Indonesia is a country located on many tropical islands. Each Indonesian island has its own unique culture, architecture, people and traditions. Indonesia has it all - jungles, rainforests, lakes, active volcanoes and, of course, paradise beaches. In Indonesia, you will meet friendly people, and you will also be able to see the sunrise over the most beautiful Buddhist temples.

Geography of Indonesia

Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago that includes more than 17.5 thousand islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java, and New Guinea (only 6 thousand of them are inhabited). Indonesia shares borders with Malaysia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. Other nearby countries are Singapore, Philippines, Palau and Australia. The total area of ​​this country is 1,919,440 sq. km.

A significant part of the territory of the islands that make up Indonesia is occupied by mountains. The largest local peak is Mount Punchak Jaya on the island of New Guinea, which reaches a height of 4,884 meters.

The geographical position of Indonesia determines that this country has very strong seismic and volcanic activity. those. Indonesia often experiences earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. However, special services can already predict all these cataclysms. In general, there are now about 150 active volcanoes in Indonesia, including the "famous" Krakatau and Tambora.

On the island of Kalimantanu there are three largest rivers in Indonesia - Mahakam, Barito and Kapuas.

Capital

The capital of Indonesia is Jakarta, which is now home to more than 9.7 million people. Archaeologists claim that a human settlement on the site of modern Jakarta existed already in the 1st century AD. However, the city itself was officially founded in 1527.

Official language

The official language in Indonesia is Indonesian, which belongs to the Austronesian language family.

Religion

More than 88% of Indonesia's population is Muslim (mostly Sunni Muslim). About 8% of the population of this country identify themselves as Christians.

State structure of Indonesia

Under the current Constitution of 1945, Indonesia is a parliamentary republic. Its head is the President, elected for 5 years.

The parliament in Indonesia is bicameral - the People's Consultative Congress, consisting of the Council of People's Representatives (560 deputies) and the Council of Representatives of the Regions (132 deputies). The country's parliament has the right to impeach the president.

The main political parties in Indonesia are the Democratic Party, the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the Justice and Welfare Party, and the National Mandate Party.

Climate and weather in Indonesia

The climate in Indonesia is equatorial with elements of subequatorial. In general, Indonesia is very hot and humid. The average annual air temperature is +27.7C. The average annual rainfall is 1,755 mm. The rainy season in this country is from October to April. However, there are also rains in the so-called. "dry season".

Some travelers like to relax in Indonesia during the rainy season (October-April). At this time, it usually rains in Indonesia in the evening for no more than 2 hours. The rest of the time, Indonesia is very hospitable. During this season, as a rule, hotel prices in Indonesia are much lower than during the dry season.

In Sumatra and Java, the rainy season lasts from November to March (rain falls in the afternoon). The best time to travel to Java or Sumatra is May-September.

In Bali, the rainy season is from October to March. However, in Bali, there is a lot of sun and bright blue skies between the rain shower. Therefore, in Bali you can relax in the rainy season. The best months to visit Bali are from May to August.

Sulawesi Island, an amazing place for a beach holiday, has two opposite climatic zones. In the southwest of this island, the monsoon period lasts from October to March, and in the north - from June to July. On the coast of Sulawesi, the air temperature can reach + 34C, and in the middle of the island, on a hill - + 24C.

Average air temperature in Bali:

January - +26С
- February - +26C
- March - +27C
- April - +27C
- May - +28C
- June - +27C
- July - +27C
- August - +27С
- September - +27C
- October - +27С
- November - +27С
- December - +27C

Ocean in Indonesia

The shores of the Indonesian islands are washed by the warm waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Average sea temperature near Bali island:

January - +29C
- February - +29C
- March - +29C
- April - +28C
- May - +28C
- June - +28C
- July - +27C
- August - +27С
- September - +27C
- October - +27С
- November - +27С
- December - +27C

Rivers and lakes

Some of the Indonesian islands have many rivers. The largest rivers flow through the island of Kalimantan (these are the Mahakam, Barito and Kapuas rivers). On the island of Sumatra is the largest volcanic lake in the world - Lake Toba.

History of Indonesia

On the territory of Indonesia, the ancestors of modern people lived already during the Lower Paleolithic (Javanese ape-man and Flores man). Approximately 45 thousand years ago, Homo sapiens appeared on the territory of modern Indonesia. Moreover, Indonesia was inhabited by representatives of the Negroid and Mongoloid races.

The first states in Indonesia already existed in the 4th century AD. - Kutai and Taruma, and later - Srivijaya. All these states were greatly influenced by India and Buddhism.

In the 13th century, the Majapahit empire reached its peak. At the same time, Islam began to spread in Indonesia.

Europeans arrived in Indonesia at the beginning of the 16th century. They were Portuguese sailors. Then the Dutch began to claim Indonesia, who formed the Netherlands East India Company in 1602. At that time, several states existed on the territory of modern Indonesia, among which the Sultanate of Mataram should be distinguished. Gradually, these states became colonies of the Netherlands.

Indonesia became a British colony in 1811. However, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain returned Indonesia to the Netherlands.

In the first half of the 20th century, Indonesians formed several political parties (for example, the Communist Party of Indonesia and the National Party).

In the spring of 1942, Indonesia (Netherlands East Indies) was captured by Japanese troops. The Japanese occupation of Indonesia continued until August 1945. It was in August 1945 that the independence of Indonesia was proclaimed. However, the Netherlands did not want to part with their colony, and unleashed hostilities. The fighting ended only in 1950. Sukarno was elected president of the country.

In March 1968, the People's Consultative Congress elected Sukarto, who had previously commanded the ground forces, as president of Indonesia.

Since 2004, the President of Indonesia has been elected by direct universal suffrage.

culture

The modern culture of Indonesia is the result of the interaction of the traditions of different peoples who live in this country. In addition, Portuguese traders and Dutch colonists had a noticeable impact on Indonesian culture.

In everyday life, Indonesians are guided by the principles of mutual assistance ("gotong royong") and exchange of opinion ("musyawarah"), which helps to come to an agreement ("mufakat").

Indonesian art is under a very strong religious influence. The traditions of the famous dance dramas of Java and Bali date back to Hindu mythology (influence of the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata can be seen in them).

In Indonesia, we recommend that tourists definitely see the local festivals, which are held everywhere and almost every month. The largest of them are the Galungan festival in Bali, performances of the Ramayana ballet in Java, the Feast of Silence in Bali, the Vesak Buddhist festival in Borobudur, and the Easter Parade on Larantuka Island.

Kitchen

The staple food in Indonesia is rice, but potatoes, corn, sago and cassava are common in the eastern part of the country. Naturally, a very large part in Indonesian cuisine is occupied by fish and various seafood (oysters, shrimps, lobsters, crabs, squids). In addition, Indonesian cuisine cannot be imagined without coconut (oil is made from it, and the pulp is added to many dishes).

