IMPRESSIONS OF JAVA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 78

IMPRESSIONS OF JAVA.

EQUATORIAL WONDERLAND. (By Colonel H. Foster, Director of Military Science, University of Sydney, in the Argus.) Java- and the other Dutch islands, lying to the south-east of Asia, are countries little known, and till lately little visited. Yet they form an enormous and wealthy empire, vast both in extent and in population, and very rich in vegetable products of the tropics and in mineral wealth. It is also' remarkable as having been longer in the hands of its present possessors than any cfaer European colonies. The Dutch reached Java with an armed expedition in the same century that the Spaniards overran America, and before French or English colonists settled on that continent.

This empire is entirely insular, comprising all the islands of the Malay archipelago, and is spread over an area of sea measuring 3000 miles from east to west, and 1000 miles from north to south. It lies along the equator, but the greater portion is in the Southern Hemisphere. In this area the only possessions of other nations are the British colonies and protectorates in Borneo, and the northern part of Timor, which belongs to Portugal. The chief portions of this Dutch Empire are, on the west, the great island of Sumatra; on the east, half of New Guinea, the largest island in the world, except Australia j between them the island of Borneo, which is so extensive that the United Kingdom could be placed in it without touching the sea. The southern portion consists of a chain of islands running east and west from Java to Timor. In the centre is the large island the Celebes, curiously indented in shape, with far-reaching peninsulas; a number of Smaller islands make up the total land area of. over 700,000 square miles. This area is as great as that of Central Europe -=Erance, Belgium, Holjjpnd, Germany, Austria and Italy.

The official title of this empire is Netherlands India, but the Dutch usually call it simply "India," to the bewilderment of. the travelling Englishman, who knows only one India. It is convenient to term it the Dutch Indies. Java, which is the size of Ireland, is but a small portion of the whole } but is the kernel of the Dutch Empire. Its population is nearly 20 millions, and the island is rich and prosperous, highly cultivated in every part, intersected by roads and railways, and absolutely peaceful and well-governed. The other islands are in a backward state. The small population Of Holland has never been able to send out enough men to civilise so large an area, and the wealth of Java ha® been a strong attraction for those who have gone to the Indies to settle The process of taming the wild mountain tribes in the islands, and spreading Dutch influence from the small settlements at the ports, is going on slowly but surely. Sumatra has several coast towns and ports, and some inland military stations. Mining is being pushed on, and planting, as in Java, With coffee, sugar, and rubber has begun. But the northern part of the island, called Aohln, has been for 40 years the seat of a never-ending guerilla warfare, in which the Achinese, always beaten but never subdued, continually harass their white foes, and resist Dutch domination. Borneo is for the most part unexplored, but there are Dutch settlements at the harbours, and a number of Chinese are occupied in mining. New Guinea is as yet not explored, and is practically untouched by the Dutch, although at this moment no fewer than seven exploring parties—one German, one and five Dutch—are preparing to enter the island at different parts. High snow mountains are reported in the interior, and it is believed that there, exists a new mammal, never yet seen by Europeans. Its capture is the objiet of the expedition under Captain KawliftS, of the British army, which the Royal Geographical Society have sent out. Some of the smaller Which are.

however, EO to 200 miles long, are still the scene of fighting. . Ir Flores, the most mountainous of the southern line of islands, it is only two years since the mountain tribes burned the little port of Ende. and killed the people in it. A company of Dutch infantry is now quartered there, and has imposed respect on the tribes. In 'Sumba, a sandalwood island, an expedition is now quelling a war in which a Dutch officer lost his life a few weeks since. —People and Products. — The main interest, therefore, of the Dutch centres in Java, an island 600 miles long by about 100 wide, formed of a chain of volcanoes, mostly active, whose eruptions have covered the country with fertile volcanic soil, as Etna has in Sicily. Java is considered' the most beautiful and luxuriant of all tropic islands in the world, and is certainly the richest. Situated near the equator, under constantly weeping skies, Java is clothed with the greenest of grass, large trees -with rich foliage, and innumerable fields of rice, wherever nrigation is possible. The rice is to be ireen in all stager of growth in the rich, water-soaked plots bounded bj earthen dykes. In some it is growing thick, forming a nursery for transplantation, which is effected bv gathering bundles, and planting out each separate stem in holes a foot apart, in soil of the consistency of porridge. The rice soon grows high, and gives a delicate shade of light green to the landscape. Some fields can be- seen ripe for cutting, some half-grown, some fallow, ready for planting • but not a foot of suitable ground is left unused, and the rice grown is reputed the best in Asia. Only the immense supply of cheap and patient labour, largely that of women, could produce such an enormous harvest of rice as Java exports.

