Indonesia: Peoples and Histories - Tengku Muhammad Dhani Iqbal

COMMUNITIES AND KINGDOMS
struction of new mosques, not the exploration of old ones. The past which is
preserved and presented for tourism and in textbook photographs appears detached
from histories experienced by citizens of the world’s largest Muslim
country.
With no visible past, we turn again to things made of metal and stone. Unlike
the machetes, axes, and drums that tell earliest histories, these objects have
words written on them. The soil of Indonesia’s mountainsides, forests, and
plains has thrown up texts on stone, gold, copper, ceramic, and bone. Inscribed
objects often exist outside of a context, not in relation to any other object
or to the remains of an ancient building such as a palace, library or
monastery. The oldest written text from Indonesia is chiseled on seven stone
pillars, the only evidence that has survived of the fifth-century Kalimantan
king, Mulavarman, and his subjects. The contents of inscriptions provide
snapshots of moments in the ongoing life of a community. Inscriptions cannot
be taken to describe centuries or society in all its classes and concerns. Nor do
the materials preserving Indonesia’s ancient texts represent all forms of writing
surfaces. Animal skins, tree bark, and leaves survive only from modern times.
Even more durable writing materials may disappear. Rainfall and humidity
wear away stones, and lichens and plants may render their surfaces unreadable.
Stones may also be hauled away by later generations to build temples in honor
of new gods.
Inscribed objects retrieved from Indonesia’s modern landscapes convey
histories of communities and kingdoms that were located at intersections of
land and sea routes. They tell histories of itinerant men, of their employers, of
communities stratified by wealth, occupation, physical mobility, and gender.
They give a history of intellectual exchange and innovation, and a history of
communities interacting within the archipelago and with cities on Asia’s mainland.
WRITING, LANGUAGE, AND SCRIPT
Four components of writing are language, writing system, writing
material, and content. The writing systems in which Indonesian languages
are rendered tell of a history of contact with other societies, of
training and travel by professional writers, and of their links to skilled
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