As for meat, beef and poultry are popular in Indonesia. Pork is only found in Chinese restaurants or in areas where few Muslims live.

Traditional Indonesian dishes are nasi goring (fried rice), mie goring (fried noodles), and gado-gado (vegetables with eggs in peanut sauce).

Indonesia has a wide variety of exotic fruits (jackfruit, durian, papaya, pineapple and mango).

The traditional alcoholic drink in Indonesia is tuak wine, which is made from palm red sugar. However, most Indonesians drink black tea because Islam forbids alcohol.

Sights of Indonesia

Rest assured that travelers in Indonesia are not bored. Of course, relaxing on the beaches under the Indonesian sky is a great pleasure. But sometimes you want to visit interesting places. There are a lot of such interesting sights in Indonesia. The top ten Indonesian attractions, in our opinion, may include the following:

Cities and resorts

The largest Indonesian cities are Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, Tangerang, Bekasi, Depok, Palembang, Semarang, Makassar, and, of course, Jakarta.

Due to its geographical position, Indonesia has excellent conditions for recreation. Tourists have long appreciated such islands in Indonesia as, for example, Bali and Lombok. However, some of the other Indonesian islands offer just as great a holiday opportunity. We advise you to pay attention to the islands of Papua, Lembongan, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java.

Almost every hotel in Indonesia offers spa services. In general, many argue that the best spa treatments are done in Indonesia. Spa programs on the island of Bali are especially diverse.

Traditional Indonesian spa services include a milk bath ("Mandi susu"), which is considered the beauty bath of the princesses of Java, "Mandi luhur", "flower baths" (jasmine, gardenia, hibiscus, magnolia petals are added to warm water), which, as a rule, are the final stage of the spa session.

In addition, Indonesian spas include herbal wraps (used to remove impurities from the body and heal skin blemishes) as well as traditional massages.

Souvenirs/Shopping

Bamboo and coconut products (for example, baskets, rugs), wooden spoons, bowls, figurines, painted ceremonial masks, batik and ikat fabrics (as well as, for example, tablecloths made from these fabrics) are usually brought from Indonesia as souvenirs. , Wayang dolls, traditional Indonesian musical instruments ("gamelan", drums, bamboo flutes), tea.

Office Hours

Government agencies:
Mon-Fri: 08:00-16:00

E. Rotenberg

The states of medieval Indonesia occupied territory on the islands of the vast Malay Archipelago. The main part of its population was made up of Malay tribes and nationalities, representatives of the southern type of the Mongolian race. The location of the archipelago on sea routes, which had been established between India and China since the first centuries of our era, played an important role in the historical fate of these peoples. The natural wealth of Indonesia, and above all spices, for many centuries attracted the attention of Asian, and later European conquerors. From the beginning of the first millennium AD, the islands of the archipelago became the object of Indian colonization.

By that time, the Malay tribes were at various stages of social development. In the most developed areas - the coastal regions of Sumatra and Java - the process of decomposition of the primitive communal system and the formation of the first slave-owning states was completed. As a result of the conquest of Sumatra and Java by immigrants from India in the first centuries of our era, Indonesian principalities arose here, the ruling class in which were Indian conquerors, mixed with the ruling elite of the Malay tribes. The basis of the economy of these principalities was agriculture with the use of artificial irrigation. Slave-owning relations were gradually supplanted by feudal ones, and by the 8th century. the feudal system was dominant in Java and Sumatra. Crafts developed; constant trade relations with the countries of the continent, including China, contributed to the flourishing of navigation and related shipbuilding. Large trading cities arose.

One of the results of colonization was the spread of the Hindu cult in Indonesia, which existed here along with Buddhism, often intertwined with it. Among the masses of the indigenous inhabitants, however, the animistic ideas, characteristic of the previous stage of historical development, were still preserved. Indian conquerors also brought with them the richest culture.

Apparently, the social and cultural development of the local peoples was quite high, and Indian culture did not become the property of a narrow ruling elite. Accepted by wider sections of society, she played an important role in the formation and development of Indonesian art.

Although the territory occupied by the Indonesian states was subsequently extremely vast, the main area where the monuments of medieval art were concentrated turned out to be the island of Java - the most populated and richest in natural resources of all the islands of the Malay Archipelago. It was here that the first monuments of stone construction that have come down to us in Indonesia arose - temples on the Dieng plateau, dating back to the 7th - early 8th centuries. The Dieng Plateau was at that time the main center of worship in Central Java, a place of religious pilgrimage. Of the many religious buildings erected there, only eight have survived to date. These are characteristic examples of Javanese temples known as chandi.

Chandi is a relatively small stand-alone temple in the form of a compact cubic array, placed on a stepped base and crowned with a high stepped covering of pyramidal outlines. On the side of the main façade, the main volume was usually adjoined by an entrance portal protruding forward, to which a steep staircase leads; three other walls were also equipped with portals or niches, the architraves of which, like the framing of the entrance portal, were decorated with ornamental carvings and demon masks. Inside the temple there was a small room, covered with a false pyramidal dome; there was a statue of the deity. Many features of the compositional construction of candi were associated with the nature of the worship, which was performed not inside the temple, but mainly outside it, and these cult requirements received a peculiar aesthetic interpretation in temple architecture. The Javanese candi is a kind of temple-monument, designed primarily for viewing from the outside, which explains its equilateral plan, expressive silhouette, and special plasticity of architectural masses and forms.

The question of the origin of the type of chandi itself is rather complicated. There is no doubt that Indian architecture had a significant impact on its formation, especially the monuments of southern India, from where the main stream of Indian colonization came from. This is reflected in the predominance of mass over space inherent in Javanese temples, in the nature of their structures and architectural forms, and in some decorative techniques. Of considerable importance for the formation of the Chandi type were probably also the buildings that arose in the previous centuries on the territory of the Indochinese Peninsula, in particular the early Cambodian prasat. However, it should be noted that even the first Javanese temples bear the stamp of originality that distinguishes them from continental samples. In comparison with Indian temples, Javanese Chandi are distinguished by their simplicity and austerity of appearance, and in comparison with the buildings of Cambodia - by more harmonious proportions, clarity and clear tectonics of architectural forms. An example is the chandi Puntadeva on the Dieng plateau (7th-early 8th century) (ill. 162) - a small building of slender proportions, square in plan. Excessive fragmentation of forms, characteristic of Indian temples, and ornamental abundance are absent here; calm straight lines prevail; The plasticity of the wall is discreetly revealed by pilasters and panels. The cornices of the basement and cella are somewhat more energetically emphasized, introducing the necessary contrasts into the tectonics of the building. The high cover repeats in a reduced form the shape and articulation of the cella. Separate motifs, the nature of breaks and profiles can outwardly resemble even the forms of ancient order architecture.