Rubber plantations are being made by foreign capital, and promise a . high return in a. few years. On the drier hillsides is grown the famous coffee of Java, from which 50 years ago Holland drew so large a profit. It was made a Government monopoly, which it still is, although not so valuable now, owing to competition and diminution of area cultivated. This is the one surviving relic of the "culture system," by which the whole produce of Java was for many decades exploited by the Government of Holland.

The population of Java is enormous for its area, and in numbers per square mile exceeds any country except Belgium. The people are very well mannered, and gentle, industrious, and law-abiding, as is generally the case when a race has been long under the domination of overbearing alien conquerors. Java once formed an outlying province of Hindu civilisation and religion, and was ruled by Hindu sovereigns. There is a strong infiution of Hindu blood among the Malays, who form the basis of the population, which has softened the natures and improved the looks of the people. Up to about 1000 a.d Java was a Buddhist land, when that religion had long been extirpated in India, the land of its origin. The magnificent temple of Boro Bodor, and many others, are witnesses to the piety, wealth, and artistic feeling of the Buddhist monarchs of the seventh or eighth centuries a.d. At last, however, as in India, Brahminism supplanted the higher and purer faith, but itself was eradicated under Mahommedan invasions, which culminated about 1400 a.d. That religion was brought to Java by the courage and enterprise of Arab seafarers and •merchants, and this loftier monotheistic religion soon dominated the Javanese; but their easy, gentle natures rejected the more austere form of it, and it sits at this day lightly on them. Their women, for instance, are not veiled. Hinduism still persists in a few villages in the mountains and in the adjacent island of Bali. The Arabs soon made themselves masters of Java, and Mahommedan sultans set up kingdoms, of which two still exist. They are but shadows of their former greatness, and their rulers have but so much of the image of power as the Dutch allow. Still, they have a hold on the revenue and obedience of their subjects, and furnish a romantic spectacle in their barbaric and old-world magnificence of custom and costume, in which they reproduce the features of a typical Eastern court of the past. —A Sultan's Court. —

Such a Court can still be seen in its best and most typical aspect on the occasion of the festival of dancing at the palace of the Sultan at Jokyakarta, where the descendants of once powerful sovereigns still keep up their Court with the pomp and splendour of old, though real power has slipped from their grasp. In the palace, surrounded by a wall, live many thousands of retainers, and humbler hangers-on of the" court, and the Dutch have not interfered with their ancient mode of life, which still flows on in these decaying halls in the smooth, unruffled mode of the immemorial East.

On the birthday of the Queen of Holland the- aged Sultan presents annually the rare entertainment of traditional dancing by princesses of his family. _ This is at times repeated on the occasion of a visit of a distinguished guest, and took place to -welcome Lord Kitchener in December last. It furnishes an extremely picturesque and original spectacle. The scene of the performance, which takes place .at nighty is the Hall of Audience, in the centre of the inner courts of the palace. These stretch away on each side, vague and vast, in the dim light of lamps, and are crowded with hundreds of the Javanese nobility and their retainers, all, in the ancient manner, bare to the waist, and wearing the sarong, a dark native skirt, and armed with, a Ims, or sometimes two or three. The kria is the curved dagger borne for centuries' by all Javanese, with an ornamented handle, often of fine workmanship. All subjects of the Sultan, even his own family, on entering his august presence drop into the traditional attitude' of f*«

spect. This consists in sitting on :ieir heels, and even moving with difficult and: ungainly movements in this position.

The Hall of Audience is an open colonnade of teak pillars, supporting a roof whose beams form deeply-recessed squares, painted with gold and vermilion, and identical with the ceilings of palaces in old Rome. The floor, like all the courts, is of large slabs of black and white marble. The audience halls of Delhi and Agra are very similar, except that walls and columns are of white marble, and have the arches introduced by the Mohammedan conquerors, instead of the flat lintel of Hindi- architecture.

