Monumental Java
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S 30. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION ON CHINA AND THE CHINESE Date Due MAR-i^ 9m^U7U^-^^^* M CAT. NO. 23233 PRINTED IN (ST Cornell University Library N 7326.S32 Monumental Java. 3 1924 023 570 496 The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924023570496 MONUMENTAL JAVA ^0^m. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON • CHICAGO DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO MONUMENTAL JAVA BY J. F. SCHELTEMA, M.A. Unde etiam nunc est mortalibus insitus horror, Qui delubra deftm nova toto suscitat orb! Terrarum, et festis cogit celebrate diebus : Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Lib. v. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, AND VIGNETTES AFTER DRAWINGS OF JAVANESE CHANDI ORNAMENT BY THE AUTHOR MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1912 S 32- W.^47^^ COPYRIGHT TO MY DEAR COUSIN AND FRIEND PROFESSOR AUGUST ALLEB^ DIRECTOR EMERITUS OF THE NETHERLANDS STATE ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS AT AMSTERbAM If this book needs an apology, it is one to myself for taking the public at large into the confidence of cherished recollections. The writing was a diver- sion from' studies in a quite different direction and letting my pen go, while living again the happy hours I spent, between arduous duties, with the beautiful monuments of Java's past, I did nothing but seek my own pleasure. Should it turn out that my personal impressions, given in black and white, please others too—so much the better. In any case they must be taken for what they are : a beguilement of lone moments of leisure. Whoever find them readable, they will not satisfy, I hope, a certain class of critics ; those, I mean, who extend the paltry rule of mutual admiration, nul naura de Iesprit que nous et nos amis, to any field they claim their own and " of whom to be dis- praised were no small praise." Desirous, I must confess, to stimulate their flattering disapproval, I hasten to admit in advance my many shortcomings, a full list of which they will doubtless oblige me vii a 2 — viii MONUMENTAL JAVA with in due process of censorious comment. My work sets up no pretence to completeness : there is no full enumeration of all the Hindu and Buddhist no temples known by their remains ; there are measurements, no technical details, no statistics a great recommendation to my mind, as Dutch East Indian statistics go. I am not guilty of an ambitious attempt to enrich the world with an ex- haustive treatise on ancient Javanese architecture and sculpture—far be it from me to harbour such an audacious design ! I disclaim even the presumption to aspire at being classed as a useful companion on a visit to the island ; I deny most emphatically that I intend to swell the disquieting number of tourists' vade-mecums already up for sale, clamouring for recognition, and, horribile dictu, scores more coming ! Be they sufficient or insufficient, quali- tatively speaking, I am not going to increase their quantity. So much for what this book is not. What it is, I could not help making it, choosing from the material stored in my memory ; reliving, as fancy dictated in long northern winter evenings, the sunny spells between 1874 and 1903 when I might call Java my home ; resuming my walks in the charming island pjeasance of the East, fain to leave the congested main roads and disport myself along by-paths and unfrequented lanes where solace and repose await the weary wanderer. The under- taking, somewhat too confidently indicated by the title, tempted to excursions off the beaten historical, —: PREFACE IX geographical and archaeological tracks, which perhaps will contribute to a better understanding of the monuments described in their proper setting, their relations to natural scenery and native civilisa- tion, but certainly do not tend to conformity with the regulation style of compositions of the kind. Invoking the aid of Ganesa, the sagacious guide, countenancer of poor mortals in creative throes for, thank Heaven ! the fever of production is indissolubly one with the anguish that heightens its delights, — I never hesitated in letting the idea of self-gratification prevail, even when the question of illustration arose after the plan had ripened of invit- ing indulgent readers to partake. In this respect too I struggled free from anxious deliberation Wer gar su viel bedenkt, wird wenig leisten. And, Ganesa aiding, the following kaleidoscopic view of the land I love so well, was the result of my delicious travail. Looking for the flowers in the ill-kept garden of Java, the delinquencies of the gardeners could not be ignored and here I touch the unpleasant side of the recreation I sought, especially disagreeable when proposing to strangers that they should share ; but a picture needs shade as well as light to become intelligible. And to paint true to life the picture of Dutch