In relating to the 7th - early 8th c. chandi Bhima walls are treated even more strictly; not only the ornament is missing, but even the obligatory demon masks above the openings. The frieze of garlands and the modillions of the cornice are surprisingly close in form to antique motifs. The general tendency of the entire volume of the cella upwards is reinforced by the introduction of an attic, which repeats the main articulations of the wall. On the other hand, the high pyramidal crown is distinguished by its complexity and richness of forms. Along the axes of the slopes and at the corners, it is decorated with a multi-tiered system of arched recesses; inside each such recess is placed the sculptural head of Bhima, one of the heroes of the Mahabharata, whose name this candi bears. A clearly drawn contrast between a strict cella and a complex covering testifies to the high artistic skill of the builders of the temple.

In the 7th-8th centuries, with the strengthening of the feudal system in Indonesia, the process of consolidation of small Indo-Malay principalities into larger state associations began. This process coincided in time with a particularly strong wave of Indian military, religious and cultural expansion. During this period, the first powerful Indonesian state arose - the state of Srivijaya - headed by the rulers of the Shailendra dynasty. The capital of the state was the port of Palembang in Sumatra, which became one of the largest cities in Southeast Asia. The state of Srivijaya has retained its predominant importance for several centuries; during its heyday - in the 8th - 9th centuries - along with Sumatra, part of Java and other islands of the archipelago, it also included the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines; Cambodia and Champa were dependent on him. It was a vast maritime empire with a strong navy that controlled trade routes along the southern and southeastern coasts of Asia.

Around 732, the rulers of the Shailendra dynasty captured Central Java. The inclusion of this area in the powerful state of Srivijaya gave Javanese art a different, incomparably larger scale, expanded its tasks and possibilities. In the same period, Buddhism in India suffered a final defeat in the struggle against Brahmanism, and a large number of Indians who professed Buddhism moved to Java. -This circumstance increased the influence of the Buddhist cult in Java and affected the construction of temple structures.

8th and 9th centuries became the time of the first powerful upsurge of Indonesian art. In Sumatra, monuments of this period have been preserved in an insignificant number; The main artistic center at that time was Central Java, which remained under the rule of Shailendra from 732 to 800. A number of valuable monuments have been preserved on the territory of the city of Prambanam, where the residence of the ruling dynasty was located.

New features are already evident in the architecture of traditional chandi. Built in 779 on the Prambanam Plain, the Chandi Kalasan (ill. 163), dedicated to the goddess Tara, the female incarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, is the first known and accurately dated Buddhist structure on Yanan soil. This monument is one of the finest creations of Indonesian architecture. Unfortunately, the temple has come down to us somewhat damaged: the architectural processing of the high plinth has been lost, the coating has been badly damaged.

Already in size, Chandi Kalasan significantly exceeds the early temples - this is a real monumental structure. The plan, instead of the usual square, is a kind of cross with wide sleeves - risalits. Such a construction is explained by the presence on each of the three sides of the temple - except for the entrance - a special chapel, to which a separate entrance led with a steep staircase rising to it. From the cover, the first tier of octagonal outlines and partially the round second tier have been preserved. The overall appearance of the Chandi Kalasan, with its delicately found balance of load-bearing and carried parts, reveals features of proximity with buildings on the Dieng plateau, but its design is distinguished by greater depth and at the same time complexity. The peculiar “order” interpretation of the wall, characteristic of early Javanese architecture, has reached here a special sophistication. Light, barely protruding from the solid walls, pilasters form panels of various widths - narrow, completely filled with the finest ornament, and wide, with a smooth plane of which contrast the relief masks of demons, incomparable in richness and beauty of the decorative pattern. The breaks and profiles of the upper part of the plinth and the unusually complex entablature of the cella are distinguished by exceptional diversity and subtlety. But with a great variety and richness of motifs and forms, this structure retains the clarity of the general tectonic structure. It cannot be disturbed even by fanciful cult motifs, such as rows of bell-shaped stupas (called dagobas in Indonesia) placed as crowns over each of the four ledges of the cella.

In chandi Kalasan, the nature of ornamental stone carving attracts attention. The ornament itself, in the presence of pictorial elements, has a very large degree of purely decorative expressiveness. The carving is remarkable for its subtlety, almost airiness; the openwork pattern is unusually easy to lay on the wall, without disturbing its plane, but rather shading it. A similar principle of ornamentation (which applies to the entire architectural decoration as a whole) distinguishes the Indonesian monuments of this period from the works of Indian temple architecture, in which an excess of plastically interpreted ornamental forms is in accordance with the general * spirit of the architectural image, as if personifying the elemental power of the forms of organic nature.

By the end of the 8th c. Another outstanding work of Javanese architecture is Candi Mendut, one of the most famous shrines of the island, located on the road to the greatest monument of Buddhist architecture in Java - Borobudur. Like the candi Kalasan, this is also a large building, but more austere and restrained in form; in it the taste for large calm planes is more pronounced. A distinctive feature of Chandi Mendut is a very wide and high terrace-like base, on which, like on a platform, rises a square cella with risalits barely protruding in the middle of each wall. The cella is crowned with a covering in the form of square terraces running in two tiers. The entablature of the cella and the ledges of the roof are decorated only with severe teeth. In Chandi Mendut, one can especially feel the heavy mass of the wall, the massiveness of architectural forms. The impression of massiveness is already created by the very masonry of large stone squares; the almost complete absence of openings and recesses in the walls contributes especially to it. Only the figures of bodhisattvas, executed in low relief technique and placed in a beautiful frame, soften the harsh power of the walls (ill. 164).

Chandi Kalasan and Mendut are compelling examples of what Indonesian art was creating in the 8th century. quite original monuments, not inferior in their artistic significance to the monuments of Indian architecture of this period.

The further development of Javanese architecture is characterized by the creation of temple complexes, marked by bold searches in the field of volume-spatial construction. Built at the beginning of the 9th century, which has come down to us in the ruins of Chandi Sevu in Prambanam, it was an ensemble where the main temple, located on a high terrace-like base, majestically towered over the four concentric rectangles surrounding it, formed by a huge number of tiny temples. The following data give an idea of ​​the scale of this complex: the total number of these temples-chapels is two hundred and forty, the length of the entire ensemble along the longitudinal axis is over 180 m, along the transverse axis - about 170 m. All buildings were richly decorated with sculpture and ornament. The central temple is large; with its cruciform plan, it resembled a chandi Kalasan: on each of the four sides it was adjoined by a chapel with an independent entrance and a staircase leading to it. All four facades are the same, which is due to the location of the temple in the center of the complex. The two double belts of small churches surrounding the central temple are planned in such a way that from afar, along the axial directions, a spectacular view opens up on each of the four facades of the temple, which towered over a whole crest of bizarre crowns formed by several rows of temple-chapels. The use of such a planning principle was associated with ideas of a cult nature: the strict geometric construction of the plan of the entire complex concealed a certain religious symbolism. But the elements of abstract symbolism turned out to be here transformed into factors of great artistic expressiveness. Using them, the builders of Chandi Sevu showed their inherent art of high artistic organization: they managed to merge a huge number of various buildings and all the plurality of architectural forms into a single whole, into a genuine architectural ensemble.

