Sumatera and the Malay peninsula.

Merchants from Arabia, Persia and India brought goods to the coastal cities to exchange for both local products and goods from China and the spice islands. Silk, porcelain, Chinese rhubarb (peculiar for its medicinal properties) came from China in return for ivory, tortoise shell, rhinoceros horn, cloves, cardamom and pepper, as well as precious wood like ebony and camphor wood, perfumes, pearls, coral, camphor, amber and the dull reddish-white precious stone known as cornelian or chalcedony. Exports to Arabia included aloes for medicinal uses, camphor, sandalwood, ebony and sapanwood (from ehich a red dye is made), ivory, tin and spices. By the 13^th century woolen and cotton cloth, as well as iron and rice were being imported by Sumatera.

Meanwhile, on Java, the Buddhist Shailendra and the Hindu Mataram dynasties flourished on the plains of Central Java between the 8^th and 10^th centuries. While Srivijaya’s trade brought it wealth, these land-based states had far greater manpower at their disposal and left magnificent remains, in particular the vast Buddhist monument of Borobudur and the huge Hindu temple complex of Prambanan.

Thus two types of states evolved in Indonesia. The first, typified by Srivijaya, were the mainly Sumateran coastal states-commercially oriented, their wealth derived from international trade, their cities highly cosmopolitan. In contrast, the inland kingdoms of Java, separated from the sea by volcanoes (like the kingdom of Mataram in the Solo River region), were agrarian cultures, bureaucratic, conservative, with a marked capacity to absorb and transform the Indian influences.

By the end of the 10^th century, the centre of power had moved from Central to East Java where a series of kingdoms held sway until the rise of the Majapahit kingdom. This is the period when Hinduism and Buddhism were syncretised and when Javanese culture began to come into its own, finally spreading its influence to Bali. By the 12^th century Srivijaya’s power seems to have declined and the empire broke up smaller kingdoms.

History of Indonesia – The Development of Early Sea Trade

Foreign traders were attracted by the Indonesian archipelago’s unique local products – the foremost were spices, which were used as flavorings and also to preserve food (meat in particular). Sumatera was famous for gold, pepper and benzoin (an aromatic gum valued especially by the Chinese) – but the real ‘Spice Islands’ were the tiny specks in region now known as Maluku (the Moluccas): Ternate, Tidore, islands off the coast of Halmahera, Ambon and Banda. On these islands grew nutmeg and cloves which could be used as spices and preservatives, in the manufacture of perfumes, and for medicinal purposes. By the 1^st century AD Indonesian trade was firmly established with other parts of Asia, including China and India. Indian trade, the more active of the two, linked India, China and Indonesia with Greece and Rome-Ptolemy mentions the island of Indonesia in his writings as early as 165 AD.

History of Indonesia - The Coming of Hinduism & Buddhism

One of the puzzles of Indonesian history is how the early kingdoms on Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan and Bali were penetrated by Hinduism and Buddhism. The oldest works of Hindu art in Indonesia, statues from the 3^rd century AD, come from Sulawesi and Sumatera. The earliest Hindu inscriptions, in Sanskrit, have been found in West Java and eastern Kalimantan and date from the early 5^th century AD.

Several theories regarding the influx of Hinduism and Buddhism have been proposed. Large scale immigration from India is generally ruled out and there is no evidence for the theory that Indian princes, defeated in wars in India, fled to the islands of South-East Asia and established kingdoms on the Indian model. Certainly Indian traders brought Tamil, the language of southern India, but only Brahmins could have brought Sanskrit, the language of religion and philosophy. Some Brahmins may have followed the traders as missionaries-although Hinduism is not a proselytizing religion. On the other hand Buddhism is a proselytizing religion and was carried far from its Indian homeland.

Another theory holds that the early Indonesians were attracted to the cultural life of India in much the same way Elizabethan English were to Italy, and the Indonesian Aristocracies played an active role in transferring Indian culture to Indonesia by inviting Brahmin priests to their courts. Possibly it was hoped the new religions could provide occult powers and a mythological sanction for the Indonesian rulers – as had happened in India. This theory fits in well with the mythological and mystical view of history which has persisted since the beginning of recorded Indonesian civilization. In the Hindu period the kings were seen as incarnations of Vishnu and even after the arrival of Islam the dynasties traced their lineage on one side back to Mohammed and from there to the prophets and Adam – but on the other side it was traced to the heroes of the wayang, the indigenous puppet theatre of Java, and to gods whom orthodox Muslims considered pagan. One Sumateran dynasty even claimed descent from Alexander the Great and as late as the second half of the 19^th century the rulers of Solo were boasting a special alliance with Nyai Lara Kidul, the Goddess of the South Seas, and with Sunan Lawu, the ruler of the spirits on Mt. Lawu.

History of Indonesia - In the Beginning

From the 7^th century BC there were well-developed and organized societies in the Indonesian archipelago. The inhabitants knew how to irrigate rice fields, domesticate animals, use copper and bronze, and had some knowledge of sea navigation. There were villages – often permanent ones – where life was linked to the production of rice, the staple crop.

These early Indonesians were animists, believing that all animate ad inanimate objects have their own particular life force, semangat or soul. Certain people had more semangat than others – such as the tribal and village leaders, and the shamans or priests who had magical powers and could control the spirit world. The spirits of the dead had to be honored since their semangat could still help the living; there was a belief in the afterlife and weapons and utensils would be left in tombs fr use in the next world. Supernatural forces were held responsible for natural events, and evil spirits had to be placated by offerings, rites and ceremonies. In a region where earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and torrential rainstorms are common events, a belief in malevolent spirits is hardly surprising.

 Villages, at least in Java, developed into embryonic towns, and small kingdoms (little more than collections of villages subservient to petty chieftains) developed by the 1^st century AD, together with their own ethnic and tribal religions. The climate of Java, with its hot, even temperature, plentiful rainfall and volcanic soil, was ideal for the wet-field method of rice cultivation, known as sawah cultivation, and the well organized society it required may explain why the people of Java and Bali developed a more sophisticated civilization than those of the other islands. The dry field or ladang method of rice cultivation is a much simpler form of agriculture and requires no elaborate social structure.

The social and religious duties of the rice-growing communities were gradually refined to form the basis of adat or customary law-a traditional law that was to persist through waves of imported religious beliefs-Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity – and which still remains a force in Indonesia today.