East Indian passivity (activity only in vandalism !) regarding treasures of art inconvertible into cash, shade ought to be preponderant and light relegated to the subordinate place of a little star glimmering dimly in the darkness, a little star of X MONUMENTAL JAVA hope for the future. Disinclined, however, to spoil my pleasure by dwelling on the tenebrous general aspect of governmental archaeology in the past, I have no more than mentioned such disgraceful inci- dents as the Mendoot squabbles, and omitted, e.g., all reference to such ludicrously heated controversies as that about the kala-makara versus the garuda- naga ornament, exhaustive of the energy which the officially learned might have employed to so much greater advantage by rescuing the venerable temples they fought over, from decay and willful demolition. The neglect of the ancient monuments of Java has been nothing short of scandalous, the evil effects of the habitual languid detachment of the colonial authorities from the business they are supposed to look after, being, in their case, intensified by acts of dilapidation which even a Government centuries back on the road of enlightenment would have checked,^ not to speak of downright plunder and theft. The more honour deserve men like Junghuhn among the dead and Roufifaer among the still living, who lifted their voice against the intolerable negligence which hastened the ruin of some of the finest existing specimens of Hindu and Buddhist architecture. At last, in 1901, an Archaeological Commission was appointed, whose labours were directed by Dr. J. L. A. Brandes, their head and ' See, e.g., the edict, issued more than thirteen centuries ^o by the Emperor Majorian, as quoted by Gibbon : Antiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa constructio et ut aliquid ; reparetur, magna diruuntur. Hinc iam occasio nascitur, etc. PREFACE xi soul. After his regretted death in 1905, he was succeeded by Dr. N. J. Krom, who has no easy task in fanning the spark, struck by his predecessor from the hard flint of official laisser-aller into a steady, bright flame of real, continuous solicitude for the country's antiquities. Antiquities, except when sold, do not bring money to the exchequer, and the Dutch Govern- ment's most holy colonial traditions are diametrically opposed to expenses without promise of immediate pecuniary profit. If sympathies in matters alien to that prime purpose are miraculously aroused, such interest, revealing itself at the very best by fits and starts to serve ambitious schemes, soon flags and dies. Especially in Dutch East Indian enthusiasm for enterprises financially uncommendable, the adage holds good that tout lasse, tout casse, tout passe. The efforts of the Archaeological Commission can be traced only at the respectful distance of at least a couple of years, the drowsy dignity of red-tapeism putting as long a space as possible between the vulgar gaze of the unofficially curious and the official accounts of things accomplished, meetly compiled, arranged, amended, corrected, revised, purged, padded and bolstered up by the editing experts of successively the circumlocution offices at Batavia, Buitenzorg and the Hague. The reports, published in this manner, whatever they repre- sent as having been done, lay no stress, of course, upon what has been left undone, upon the archi- tectural marvels unprovided for, still suffered to xii MONUMENTAL JAVA crumble away, to be stripped and demolished, the valuable statuary and ornaments to be carried off piecemeal by unscrupulous collectors, the lower priced stones they left, sculptured or not, by the builders of private dwellings and factories, of Government bridges, dams and embankments. The illustrations, inserted to explain, imperfect though it bfe, the charm of the temple ruins I treated of, are reproductions of photographs, taken for the Dutch East Indian Archaeological Service, I obtained from Messrs. Charls and van Es at Weltevreden, by courtesy of Dr. N. J. Krom, and of photographs taken for the Centrum Company at Batavia, and by Mr. C. Nieuwenhuis and the late Cephas Sr. at Jogjakarta. The work of restoration can be appreciated from the photo-prints of the chandi Pawon and, with respect to the chandis Mendoot and Boro Budoor, from those facing pp. 215 and 280 ; they are the numbers 24 and 40 on the list of the illustrations, and I owe them to Major T. van Erp, also through the intermediary of Dr. Krom. My indebtedness for the text so far as it does not rest on personal observation and information obtained in the localities referred to, is a very large one to many authors on many subjects separately specified in the notes. Concerning the historical parts, I beg leave to state that my readings on controversial points have been determined by a careful sifting of the most acceptable theories advanced, at the risk of critics of the stamp alluded to, proving my preferred records absolutely inad- PREFACE xiii missible.