The most significant creation of the architecture of the Shailendra era and of all Javanese architecture in general is the famous Borobudur, a monumental temple of grandiose scale, erected in the second half of the 8th and early 9th centuries. in the Kedu Valley (Central Java).

Borobudur is a gently sloping earthen hill, surrounded by stone-lined terraces towering one above the other in five tiers (ill. 166, 167). Thus, in general, the monument turns out to be like a gigantic stepped pyramid. In terms of the terraces of this structure, they form a square with many ledges; the dimensions of the base are 111X111 m. the total height of the building is 35 m. The terraces have an internal bypass, along the walls of which an endless ribbon of relief compositions spreads (ill. 169 a); the crest of each of the terraces is decorated with bell-shaped decorative stupas running almost in a continuous row, as well as niches following at certain intervals in a complex architectural and ornamental frame. Inside each of these niches, in outline representing a kind of stupa in section, is placed a statue of the Buddha. Thus, on five terraces there are a total of four hundred and thirty-six Buddha statues, each of which is a life-size human figure. The entire five-tier structure is crowned with three round terraces, on which hollow stupas with slotted holes in the walls are located along concentric circles (ill. 168). Inside each of them is also placed a statue of the Buddha; there are seventy-two such stupas with statues. In the center of the uppermost terrace there is a large stupa that crowns the entire structure (ill. 169 6). Steep stairs along the four axes of the pyramid, cutting through the walls of the terraces, lead to its top.

The complex stepped plan of Borobudur, the abundance of architectural forms that are hardly perceived by the eye, countless statues and endless narrative reliefs with a variety of compositions, carved ornament covering the planes of the walls - all this makes a truly stunning impression. But behind this abundance and variety of architectural and sculptural Elements lies a strict unity of the general design, which is comprehended as a result of a successive change of various aspects of perception.

At the beginning of the review, when the viewer sees the entire monument from the plain, the huge stone hill seems to be a living and breathing mass, from which, as it were, countless images and forms are born and appear before the viewer’s eyes. The main architectonic articulations of the monument are hidden here, as the horizontals of the terraces are lost behind the countless needles of the decorative stupas and niches with statues that crown them. When the viewer then enters the structure itself, he finds himself, as it were, isolated in the bypasses of its terraces, and his attention is entirely directed to the relief friezes placed on the walls of the bypasses. Following the course of their story, the viewer gradually rises higher and higher from the terrace to the terrace, until he finds himself at the top of the stepped pyramid. II here, after a long layering of the most diverse artistic impressions, the process of comprehending the general concept of a monumental structure is completed. Only now can the viewer grasp it as a whole, understand the logic of its plan, the correlation of its masses. Here, a contrasting juxtaposition of the stepped polygons of the lower terraces, saturated in abundance with the most complex architectural and sculptural forms, and the completely smooth planes of the three upper round terraces with their triple ring of slotted stupas, among which the bell-shaped array of a large central stupa grows so organically, is clearly visible.

As the researchers convincingly prove, the original plan of the monument was different: above the five lower terraces, several more tiers of the same square terraces were supposed to follow, ending with a building of a cruciform temple with entrance portals on all four sides. In this case, Borobudur would have been a gigantic likeness of four-portal chandi placed on stepped bases; the silhouette of the monument would have been different, its pyramidal form would have been more clearly expressed. During the construction process, however, it turned out that the ground was too weak to withstand the weight of such a huge structure, which is why this bold plan had to be abandoned and, without bringing the building to the originally planned height, crown it with a lighter triple ring of stupas. Nevertheless, even in its final form, the monument has a unity of plan and three-dimensional solution, as well as a striking integrity of figurative design.

Obviously, here, too, the compositional solution of the building, based on a comparison in terms of various geometric figures, carries a certain symbolic idea. This idea cannot yet be considered unraveled, since all interpretations are controversial. However, the fact that during the construction process, the creators of Borobudur, having shown exceptional artistic flexibility, managed to make serious changes to the original project, indicates that the cult symbolism was not an unshakable dogma for them. Borobudur is also the highest example of the synthesis of architecture and sculpture in Indonesian art. We do not have sufficient idea of ​​the history of earlier Javanese sculpture: we know works mainly from the second half of the 8th century, which - like Borobudur - are an indicator of the full maturity of Indonesian sculpture. The unprecedented scale of the sculptural works of Borobu-dura is evidenced by many hundreds of Buddha statues placed on the crests of the terraces. The example of Borobudur shows how cult prescriptions sometimes led to exorbitant artistic extravagance. It has already been mentioned above that seventy-two Buddha statues are placed under the slotted stupas on the upper round terraces. These statues practically remain invisible: they can hardly be seen, only by bringing your eyes close to the narrow holes in the walls of the stupas. II nevertheless, these sculptures, almost inaccessible to the eye of the viewer, are made with the usual care and are monuments of high artistic skill.

Countless Buddha statues of the Borobudur temple are marked by features of compositional and stylistic uniformity (ill. 170, 171). In all cases the Buddha is represented naked, sitting cross-legged; only minor changes in the position of the hands, pre-established by religious canons, indicate various incarnations of the deity. These canons, like the external type of Buddha itself, are close to the Indian prototypes, but here they receive a different implementation. In the Borobudur statues, the deity's emphasized detachment from the real world gave way to a sense of inner balance and deep peace. The severity of their compositional construction is moderated by a more lively sense of plasticity and the rough texture of the porous sandstone from which the statues are made.

The relief compositions along the terraces, the total length of which is more than five kilometers, amaze even more with their scale. Of course, not all compositions are equal in their artistic quality, but the best of them belong to the outstanding works of Javanese sculpture of the Shailendra era.

In terms of their figurative features, the reliefs of Borobudur correspond to that stage of historical and artistic development, which in India is characterized by sculpture of the period after the Guptas (7th-8th centuries). We find here similar features of the pictorial system, the same iconography of the deities and, finally, closeness in technical methods. But at the same time, the differences in figurative and stylistic nature are quite obvious. In contrast to the dramatic works of Indian masters based on strong emotional contrasts, such as, for example, the cycle of reliefs in the temples of Elura, Elephanta and Mamallapuram, the Javanese masters are dominated by a single emotional tone of calm harmony, a sense of serenity and happy fullness of being. These features of the worldview are also reflected in the pictorial techniques of the best reliefs of Borobudur. Their distinguishing feature is the calm simplicity of compositional construction, architectonic clarity; with ideal generalization and inevitable features of conventionality - a greater plethora of images, a sensual-tactile transfer of the plasticity of the human body. The relief images of Borobudur are devoid of the extremes that are often characteristic of the images of Indian art, sometimes hieratically conventional, sometimes bearing an exaggeratedly sensual character. They also do not have the stormy dynamics of Indian samples, sharp large-scale contrasts, free, sometimes broken composition. In this sense, the plastic images of Borobudur are the most "classical" among the monuments of art of all the states of Southeast Asia.

