Javanese people
Today the majority of the Javanese people identify themselves as Muslims, with a minority identifying as Christians and Hindus, but because Javanese civilization has been influenced by more than a millennium of interactions between the native animism and the Indian Hinduâ€"Buddhist culture, the influence is still visible in Javanese history, culture, traditions and art forms.
Like most Indonesian ethnic groups, including the Sundanese of West Java, the Javanese are of Austronesian origins whose ancestors are thought to have originated in Taiwan, and migrated through the Philippines, reaching Java between 1,500BCE and 1,000BCE.
The major spread of Javanese influence occurred under King Kertanegara of Singhasari in late 13th century. The expansionist king launched major expeditions to Madura, Bali in 1284, Borneo and most importantly to Sumatra in 1275. Following the defeat of Melayu Kingdom, Singhasari controlled trade in the Strait of Malacca.
Singhasari dominance was cut short in 1292 by Kediri's rebellion under Jayakatwang, killing Kertanegara. However, Jayakatwang reign as king of Java soon ended as he was defeated by Kertanegara's son-in-law, Raden Wijaya with the help of invading Mongol troops in March 1293.
Kingdoms of Java actively involved in spice trade in the sea route of Silk Road. Although not a major spice producer itself, they were able to stockpile spice by trading it with rice, of which Java was a major producer. Majapahit is usually regarded as the greatest of these kingdoms. It was both an agrarian and a maritime power, combining wet-rice cultivation and foreign trade. The ruin of their capital can be found in Trowulan.
Following succession disputes and civil wars, Majapahit power collapsed. Java underwent major changes as Islam spread. After the collapse of Majapahit, its various dependencies and vassals broke free. Sultanate of Demak became the new strongest power, gaining supremacy among city-states on the northern coast of Java. Apart from Javanese city-states, it also gained overlordship of ports of Jambi and Palembang in eastern Sumatra. Demak played major role opposing the newly arrived colonial power, the Portuguese. Demak twice attacked the Portuguese following their capture of Malacca. They also attacked alliance between Portuguese and the Sunda Kingdom, establishing in process the Sultanate of Banten.
Demak was succeeded by Kingdom of Pajang and finally Sultanate of Mataram. The center power moved from coastal Demak, to Pajang in Blora, and later further inland to Mataram lands in Kotagede near present day Yogyakarta. Mataram Sultanate reach its peak of power and influence during the reign of Sultan Agung Hanyokrokusumo in 1613-1645.
In 1619 the Dutch established their trading headquarter in Batavia. Java slowly fell to the Dutch East India Company, which would also eventually control most of Maritime Southeast Asia. The internal intrigue and war of succession, added with Dutch interference caused the Mataram Sultanate to break up into Surakarta and Yogyakarta. The further separation of the Javanese realm was marked by the establishment of Mangkunegaran and Pakualaman princedom. Although the real political power in those days actually lay with the colonial Dutch, the Javanese kings, in their keratons, still held prestige as the center of the Javanese realm, especially in and around Surakarta and Yogyakarta.
Dutch rule was briefly interrupted by British rule in early 19th century. While short, the British administration led by Stamford Raffles, was significant, and included re-discovery of Borobudur. Conflict with foreign rule was exemplified by the Java War between 1825 and 1830, and the leadership of Prince Diponegoro.
Like the rest of Dutch East Indies, Java was captured by the Empire of Japan during World War II. With Japan's defeat, independence was proclaimed in the new Republic of Indonesia.
August 17, 1945, when the Indonesian independence was proclaimed, the last sovereign Javanese monarchies, represented by the Sri Sultan of Yogyakarta, the Sunanate of Surakarta and Prince of Mangkunegara made a declaration they would become part of the Republic of Indonesia.
Yogyakarta and Pakualam were later united to form the Yogyakarta Special Region and the Sri sultan became Governor of Yogyakarta and the Prince of Pakualaman vice-governor; both were responsible to the President of Indonesia. The Special Region of Yogyakarta was created after the war of independence ended and formalised on August 3, 1950. Surakarta was later absorbed as part of the Central Java province.
Javanese were probably involved in Austronesian migration to Madagascar in the 1st centuries C.E. While the core culture of the migration is most closely related with Ma'anyan of Borneo, a portion of the Malagasy language is derived from loanwords from the Javanese language.
