Japanese Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Online ISSN : 2424-1377
Print ISSN : 0563-8682
ISSN-L : 0563-8682
Volume 21, Issue 1
Displaying 1-12 of 12 articles from this issue
Special Issue
Patterns of Urban Formation in Southeast Asia
  • Toru Yano
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 3-5
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Yoshihiro Tsubouchi
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 6-16
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This article discusses the character of population distribution and its relation to the structure of societies and states in Insular Southeast Asia in the early and mid nineteenth century. Except in Java and Bali, populations were characterized by sparsity, diversity, smallness, and mutual independence. Despite the effects of crisis mortality, the long-term population growth in the traditional period seems not to have been much different from those in India and China, which suggests the smallness of the original or early populations. New communities were formed through detachment of derivative settlements in the frontier regions. These characteristics were maintained through to the early and mid nineteenth century, when numerous petty states were found in this region.
     The order seems to have collapsed from the late nineteenth century under the unifying forces of colonialism and a rapid population increase, although the principles of social existence under the above population characteristics were maintained to the limit.
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  • The Birth and Growth of the Kraton in Central Java
    Kenji Tsuchiya
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 17-28
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper is a preliminary attempt to discuss the birth and growth of Yogyakarta in Central Java from a cultural perspective. Yogyakarta is peculiar in its inception. Unlike other Javanese kingdoms before it, the negara and kraton of Yogyakarta (territory and palace) was created by the Treaty of Giyanti in 1755. In the process of negotiating this treaty with Sultan Mangkubumi, first ‘king’ of Yogyakarta, VOC (the Dutch East Company at Batavia) always held the upper hand. It was also instrumental in setting the power dispute between the ‘kings’ of Mataram and Mangkubumi. As a result of the Treaty of Giyanti, Yogyakarta was created as a ‘visible’ and ‘limited’ domain in terms of its bounded territory and the registered population in its realm. In the creation of Yogyakarta, we see for the first time in the long history of Javanese kingdoms a curious development in which the ‘invisible’ and ‘unlimited’ nature of Hindu-Islam-Java kingdom was circumscribed by the ‘visible’ and ‘limited’ nature of a treaty of western origin, that is, the Treaty of Giyanti.
     This historical background enabled the ruler of Yogyakarta to concentrate his efforts on the revival of traditional Javanese culture in its most ‘authentic’ form. This tendency was further accentuated by the existence of the kraton of Surakarta; since the Treaty of Giyanti, the latter became a cultural rather than political rival of Yogyakarta. The whole purpose of this cultural revivalism was to rule the people not only by a political means but also the alleged cultural supriority of the kraton as an ‘exemplary center’. A primary tool of Yogyakarta's ‘cultural rule’ was the krama-ngoko syndrome, which was developed and refined after the birth of the kraton.
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  • The Birth and Development of a Priangan Town in West Java
    Yoshinori Murai
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 29-46
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Bandung, the “mother-town” (ibukota) of the Priangan mountain region in the eastern part of West Java, might originally have been the residential area of local powerful family (bupati), at about the time when a part of the Priangan people, who had been nomads, hunters or swidden farmers in natural forests, began to settle down near rivers or on open land. The residence of this local powerful family was sited in front of the town square (alun-alun), around which was also a sacred Hindu temple (later a great mosque), a jail and a retainers residential area. In the 17th century, Bandung was dominated by the Mataram Kingdom of Central Java, whose territorial town it became.
     On the other hand, old Priangan legends such as Sangkuriang and Lutung Kasarung suggest that Priangan people had the notion of town (dayeuh=region of palace) in contrast to forest, which was a terrible place but at the same time gave people a kind of spiritual power and material affluence. Without the power of the forest, the town or kingdom was thrown into confusion because of its nature of luxury, idleness or profligacy.
     This small essay firstly proposes a meaning of the incident of “Bandung Lautan Api” (Bandung, Sea of Fire) in March 1946. After discussing the original character of Bandung as above, it then follows the process of colonization of the town. Lastly, it concludes that the town of Bandung is now characterized as a common third-world city rather than a Priangan town, because of the very deep gap between the rich and the poor, and the existence of a vast number of poor “informal sector” people.
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  • A Case of Minangkabau Migrants in Jakarta
    Tsuyoshi Kato
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 47-61
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The populations of Southeast Asian cities have grown dramatically since the turn of the century, mainly due to the inflow of migrants from the countryside. Despite the numerical importance of migrants in the populations of Southeast Asian cities, little is known about how they live in the new environment. As a conspicuous example of rural-urban migrants in Indonesia, this paper examines the lives of Minangkabau migrants in Jakarta : their migration patterns, associational activities, and relationship with their native village. It is proposed that more serious attention be paid to the study of migrants in the Southeast Asian city and how they mediate the relationship between city and village.