The reliefs of Borobudur tell about the earthly life of the Buddha. The endlessly stretching friezes consistently depict various stages of his earthly existence and other episodes from Buddhist legends and traditions, however, the dogmatic side of legends in many cases is often only a kind of pretext for embodying images of reality. The theme of Borobudur reliefs includes real life in many of its manifestations. Their action takes place not in transcendental heights, but on earth - this is the life of the royal court and the nobility, peasants and hunters, sailors and Buddhist monks. In strictly canonical forms, only the Buddha himself is depicted; the less significant deities of the Buddhist pantheon already differ little in character from the images of people who, in essence, occupy the main place in the compositions. Equally indicative is the predilection of the masters of Borobudur for showing the real environment surrounding a person: architecture, vegetation, details of everyday life are depicted with many details. These images, of course, are still conditional, but the very fact of introducing them into relief compositions is very important. The feeling of the real environment does not leave the Javanese sculptors. It is no coincidence that the Javanese artists are attracted by the narrative element, a kind of lively story, in contrast to the Indian masters, who usually focus their attention on the climax of events and on images of a symbolic nature.

The characteristic features of the relief sculpture of Borobudur can be illustrated by several episodes. Thus, the composition, reproducing, it would seem, a purely ritual episode - the sacred ablution of the body sativa - turns into an image full of exciting poetry (ill. 172). In the center is the body-satva himself; his yogis are immersed in a flowing stream; his body under a transparent chiton seems to be naked. The sons of the gods, as a sign of reverence, sprinkle sandalwood powder and flowers over the water. The gentle curve of the figure of the body-sattva, the smooth repetitions formed by the contours of the figures of the flying deities, the stamp of thoughtfulness that marked the faces of the reverently bowed witnesses of this event give the composition a shade of great lyrical feeling.

The so-called “Scene at the Well” is even freer from the cult shade, where the Bodhisattva Sudhana is depicted talking to one of the women who came to the well for water. The bodhisattva himself is not even placed in the center of the composition, but aside; resting his hand on his knee, he sits on the steps of the stairs, teaching a woman sitting in front of him on the ground. On the opposite side of the relief is a fairly accurate depiction of a temple, a typical Javanese candi. The central part of the composition is occupied by two amazingly beautiful groups of young women placed on both sides of the well. Each of the figures is an example of high plastic perfection. Close to each other in rhythm, slender and graceful, they differ in individual motives of movements: some of the girls hold empty vessels in their hands, others are depicted carrying filled jugs on their heads. In this composition, the feeling of a happy fullness of life was most pronounced; it is expressed not only by the living, tangible plasticity of the figures, but is also poured into their entire environment, manifesting itself in every detail. Thus, a tree, hung with fruits, placed in the very center of the relief, is perceived as an image of a beautiful and fruitful nature.

Finally, there are relief compositions in which the cult shade completely disappears. These include, for example, a relief depicting the arrival of sailors (ill. 172). Part of the relief is occupied by a ship rushing along the waves with sails stretched by the wind; his depiction, with the authenticity of its details, reminds the viewer that Indonesia was a country of outstanding seafarers. In another part of the relief, it is shown how travelers who have come ashore, kneeling down, accept gifts from a peasant family that meets them. The images of a peasant, his wife and a teenage boy - their Malay ethnic type, the details of their costume - are depicted with great accuracy, as is the characteristic rural building visible on the pillars; on the roof, its master depicted kissing pigeons. Such a desire for authenticity is very peculiarly combined in reliefs with traditional conventionality, which manifests itself, for example, in the depiction of trees. Their flattened crowns are ornamental and decorative, but at the same time the artist carefully reproduces the shape of the leaves and fruits, accurately conveying the type of wood.

In the art of Southeast Asia of the first millennium AD. e. Borobudur occupies a special place. There is no other monument that could be compared with it in terms of scale, in terms of the very type of construction, in terms of the nature of the principles of synthesis of architecture and sculpture implemented in it. Even India does not know this kind of buildings. This monument alone, the construction of which required the labor of huge masses of people, high technical organization and, finally, a colossal number of talented artists and experienced craftsmen, gives an idea of ​​the state power and height of the artistic culture of the Indonesian state of Srivijaya.

The best examples of statuary sculpture from the period of the Shai-Lendra dynasty include the statue of Buddha from Chandi Mendut. Extremely strict in its compositional structure, seemingly extremely generalized in its modeling, this majestic sculpture is nevertheless distinguished by a special fullness of plastic masses, which imparts to the image something of the vital fullness of the relief plastics of this time.

A monument of exceptional artistic height is the portrait head of a Javanese prince originating from Chandi Sevu, represented in the form of a Buddhist deity (ill. 165). In Java, there was a custom of intravital and mainly posthumous images of rulers in the images of Buddhist and Brahmin deities. In this case, the prince is depicted as one of the incarnations of Buddha, with a shaved head, and this motif is skillfully used by the sculptor in a figurative and plastic sense. An unusually compact volume, an exceptionally keen sense of constructive construction, a greater than usual severity of sculptural masses - all this is in accordance with the sense of spiritual composure that forms the basis of the figurative content of this work. These qualities are perceived not as a conditional Buddhist scheme of internal self-deepening, but as real traits of a human character, which is why this work is immediately perceived, with all the ideality of the type and generalization of the plastic language, as a portrait, and not as a monument of cult purpose. The skill of the sculptor is amazing: there is not a single line in this head - it is built on subtle transitions of plastic forms, the finest nuances of which are enriched by the roughness of the porous stone, which gives the chiaroscuro a soft, slightly shimmering character.

The next stage in the history of Indonesian art is associated with the period of the liberation of Java from the power of the Shailendra dynasty and the emergence of the Central Javanese state of Mataram, which existed from 860 to 915. The state of Mataram was close to the kingdom of Srivijaya that preceded it, both in economic structure and in the nature of its culture. This is evidenced by the main monument of the period under consideration - created at the end of the 9th century. the Loro Jonggrang temple complex in Prambanam, now largely in ruins. Hinduism became the dominant religion during this period, and the Loro Jonggrang temple is known as the largest Hindu religious building in Java. The whole ensemble consisted of eight temples located on high terraces and surrounded by small temples and two concentric quadrangles of walls. The three largest temples located in the central part of the complex are dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; the largest of them is the Shiva temple. This is a cruciform temple, standing on a stepped pyramid-shaped base with stairs in the middle of each of its three sides leading to the three portals of the temple. Inside the temple cella there is a statue of Shiva. The terraces of the three main temples are decorated with relief compositions depicting episodes from the Ramayana and the Tale of Krishna.