The Sultan, in European uniform, attended by his eldest son, similarly attired, receives his guests, and takes his place in the centre of a line 01 chairs in which the European dignitaries and visitors are seated. His other sons sit on their heels facing him, and a grandson squats close to him, watching his Sovereign's face with obsequious devotion, carrying his cigars and light, and ready to take a when required. On a cushion behind 'tho Sultan are some personal accessories of silver, his betelbox, and his richly-orna-mented kris. —Drama in Dance. — The marble floor in front of the line of privileged spectators is the stage of the dancing. Beyond it in the outer court, is the orchestra, or gamelang. This consists of some hundred performers, squatting on their heels in the first row of the vast audience. They play small metal gongs and wooden rods, each with its own note when (struck, and a number of small drums. The Javanese are a musical race, and the effect of the gamelong if sweet and weird. The leader and a large chorus of voices accompany the music with a solemn recitative - explanatory of the drama which is being danced in auDiib show. This drama is one of the romantic legends of love, jealousy, and revenge which, form so large a part of the Hindu literature, preserved for 2000 years and more in Java. They are written in the antique language of old Java, a dialect of the Sanscrit spoken by their ancestors long before they quitted their original homes in Northern India. They are familiar the people by translations made into modern Javanese, and by their frequent dramatic representation throughout the country. The dance by four performers is the highest form of their representation, and in its stiff archaic movements and slow solemnity reminds the spectator of the "No" dance of Japan, and, like it, ie of religious origin. Such, indeed, was no doubt the origin of all dancing, like that of Greece and all parts of the East. It will be remembered that King David "danced before the Lord." The Sultan, with i few authoritative words, orders the performers to begin. The leader of the gamelang intones the title and subject of the dance, and the music breaks out. At the first strains the dancers can be seen emerging from the dim space, where sit the ladies of the court. They are four in number, two granddaughters and two grand-nieces of the Sultan, young and graceful girls, but with their faces disfigured by the creamcoloured paint, which also covers their flesh where exposed in arms, hands, and feet. This is traditional, and recalls the fact that the original Aryan conquereors of India were white, so that all Hindu royal houses preserve the tradition of being of white caste among the swarthy conquered population, although in many caees admixture of blood has obliterated the distinction in the thousands of years since that bygone past. It may be mentioned that the Hindu word for caste — "varna"—means in Sanscrit "colour."' Differences in caste were originally actual differences in colour, shading from the white of the Brahmins and royal families to the blaick of the lowest caste. The dreas of the dancers is a dark velvet jacket and the sarong round the limbs, with a long, light ecarf, whose ends fly, as they turn and move in the dance'. They are richly decked with jewels on the head dress, down the front of the jacket, and on their necklaces, armlets above the elbow, bracelets, rings, and ankles.

Each princess is attended by a female slave, two leading and two following the procession. The advance down the marble floor is very slow and stately, the bare feet moving with slight elides and measured steps in unison, and the figures rigid and absolutely impassive. The procession at last reaches the open space in front of the Sultan, and forms up facing him, when the attendant slaves adopt the crouching attitude, and drop behind the princesses, who subside gracefully on their knee's with their drapery around them, and make the deferential obeisance due to the Sultan by placing the hands to the forehead, palm to palm. They then lise and begin their dance, which is slow and restrained, depending on the expression of emotion by postures, turns of the body, movements of the arms, and especially by play of hands and fingers, all inexpressibly graceful and appropriate. There is also much movement of the floating scarf ends and quaint posturing of the head in profile right and left, but the features are immobile, and the whitened face is like a mask.

The drama lasts an hour, and is brought to a close by the subsidence of the dancers on. the floor, and their obeisance to the Sultan, after which the princesses retire as slowly as they entered, preceded and followed by their crouching .slaves, hobbling lifee toads as long as in presence of their lord.

The whole scene is probably much wh&fi might ha,ve been witnessed in any Easi&rft land during the past "font thousand years. Similar dances must have been sees fit Egypt, Babylon, and Nineveh, in similar courta filled with obsequious retainers. The royal princes wear a heatUdress such" as can still be seen en Babylonia! palace wails, a tapering cylindrical structure pf black with gold bandit The mli&ie, witH its strange Strains, the. emfoug eliffOutbtP

ings, the courts and columns, and the barbaric half-clothed audience add to. the deep impression made by the dance, and the evening long remains in remembrance as one spent in another world in far-off times.

