Abstract
This article intends to argue the validity and the limits of the model of power m the Javanese culture proposed by ANDERSON and others, through analyzing various doctrmes and discourses concerning the Javanese mystical sects. After the introductory remarks, Chapter Two gives an outline of the argument of the traditional model of power, and its relation to Javanese mysticism. The study of the concept of power in Javanese culture has been closely related with the study of kingship. Among the fairly good amount of studies on that subject, it is ANDERSON'S Seminal analysis on the Ja'vanese idea of power (ANDERSON 1972) that extracted the manalike notion of kasekten, which, according to him, is contrastively different from the Occidental one. Kasekten is that intangible, mysterious and divine energy which animates the universe. The kingship is mainly based on the accumulation of this power, and as long as the central king can manage to keep this energy in him, the order of the universe and society is kept stable and prosperous. A similar notion is argued by ERRINGTON about the Buginese society of Luwu where the concept of sumange' (ERRlNGTON 1983), which obviously has some historical connection with the Malay notion of semangat (vital power) (cf, ENDICOTT 1970), is of central importance as a sort of cosmic energy which organizes the society.