The general pictorial principles of the reliefs of the Loro Jonggrang temples are close to those of Borobudur. These are also frieze compositions with strongly pronounced narrative elements. The same great attention is paid to the real environment surrounding the characters; the very types of actors, especially the episodic ones, their attire, the features of the life of the royal court are shown here, perhaps with even greater specificity than in Borobudur. Vegetation-trees, bushes are depicted more lively, less subordinate to the ornamental scheme; everywhere an abundance of animals and birds. At the same time, symbolic compositions are found here more often than in the reliefs of Borobudur. The reliefs of the Shiva temple are also characterized by a sensual fullness of images, characteristic of Javanese art, but with a touch of greater refinement: the emphasized grace of the contours of naked female figures is striking, in their movements conventional grandeur often gives way to life observation. The general spirit of the relief compositions is also somewhat different: there are more noticeable features of drama, internal excitement, dynamics; contemplation was replaced by efficiency, peace - by movement; in visual means, strict architectonics gives way to picturesqueness and freer dynamic constructions. If in Borobudur the frieze was divided into a number of complete compositions with the help of ornamental frames, then the relief frieze of the Shiva temple is an uninterrupted stream of figures, in its individual segments acquiring a particularly rapid character. The plasticity itself here is freer and more energetic.

The feeling of excitement is already evident in the three-figure scenes that fill the panels of the balustrades, where the deities are depicted in a state of ecstatic dance. In these figures of the traditional warehouse, there is still a closeness to Indian iconographic patterns. The multi-figured relief compositions of the main frieze are incomparably more original. Here, emotional elation is manifested in the predominant choice of dramatic situations in which the sublime and the ordinary side by side with each other, because the gods and heroes are presented as acting in a real life environment. Such are the episodes from the Ramayana - for example, the scene of the abduction of Sita, the wife of the god Rama, by the demon Ravana, who took the form of a Brahmin. The vicious Ravana attacks the desperately resisting Sita; a woman sitting on the floor, one of Sita's close associates, having witnessed the abduction, throws up her hands in horror, and in this movement, as in the whole appearance of the court, there is a shade of purely everyday character. Immediately, the dog greedily eats the contents of the overturned cauldron. In the episode of Rama's battle with the demon Kabandha (ill. 174), the viewer's attention is attracted not by the ideally elevated images of Rama archery and his brother Lakshmana or the huge Kabandha with a frightening mask on his stomach, but by the images, so to speak, of the earthly plane, in particular, a warrior with with a wide knife, looking in amazement at the feat of Rama. The rough features of his very peculiar ethnic type of face, bulging eyes, mouth half-open in surprise, some strange sideburns, a headdress, a clumsy squat figure - all these details, especially in contrast to the imperturbable expression of faces and the ideal beauty of Rama and Lakshman, testify about the great sharpness of the artist's powers of observation and his courage in juxtaposing images so different in character.

The contrast is no less striking in the episode of Vishnu's reincarnation, where the images of other deities, witnesses of the miracle, are compared with the hieratically conventional image of the many-armed Vishnu sitting on the snake Ananta. These deities form a group of amazing beauty and lively ease; their images are distinguished by an even more vivid sense of vital fullness than similar images of Borobudur (ill. 175). The female deities have beautiful faces of the Malay type, full, but at the same time flexible figures, their movements are free and natural.

With great skill, the authors of the reliefs depict animals, in particular monkeys, appearing in many compositions. The plot of the Ramayana itself opens up favorable opportunities for this: in search of Sita, Rama was helped by the leader of the monkeys Hanuman. Particularly effective is the episode depicting monkeys throwing blocks of stone into the mouths of huge fish.

Compared to the reliefs of Borobudur, the reliefs of the Loro Jonggrang temple represent the next stage in the evolution of Javanese sculpture. The classical harmony of the images of Borobudur has been largely lost in them, but they have a wider scope of reality, the figurative characteristics have become brighter and more concrete, the gamut of conveyed feelings is fuller, the artistic language is freer and richer in terms of means.

The Mataram state collapsed, probably due to some natural disaster - an earthquake or an epidemic, since after 915 Central Java became depopulated. Since that time, East Java has become the main area for the development of Indonesian culture. A period of mutual struggle of the largest feudal rulers began. By the middle of the 11th century. Erlanga> one of these rulers, gathered under his rule most of the island. Having also captured significant territories outside Java, he created a strong state. This state collapsed immediately after the death of Erlanga himself (he ruled in 1019-1042), and a period of feudal civil strife began again, which lasted until the beginning of the 14th century. By this time, one of the Javanese principalities - Majapahit, gradually intensified, captured most of Java, as well as other areas of the Malay Archipelago. The state of Majapahit maintained its power for two centuries. In the 16th century as a result of the separatist struggle of its principalities, mostly Muslim (Islam began to penetrate the Sunda Islands in the 14th century), the Majapahit state disintegrated, and separate Muslim principalities were formed in Java. In the same 16th century, the Portuguese appeared on the islands of the Malay Archipelago, who soon established their trading hegemony in this region of Southeast Asia. From the end of the 16th century the Dutch began to penetrate the archipelago, ousting the Portuguese and subsequently turning Indonesia into their colony.

History of Indonesian art 10th-15th centuries does not present such a relatively complete picture as in previous centuries. The centuries-long internecine struggle between individual principalities, the emergence of centralized states and their collapse, wars with neighboring countries - all these events affected the cultural development of Indonesia. For architecture and the fine arts, the successful development of which in the conditions of a feudal society required the expenditure of great labor and resources, as well as the uninterrupted continuity of the artistic tradition, the conditions turned out to be less favorable in this sense; in 10-15 centuries. in Indonesia, monuments of such magnitude and grandeur were not created, as in the first millennium. It is also obvious that a considerable number of works were destroyed and have not survived to our time. Hence the fragmentation of our information about this art, the fragmented nature of the monuments themselves. Nevertheless, during this period, the cultural development of the country did not stop. From the 11th century rise of Indonesian literature. Sanskrit has lost its position in the literary language; Javanese Kawi became the language of Epic poetry. The Javanese translations of the Indian epic date back to Erlanga's reign. At the same time, obviously, the famous wayang, the Javanese shadow theater, arose.

Architecture and fine arts acquired the conditions for their rise to a greater extent in the 14th-15th centuries, during the period of the rise of the Majapahit state. In terms of scale, this state can be compared with the kingdom of Srivijaya. The scope of the Majapahit merchant fleet extended from the coast of Africa to China. Extensive international relations have given their imprint to the art of the Majapahit period, in which, along with features of proximity to the art of India, some elements are captured that go back to the art of China.