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  • J. Leonard Blussé
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 62-81
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Until now it has only been partly explained what the causes and origins were of the insalubrious conditions at Batavia that forced the Dutch to move their headquarters from the coast a few miles inland by the end of the 18th century.
     Bad climate, a town lay-out unsuited to the Tropics and natural disasters are the current arguments. In this article it is suggested that the port city's downfall was rather the result of a combination of bad management—during the VOC period Batavia always remained a tool of the Company—and the rash and thoughtless development of the Batavian hinterland, the Ommelanden. A set of demographic charts published here for the first time clearly reflects the downward trend starting from the 1730s. Institutional and ecological factors were the main reasons for the city's demise only a few years after the Company itself had collapsed.
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  • Toru Ohno
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 82-96
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Mandalay is the second largest city in Burma, with a population of approximately four hundred thousand. It lies at 21°59′N and 96°6′E, and occupies part of a plain which stretches about thirteen kilometres from the Irrawaddy on the west to the Shan Hills on the east, and from the Madaya river on the north to the Mitnge river on the south. This rectangular area was designated “Shwe-gyo-that-ne,” the Royal City Area.
     Mandalay was founded by King Mindon in 1858 as a new capital. The shift of capital from Amarapura to Mandalay seems to have been made for mainly political and partly private reasons on the king's part. Following victory in the Second Anglo-Burmese War, the Governor-General of India unilaterally annexed the Province of Pegu with its ports of Rangoon and Bassein without concluding a peace treaty. Mindon seized the bloodstained Crown from his brother Pagan in 1853. To erase the humiliating disasters and to distract the attention of his people from their gloomy memories, he resolved to move his capital.
     Mandalay was designed basically on the same plan as the preceding capitals of Ava and Amarapura. The Royal City, called “Myo-daw” in Burmese, was built in a square, nearly eight kilometres in circumference. It was enclosed by a brick wall about eight metres high and two metres thick with the forty-eight bastions, which support the posts of the “Pyat-that,” a many-tiered pavillion. The wall was pierced by twelve gates, three on each side. Outside the walls, a deep moat was dug, seventy metres in breadth, which was originally crossed by five bridges.
     The king's palace, called “Shwe-nan-daw” in Burmese, was in the exact centre of the square city. It is enclosed by a stockade of teak posts six metres high, then by a brick wall, and again by another brick wall. In the inner enclosure stands the palace, facing east. All the palace buildings stood on a platform of brickwork two metres high. These building were all built of wood, and had only one storey.
     Roughly speaking, the eastern portion of the platform was reserved for official purposes, and the western half exclusively for the residences of the queens, princes and princesses together with their female attendants and servants. Facing the main eastern gate was the “Mye-nan-daw,” which consisted of the Great Hall of Audience, South and North, and just behind it the Lion Throne Room, over which rose “Pyat-that,” a grand seven-tiered spire. Behind this room was the “Hman-nan-daw-gyi,” the Glass Palace, the principal living apartment of King Mindon.
     The palace was not only the royal residence but also the centre of the kingdom. It is also said that the royal palace of Burma was regarded as the symbolic centre of the cosmological island of Mt. Meru. These palace buildings were, to my regret, burnt to ashes in bombing by the Allied Forces in March 1945.
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  • Masaya Shiraishi
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 97-113
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This essay discusses Vietnamese cities in the pre-modern era, especially their political significance to the rulers of state who built them. The first section takes issue with the assertion made by certain scholars that the urban genesis in Vietnam was nothing but the product of the Chinese colonization, and attempts to demonstrate that Vietnamese cities were the outcome of the internal development of the indigenous society. The second section, which focuses on various tales on the guardian spirits of the Thang Long capital cited in Sino-Vietnamese documents, further supports this point. The third section discusses the political significance of the walled cities and the city walls built by the rulers of independent Vietnam.
     The fourth section argues that cities had two functions. Generally speaking Vietnamese cities consisted of two parts: political and ritual centers fortified by walls; and surrounding quarters where commoners engaged in commercial and productive activities. Although the state rulers tried to control the outer parts of the cities, the economic activities conducted there by the common people should be regarded as the outcome and a reflection of the economic development in Vietnamese society as a whole, particularly in the rural areas.
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  • Toshiharu Yoshikawa
    1983 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 114-129
    Published: July 15, 1983
    Released on J-STAGE: May 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    About one hundred books and journals have been published in commemoration of the “Rattanakosin Bicentennial 1982” in fields like history, arts, archaeology, literature, custom and tradition. All of them emphasize the glorious history of the Chakri dynasty and its capital, Bangkok, and the traditional Thai culture. It is also noteworthy that some of the publications include beautiful colour pictures of the interior of the Chakri palace, never before published. These books and pictures help us to understand the cultural background of the Chakri dynasty and the Thai people.
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