Since the Hindu kingdom period, Javanese merchants settled at many places in the archipelago.:247 In the late 15th century, following the collapse of Majapahit and the rise of Muslim principalities on the northern coast of Java, many Hindu nobilities, artisans and courtiers migrated to Bali, where they would contribute to the refined culture of Bali. Others who refused to convert to Islam retreated to Tengger mountain, retaining their Hindu religions and became the Tenggerese people.
In the conflicts during the transitions of power between the Demak, the Pajang and the Mataram in the late 16th century, some Javanese migrated to Palembang in southern Sumatra. There they established a sultanate and formed a mix of Malay and Javanese culture. Palembang language is a dialect of Malay language with heavy influence of Javanese.
During the reign of Sultan Agung, Javanese began to established settlements in coastal West Java around Cirebon, Indramayu and Karawang. These Javanese settlements were originally commissioned by Sultan Agung as rice farming villages to support the Javanese troop logistics on his military campaign against Dutch Batavia.
The Javanese also present in Peninsular Malaya since early times. The Link between Java and Malacca was important during spread of Islam in Indonesia, when religious missionaries were sent from Malacca to seaports on the northern coast of Java. Large migrations to the Malay Peninsula occurred during the colonial period, mostly from Central Java to British Malaya. From 1880 to 1930 migration from other parts of Java and secondary migration from Sumatra also took place during this period. Those migrations were to seek a new life away from the Dutch colonists who ruled Indonesia at that time. Today these people live throughout Peninsular Malaysia and are mainly concentrated in parts of Perak, Johor, Selangor, and Kedah. In Singapore, approximately 50-60% of its Malay population have some degree of Javanese ancestry. Most of them have identified themselves as Malays, rather than Javanese.
Javanese merchants were also present in the Maluku Islands as part of the spice trade. Following Islamization of Java, they spread Islam in the islands, with Ternate being a Muslim sultanate circa 1484. Javanese merchants also converted coastal cities in Borneo to Islam. The Javanese thus played an important part in transmitting Islam from the western part to the eastern part of the Archipelago with trade based from northern coast of Java.
New migration patterns emerged during colonial periods. During the rise of VOC power starting in the 17th century, many Javanese were exiled, enslaved or hired as mercenaries to Dutch colonies of Ceylon in South Asia and the Cape colony in South Africa. These included princes and nobility who lost their dispute with the Company and were exiled along with their retinues. These, along with exiles from other ethnicities like Bugis and Malay became the Sri Lankan Malay and Cape Malay, ethnic groups respectively. Other political prisoners were transported to closer places. For example Prince Diponegoro and his followers were transported to North Sulawesi, following his defeat in Java War in the early 19th century. Their descendants are well known as Jaton.
Major migrations started during the Dutch colonial period under Transmigration programs. The Dutch needed many laborers for their plantations, moved many Javanese under the program as contract workers, mostly to other part of the colony in Sumatra. But they also sent the Javanese workers to Suriname in South America. Today approximately 15% of the Suriname population is of Javanese ancestry.
The Transmigration program that was created by the Dutch was continued following Independence. A significant Javanese population can be found in the Jabodetabek area, Lampung, South Sumatra and Jambi provinces. Several paguyuban (traditional community organization) were formed by these Javanese immigrants, such as "Pujakesuma" (abbreviation of Indonesian: Putra Jawa Kelahiran Sumatera or Sumatra-born Javanese).
The American anthropologist Clifford Geertz in the 1960s divided the Javanese community into three aliran or "streams": santri, abangan and priyayi. According to him, the Santri followed an orthodox interpretation Islam, the abangan was the followed a syncretic form of Islam that mixed Hindu and animist elements, and the priyayi was the nobility.
But today the Geertz opinion is often opposed because he mixed the social groups with belief groups. It was also difficult to apply this social categorisation in classing outsiders, for example other non-indigenous Indonesians such as persons of Arab, Chinese and Indian descent.
Related Sites for Javanese people
- Javanese (people) -- Encyclopedia Britannica read Javanese people
- Javanese people | ABOUT OF INDONESIA read Javanese people
- Javanese people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia read Javanese people
- TheFreeDictionary.com - Javanese people - definition of Javanese ... read Javanese people