The temple architecture of the 10th - 15th centuries does not reach the scale of religious buildings of the 8th - 9th centuries. The type of a small temple - chandi - becomes predominant again. To the best architectural monuments of East Java in the 10th century. refers to the Shaivist Chandi Jabang. Relatively small in size, it begs comparison with the Central Javanese chandi of the 7th - 8th centuries. Chandi Jabang attracts attention with the unusualness of his type. Instead of the former cubic cella and the general balance of volumes, we see here a vertically elongated round volume, set on a high cruciform base. The rapid rise of a slender cella raised on a steep multi-tiered pedestal, the combination of its curved surfaces with unusually plastically inscribed strict rectangular portals into them from four sides, the contrasts of smooth steves with multi-layered profiles of the socle and cornice - everything here manifests a sense of the dynamics of the architectural image, unknown to previous architects. centuries. This building is also distinguished by the sophisticated artistry of design and execution, the beauty and sophistication of proportions - both in the general silhouette and in the consonances and contrasts of individual motifs and forms. Without congestion, without excessive detail, the impression of great richness of the architectural image is created. ornamental and decorative elements, in particular large masks of demons above the portals, are economically but extremely effectively used. Chandi Jabang has no analogues in the Indian architecture of this period; on the contrary, it rather opposes it with a clearly expressed rational basis of the artistic image, which is perceived as a natural result of the development of the characteristic features of Javanese architecture of the 7th - 8th centuries.

Another type of architectural constructions of the period under consideration was the princely tombs erected on the slopes of the mountains with pools decorated with sculpture, intended for ritual ablutions. The most interesting monument of this time is a sculptural group from the pool at the tomb of Erlanga in Belahan, depicting Erlanga himself in the guise of the god Vishnu. This work is characterized by a peculiar mixture of cult and secular elements. Erlanga is represented as a four-armed deity seated in a pose established by the canon on the giant mythical bird Garuda. The fantastic appearance of Garuda with his bestial muzzle and widely spread wings, wriggling snakes, complex framing around the figure of the deity are called upon to bring in the image of the ruler the features of intimidation, inaccessible greatness. However, the face of the deity is treated with an unexpected portraiture, essentially contradicting the conventionality of the general design and the pompous decorativeness of the entire composition. With unadorned truthfulness, the appearance of the ruler is reproduced - his somewhat puffy face with an overhanging forehead and a wide flat nose, even an expression of strength and volitional tension is conveyed. In the sense of conveying specific features of a separate individuality, the image of Erlanga surpasses the previous images of rulers.

The last major monument of Hindu architecture, the Panataran temple complex, belongs to the Majapahit period. Unlike the Central Javanese temples of the 8th-9th centuries, the Nanatarana ensemble was not built according to a single plan; its constituent buildings were erected at different times, during the 14th and the first half of the 15th century. The complex does not constitute an integral planning system; there is no strict axial arrangement of buildings - the principle of free placement of buildings has become dominant. From the main temple, only the plinth, decorated with reliefs on the plots of the Ramayana and the Tale of Krishna, has now been preserved.

One of the small pan-ataran temples that has come down to us intact, dating back to 1369 (ill. 176), testifies to new features characteristic of the architecture of the Majapahit period. It is a square building with an accentuated vertical silhouette. Above a small cella, decorated on four sides with strict portals with traditional magnificently decorative demon masks and crowned with a very strongly extended cornice, rises a high multi-stage roof, forming an unusual hipped silhouette. The cella, therefore, turns out to be narrower and lower than the roof, which violates the principles of tectonic balance. Therefore, although the architectural forms of the temple themselves are distinguished by purely Javanese strictness of lines, and the creeping carved ornament does not destroy the plane anywhere, the building no longer gives the impression of a clear architectural logic and harmony of forms, and in general the temple is devoid of a sense of tectonic regularity inherent in the best Javanese buildings. In the emphatically vertical solution of the volume, in the multi-tiered roof, each ledge of which is decorated at the corners with carved acroteria, which makes the corners of the tiers seem to be bent upwards - these features, perhaps, are influenced by examples of Chinese architecture, in particular multi-tiered pagodas, reinterpreted, however, in their own way. fret.

The type of temple building with a small cella and a high roof, worked out in the Pan-Taran complex, was preserved for many centuries, up to the 18th century. - on the island of Bali, which remained the center of Hindu culture in Indonesia after the establishment of the dominance of Islam.

In the sculpture of the Majapahit period, internal contradictions are revealed even more clearly. There are several different trends here. The most conservative of them is represented by the famous statue of the goddess of higher wisdom Prajnaparamita from the Leiden Museum (13-14 centuries) (ill. 177). The goddess is depicted as a bodhisattva with strict observance of all forms of the Buddhist canon. In this work we find in its own way a subtle disclosure of the image, however, neither the sophistication of the silhouette, nor the beautiful drawing of the face, as well as other signs of the undoubted skill of the sculptor, can hide the absence in this image of that radiation of vitality that distinguished the earlier works of the Javanese statuary and relief sculpture.

Another line of Indonesian sculpture is characterized by works in which the quirkiness and fantasy of the image are complemented by the original compositional structure and the widespread use of ornamental and decorative decorations. This includes numerous statues of the elephant-like deity Ganesha, for example, the statues of Ganesha in Bar (13th century). Similar trends are found in the sculptural group depicting the victorious struggle of the goddess Durga, the wife of the god Shiva, with the buffalo-like demon Mahisha (ill. 178). With all the conventionality and angular lapidarity of the images, this sculpture has a dramatic element, and the modeling of the figures is distinguished by great energy. Durga's attire is completely covered with ornaments, and the very composition of the group, skillfully unfolded in a plane, produces a certain decorative effect.

To the greatest extent, the departure from conventionality and the approximation to nature are found in the third direction of the Javanese sculpture of the period under consideration. It is represented mainly by sculptures decorating the ritual pools at the tombs of the rulers. So, for example, two figures of young women with jugs originating from Mojokerto (now in the museum in Jakarta) (ill. 179) give the impression of complete freedom from the traditional ideal canon both in the reliable transfer of the Malay type of their faces, characteristic hairstyle, and in the immediacy of the plastic motive, posture, movements. In animated faces, in slightly exaggerated angular movements, the great observation of the artist, his inherent real sense of life, manifested itself.

Finally, reliefs from the Panataran temple form their own special line. They mean, in essence, a complete rejection of the figurative system and artistic language developed in Indonesian art as a result of consistent centuries-old development. One of these reliefs, depicting Sita, the wife of Rama, yearning in captivity, with her maid, attracts attention with its conventionality. This is a planar openwork stone carving, where figures with distorted proportions and exaggerated gestures are endowed with both schematism and grotesque features, and plants and household items have turned into a kind of ornamental signs. The former plastic expressiveness of volumes gave way to a graphic effect - the ratio of light and dark spots, the expressiveness of angular contours. The pictorial techniques of such reliefs, as well as the nature of the images themselves, are reminiscent of figures from wayang - Javanese shadow theater, and, like the wayang itself, bear a reflection of the influence of Far Eastern art.