Among the celebrated scenes in Java the Botanic Gardens at Buitenzorg, the seat of government, holJ a high place. This beautiful town lies in a more temperate climate than the coast, on rich slopes at the foot 'of two great volcanoes, above a rapid brawling river, which runs between thick groves of bananas, palms, and bamboos. Hidden in these groves are the palm-thatched huts of the natives, who can be seen all day drawing water, washing clothes, o. bathing and swimming in the stream. Life is rustic and idyllic in Java. The gardens cover some 100 acres, and form a scene of ordered growth, where all the flora of the tropical world are collected and grouped by their species. There are jungles of bamboos, forests of various palms, ponds covered with lotus or with the gigantic flowers of the Victoria Regia, besides every kind of forest tree and shrub. All these grow out of lawns of the greenest grass, for the daily rainfall of Java vanishes drought, and makes it a real emerald isle. —When the British Ruled

The gem of the garden is the collection of orchids, which contain a great variety of species, some of rarity. We see them, of all descriptions, growing from the ground or from trees in astonishing profusion. The whole forms a scene of peaceful beauty owing to the luxuriant growth and the variety of form and colour in the vegetation. A spot interesting to the English traveller is the monument to the wife of the first and only English Governor, Sir Stamford Raffles. This is a small stone temple, standing under a grove on a green lawn, and is kept up under a special clause in the treaty of 1814, by which Java was given up by Great Britain. The island was captured by an expedition sent from India, in 1811, after Napoleon had annexed Holland and her colonies. The Dutch had till then failed to conquer half the island, which was ruled by its Mahommedan Sultans, but within a year the British were masters of the whole. Raffles placed British residents at the native courts, and by the wisdom and humanity of his administration, helped by his knowledge of the languages and insight into the nature of the Javanese, made British rule acceptable, and himself most popular in the country. He became Governor at the age of 30, and threw himself with extraordinary energy into his task. He visited every part of the island, always unguarded, and made himself acquainted' with the history and customs of the people. His activity and his political courage helped him to reform the finances and system of land tenure, and to relieve the cultivators of forced labour. It is fortunate for the. credit of Britain and the welfare of Java that a man so remarkably fitted should have had a free hand in governing that country, to which he gave five years of prosperity, and his memory deserves to be kept alive. The generosity of the cession of the island to the Prince of Orange, whom Britain replaced as ruler of Holland when Napoleon's usurpation of that country was ended, may perhaps be set in the balance' against natural regrets that it no longer forms part of the empire, rich as it is in beauty and products. It may also form a strong reason why Britain should never allow Java to fall into other hands than those of its present wise and temperate governors. .The most important work done by Sir Stamford Raffles was certainly his unearthing of the world-famous ruins of the temples in the centre of Java, and the resulting interest taken in their archaeology and their preservation by the Dutch Government, which till that time had paid no attention to them whatever. Of these ruins the most famous is Boro Bodor, a Buddhist temple, of probably the seventh century a.d. It was built in the palmy days of the Hindu dynasty, when civilisation and art'were evidently at a very high level. The numbers of labourers who, must have been assembled for such enormous building operations and the extraordinary perfection of the sculptures with which the temples are adorned are eloquent' on these points. Only in a densely-populated and wealthy country over which peace had long brooded could such gigantic works have been carried out.

Boro Bodor is a large pyramid, covering nearly the area of those in Egypt, font not half as high. Its peculiarity and interest lie in the, successive terraces or galleries of which it is formed. They are lined with slabs some 6ft by 3ft, each of which is sculptured with elaborate and delicate figures and scenes in high relief. There are thousands of these slabs, and each is a picture of beauty and interest. One terrace represents the scenes in the life of Buddha, another legends and histories connected with the rise of his religion. We see kings and their courts, ships lading troops of pilgrims, elephants, monkeys, and palm groves, crowds of citizens, battles, and sieges in the latter, while in the former we find pilgrims, suppliants, and a number of symbolical figures, with many representations of Buddha himself. The flat terrace, which forms the top of the pyramid, is covered with a number of domes, under each of Avhich is a great sitting figure of that wonderful teacher, in the conventionalised, but beautiful, form in which he is always represented throughout the East, with the ineffable expression of calm and majesty in his countenance.

The whole ruin, with its beautiful background of green plain and bare mountain, leaves a deep impression. The sculptures give a wonderful picture of Indian life in the remote past, euch as is nowhere else to ba found. They enable us to realise the devotion with which the religion of kindness., patience, and self-sacrifice inspired

its votaries and the adoration paid for centuries to its wise and gentle founder.