The process of Javanization of Indian culture is strikingly illustrated by the transformation of Sutasoma, a Buddhist story about an incarnation of the Buddha who converted a cannibal, which is preserved in two Old Javanese texts and more than 20 Indian texts and Chinese translations. By comparing the structure and contents of the story found in one of the Old Javanese texts, written by the fourteenth-century poet Mpu Tantular, with the Indian and Chinese texts, it seems clear that what is seen as the Sutasoma story in the former could originate solely from the Pāli Sutasoma jātaka (No. 537), though the author utilized elements from other sources as well. Some significant changes in the second Old Javanese text (included as an abridged version in Cantakaparwa, which is believed to have been compiled in the fifteenth or sixteenth century), such as the dismantling of the intricate story-within-a-story structure into a chronological sequence of episodes, the replacement of the original theological teachings by down-to-earth preachings, and the employment of the Middle Javanese usage of personal pronouns, are suggested to be the result of an attempt to adapt the story for the wayang, though to what extent the text would actually have been used for this purpose requires further investigation.

View full abstract

Malaysian society is a typical plural society of several ethnic groups, of which the Chinese constitute the second largest. The society is an aggregation of ethnically homogeneous communities. Chinese communities in rural area are of two types: new villages and nonnew villages. The new villages were organized under governmental control in the 1950s and have urban characteristics. The nonnew villages which predate them were formed around Chinese religious buildings (miao) and primary schools.
 The Teochiu fishing village where 1 lived for about one year and five months from October 1980 is of the nonnew type. In this village community can be found sociotopological spaces consisting of activities and relationships of villagers determined by situations in particular physical spaces in the village. I will demonstrate that there are two sorts of changes in these sociotopological spaces. One involves the fundamental rhythms which are observed cyclically in the year, the month and the day. The other is made up of noncyclical changes, namely, rites of passage, abnormal situations and intervention by outsiders in the village.
 With respect to fundamental rhythms, three sociotopological subspaces are important. These are the spaces of fishing activities formed by adult men, the Chinese religious space formed by women, and the Chinese primary school, where children learn about the outside world. Of the rites of passage, the funeral rite is most important. The village as a whole transforms into an abnormal state during this rite. Abnormal situations such as shortage of water and fire tend to make the village a corporate body. When outsiders, for example, Teochiu outsiders, non-Teochiu Chinese, Malays and Indians come to the village, the village reacts as if it has biological immunity. Outsiders are considered as antigens, and villagers who have wide networks outside the village and rich experiences with such outsiders act as antibodies. By these villagers' efforts, the influences of outsiders in the village are minimized.

View full abstract

The industrial sectors of Asian countries have achieved high, sustained growth over the last two decades. Their percentage contributions to GDP (ratio of industrialization) in Asian newly industrializing countries (ANICs) like Korea and Taiwan and in the ASEAN countries such as the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia have reached high levels, but the level of labor absorption between the ANICs and the ASEAN countries has been significantly different.
 The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of labor absorption by the industrial sector in each of the five countries mentioned above, and to analyze the impacts of labor absorption on intersectoral mobility of labor. The conclusions may be summarized as follows.
 The industrial sectors in the two ANICs had a high absorptive capacity which served to reduce the size of the farming population and the urban informal sector. Industrial development in Korea and Taiwan was geared to market liberalization and export promotion. Firstly, this policy stance corrected the price distortions in the factor market and led to the growth of labor-intensive industries in accordance with the factor endowments in these countries. Secondly, the expansion of labor-intensive manufactures boosted the labor absorption of the industrial sector.
 However, the industrial sectors in the three ASEAN countries were of limited labor absorptive capacity and were unable to absorb surplus labor in the agricultural sector or to reduce the size of the urban informal sector. Industrial development in these countries stressed importsubstitution and protectionism. This policy bias worked to reinforce price distortions in the factor market. As a result, industrialization evolved on the basis of capital-intensive technologies, which were contrary to the factor endowments of these countries and lessened the labor absorptive capacity of their industrial sectors. This defference brought about two contrastive patterns of labor mobility. In the ANICs, labor moved mainly from agriculture to modern manufacturing and service industries. In the three ASEAN countries, in contrast, massive migration of labor from rural areas to cities took place despite the weak absorptive capacity of their industrial sectors, and the bulk of such labor entered the urban informal sector. The continuous inflow to the urban unorganized service sector served to depress real wages in modern manufacturing industries.

View full abstract

The natural environments of the Lower Batang Hari were described in the previous paper, where five different regions were identified based on the stratigraphy and geomorphology. This paper describes the agricultural land use in these regions and its historical vicissitudes.
 The basic technology involved in the land use derives from various ethnic groups. Shifting cultivation on marshland with the long knife and the dibble are Malay elements. More sedentary exploitation of marshland for coconut gardens was begun by Banjarese about 100 years ago with the excavation of fish-bone networks of drainage canals. The immediate vicinity of the river and the canals was rapidly converted into coconut plantations, while inland plots, where freshwater inundation predominates throughout the year, are planted with rice.
 Buginese employ the same method more systematically for enterprise. But, at the same time, Buginese often abandon their settlements. It follows, therefore, that Buginese exploitation leaves only grass and shrub behind.
 The land use in the middle reaches is also described. The rice fields in the backswamp, called sawah payo, are planted during the dry season. Dry rice was formerly planted on levees and hills, but since the 1910s, when rubber gardens began to occupy the higher portions, it has shifted to the backswamps. Sawah payo, which features basin irrigation and buffalo trampling as an indispensable part of the tillage, is a creation of the Minangkabau.
 The combination of these various elements makes up Malay marsh agriculture, which is disseminated through the coastal swamps in the Malay Archipelago and to more remote coasts.

View full abstract