A WORLD OF WATER V ER H A N DEL ING E N VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE 240 A WORLD OF WATER Rain, rivers and seas in Southeast Asian histories Edited by PETER BOOMGAARD KITLV Press Leiden 2007 Published by: KITLV Press Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) PO Box 9515 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands website: www.kitlv.nl e-mail: [email protected] KITLV is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) Cover: Creja ontwerpen, Leiderdorp ISBN 90 6718 294 X © 2007 Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owner. Printed in the Netherlands Table of contents Preface vii Peter Boomgaard In a state of flux Water as a deadly and a life-giving force in Southeast Asia 1 Part One Waterscapes Heather Sutherland Geography as destiny? The role of water in Southeast Asian history 27 Sandra Pannell Of gods and monsters Indigenous sea cosmologies, promiscuous geographies and the depths of local sovereignty 71 Manon Osseweijer A toothy tale A short history of shark fisheries and trade in shark products in twentieth-century Indonesia 103 Part Two Hazards of sea and water James F. Warren A tale of two centuries The globalization of maritime raiding and piracy in Southeast Asia at the end of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries 125 vi Contents Greg Bankoff Storms of history Water, hazard and society in the Philippines, 1565-1930 153 Part Three Water for agriculture Robert C. Hunt Communal irrigation A comparative perspective 187 Willem Wolters Geographical explanations for the distribution of irrigation institutions Cases from Southeast Asia 209 Jan Wisseman Christie Water and rice in early Java and Bali 235 Franz von Benda-Beckmann Contestation over a life-giving force Water rights and conflicts, with special reference to Indonesia 259 Part Four Pure and impure water; Health and disease Foong Kin The role of waterborne diseases in Malaysia 281 Okke Braadbaart Privatizing water The Jakarta concession and the limits of contract 297 Anton Lucas and Arief W. Djati The politics of environmental and water pollution in East Java 321 About the authors 353 Index 357 Preface Books have their fortunes. This book started life as a workshop organised from 14-16 June 2001 as one of the features of the KITLV 150-year jubilee. Upon the request of the board of KITLV, the topic of the workshop was prepared by a small committee consisting of Franz von Benda Beckmann, Willem Wolters and myself. The idea behind it was that the theme of the workshop should reflect both the various disciplines represented by the members of the KITLV and the two geographical areas covered by the Institute’s charter – Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. However, as not all the speakers invited to deal with the Caribbean could make it to the workshop, it was decided not to include that region in the book. The theme chosen was ‘water’, a topic of great importance everywhere, but perhaps particularly in Maritime Southeast Asia, with its long shorelines in relation to its landmass, and with the enormous expanses of sea surround- ing Island Southeast Asia and abutting the shores of Mainland Southeast Asia. This is a theme that, according to the committee, could be addressed fruitfully by scholars specialized in disciplines as far apart as cultural anthropology, economy, fisheries studies, geography, history, and medicine. Water, in sev- eral respects a necessity of life, is at the same time a very dangerous element, and it was thought that it should be possible to present these facets of water under the various disciplinary angles, thus constituting a kaleidoscopic image of water in Southeast Asia. It is, of course, up to the reader to judge whether this collection of studies succeeds in presenting such an image. One of the disadvantages of such a collection is that it never can be com- plete, and that some people will be disappointed because their pet aspect is lacking. Another drawback is that such a book by its very nature cannot have a conclusion. However, it is hoped that the advantages of the novel approach chosen here outweigh the disadvantages. This volume is also part of the EDEN (Ecology, Demography and Economy in Nusantara) project of the KITLV, which was established to investigate the environmental history of Indonesia. It goes without saying that the presence or absence of water is an environmental factor of the greatest importance, a topic that is elaborated upon in many contributions to this book. viii Preface Various developments have slowed down the preparation of this volume. For several reasons it was not possible to include all contributions to the workshop, while one article in this volume has been written specifically for the book. Some delay was caused by the fact that the intended co-editor was unable to fulfil the tasks he had taken upon himself. Most authors have shown admirable patience during the long gestation period. Let me finish by conveying my thanks to those institutions that have funded the workshop and the book. This is of course in the first place the KITLV itself, while in addition funding has been obtained from the Netherlands Organisa- tion for Scientific Research (NWO), the Leiden University Fund (LUF), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). PETER BOOMGAARD In a state of flux Water as a deadly and a life-giving force in Southeast Asia Preamble In the study of Southeast Asia, there has always been a strong emphasis on everything terrestrial with a concomitant neglect of aquatic aspects. Given the fact that water in its many forms is of critical importance in the region, this is a remarkable oversight. Water, particularly in the form of seawater, heavily influences (and has done so in the past) the fortunes of the region. As it was exposed to the sea, the area was more accessible to outside politi- cal, economic and cultural influences than many landlocked regions. It was a crossroads of many different influences being exercised at the same time. Nevertheless, it could be argued that there is, at least in a cultural sense, ‘unity in diversity’, and that Southeast Asia is a region with common cultural characteristics that sets it apart from its neighbours. It is clear that India and China have influenced the area for hundreds and even thousands of years, but also that Southeast Asia is evidently culturally quite distinct from these two regions. What applies to culture does not seem to apply to politics. The area was never an empire in its own right or even belonged in its entirety to any one empire. The area was always politically fragmented, sometimes extremely so. A tiny island could be an independent political unit, and even small islands could comprise a number of ‘states’, often in constant conflict with each other. On the other hand, the possibility must not be ruled out that neighbouring islands coexisted and traded peacefully for long periods of time, without the benefit of shared statehood. Over the last half century, Southeast Asia has been fairly successful as regards the development of larger states, although lately counter currents are visible in countries such as Indonesia, the Philip- pines, and Thailand. Easy access via the sea routes to the area made it quite vulnerable to politi- cal control by strong outsiders. So the same easy access that may have been an I am grateful to Judith van Oosterom, who corrected my English. Peter Boomgaard advantage in the cultural sphere would be regarded by most as a disadvan- tage in a political respect. Easy access through sea routes also stimulated trade from an early age onward. Although the influence of trade on the areas concerned should not be underestimated, it is sometimes amazing to see that it only went ‘skin deep’. In Southeast Asia even the inhabitants of areas not too far from the sea could be quite ‘thalassophobic’ and (at least seemingly) untouched by the winds of trade. It could be argued too that Southeast Asia is also in an economic sense a region with characteristic features that sets it apart from its neighbours. At the same time, Southeast Asian societies and cultures are confronted with and permeated by ‘water from heaven’ in the form of rain, flash floods, irrigation water, water in rivers, brooks and swamps, electricity from water- driven power plants, and pumped or piped water, in addition to water as a carrier of sewage. It is in relationship to these types of non-sea water that it can be said that the region has a water crisis on its hands. This crisis has now been around for some time, and it has a profound influence on large groups of people in Southeast Asia. Finally, we are dealing with the role of water in classification systems, beliefs, myths, healing, and the like: primeval waters, water of life, elixir of life, purifying water, the world ocean with its gods, goddesses, and monsters, water as one of the four or five elements, and water as an element of the body. In this respect water is perhaps more a metaphor than anything else but there are clear links to so-called real water nevertheless. Seawater, water from heaven, and water-as-a-metaphor all have in common that they can be ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The sea is both a barrier and a link, it brings trade and pirates, and trade itself can bring prosperity or ruin.