Later, with the establishment of the dominance of Islam, which forbade images, the opportunities for the fruitful development of sculpture disappeared in Indonesia. Only on the island of Bali were the old artistic traditions preserved, but even here there were no conditions for their truly creative continuation. The process of primitivization that began in the Majapahit period also affects the art of Bali. The impossibility of developing the classical artistic tradition within the restrictive prescriptions of Islam, and then under the conditions of cruel colonial oppression, led to the fact that the main achievements in the Indonesian art of subsequent centuries were found mainly in the field of folk crafts.

Among the most famous museums are the National Museum in Jakarta, the Zoological Museum in Bogor and the Geological Museum in Bandung. The National Museum was founded in 1778 on the basis of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, but finally took shape in 1862, when the museum and library of the Batavian Society were placed in a new building in Jakarta. The museum has a significant collection of works of Indonesian culture, organizes exhibitions and conducts a lot of research work. Among the capital's museums, one can note the Museum of National History (founded in 1975), the Jakarta History Museum (founded in 1974), the Wayang Museum (founded in 1975), the Museum of Fine Arts (founded in 1976), the Textile Museum (founded in 1976), the Museum of the Sea (founded in 1977) and the Abri Satriya Mandala Armed Forces Museum (founded in 1972). The Taman Mini Indonesia Park (“Beautiful Indonesia in miniature”, founded in 1980), whose expositions tell about the culture and life of the peoples inhabiting Indonesia, is well known. Numerous museums are available in provincial towns. Among them are the Travulan Archaeological Museum (Java) with collections of antiquities from the 13th-15th centuries; the Sana Budaya Museum (founded in 1935, Yogyakarta) with an art collection of the art of Java, Bali and Madura; Diponegoro Museum (Yogyakarta); Historical Museum of Surakarta. Many museums are located on about. Bali: Neka Museum (founded in 1982, Bali), Puri Lukisan Ratna Vartha Museum of Fine Arts (founded in 1956, Ubud). The Bali Museum (founded in 1932, Denpasar) has a rich collection of local arts and crafts.

It is believed that the very first inhabitants of the Indonesian archipelago came from India or Burma. In 1890, fossils of a Pithecanthropus (homo erectus) were found in East Java, approximately 500,000 years old. Later migrants ("Malays") came from southern China and Indochina, and began to inhabit the archipelago around 3000 BC. Powerful groups such as the Buddhist empire of Srivijaya and the Hindu kingdom of Mataram appeared in Java and Sumatra towards the end of the 7th century. The last significant kingdom founded by the Hindus was Majapahit in the 13th century. The subsequent spread of Islam in the archipelago in the 14th century forced the Majapahits to retreat in the 15th century to Bali.

Indonesia includes the full range of diverse societies and cultures. However, education, the media, and the government's policy of nationalism has created a distinct Indonesian national culture. Distinctive cuisine of Indonesia and her crafts, immediately brought her to the international arena.

Batik, the art of applying wax to fabric and then creating colorful and dramatic paintings, is carried out throughout Indonesia, with Jakarta in Java as the center of this activity. Other forms of handicrafts are represented by such types as ikat - a fabric of special weaving from decorated threads; songket - silk fabric with gold or silver threads; and kris are artwork, often embellished with jewels. Javanese wayang - puppet pieces and gamelan - hypnotic music composed mainly of percussion instruments - are also popular artistic forms.

Most Indonesian cuisine is influenced by the Chinese, but some of the dishes at Padang in Sumatra are truly authentic Indonesian. Wherever you travel in Indonesia, you will see snack vendors such as potatoes, sweet nuts, biscuits or fruits. Rice is the basis of every dish, it is put in soup or served as a side dish, participates in salads and marinades. The variety of tropical fruits would have swooned any European greengrocer. These include creamy apples, durios, guava, jak fruit, mango, papaya, star fruit and rambutans.

Social and religious obligations have, over time, formed a special code of conduct called adat or traditional law. Islam is the predominant religion of the archipelago, it is slightly diluted with elements of Hindu Buddhism, adat and animism. There are hundreds of places in Java where spiritual energy is concentrated, which, according to legend, followers can absorb. Despite the long colonial period, missionary attempts to convert the Indonesian population to Christianity came to nothing.

Culture of Indonesia

Architecture

The remains of megalithic structures found throughout Indonesia (I millennium BC - the first centuries AD) belong to the oldest period. The most significant of them are on the Pasemah Plateau (Southwest Sumatra). These are menhirs, dolmens, terraced stepped tombstones. The medieval period was characterized by the appearance in architecture of a peculiar culture, which was the result of a synthesis of local traditions and Hindu-Buddhist elements of architecture brought from India. In the 8th - 15th centuries, the leading types of architecture included chandi (which combined the functions of a temple and a mausoleum), stupa, stambha (memorial column, Sumatra), vihara (monastery, Java, Sumatra), and in the 15th - 16th centuries, chandi-shaped buildings (Eastern Java), gopura, meru (Bali). According to tradition, ornamentation (kalamakara, etc.) and stone sculpture were widely used. The most famous temple complexes include: in Central Java (VIII - X centuries): Dieng, Borobudur, Mendut, Prambanan, Kalasan; in East Java (XI - XV centuries): Travulan, Panataran, Singasari; in Sumatra - Padang Lavas; in Bali - Besakih, Gua Gajah ("Elephant Cave"). A feature of the architecture of Java in the late Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times was the construction of palaces-fortresses of local rulers - cratons (Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Cirebon).

The collapse of the Majapahit empire and the spread of Islam led to the decline of the Hindu culture. A mosque has become a typical religious building. It, as a rule, was a cubic building under a steep roof (sometimes in several tiers), crowned with a spire, less often with an “onion”, with an attached minaret. One of the oldest is the wooden mosque in Demak (1478). The mosque in Kudus (XVI century) is peculiar, the red brick minaret of which was rebuilt from chandi. The mosques of Baiturahan in Semarang, Bengkok (XVII century) in Medan, Jami Tambora in Jakarta are elegant. Civil buildings of this time - mainly the palaces of local rulers - cratons.

During the colonial period, architectural forms and construction methods familiar to the colonizers were introduced. Forts and other defensive objects were erected (Fort Rotterdam in Ujungpandang, 16th century; Marlborough Fort in Bengkulu, 16th-17th centuries; Fort de Kok in Bukittinggi, 1825; Medan Garnisun in Medan, 1873; the remains of the Batavia fortress in Jakarta, 1619), trading posts and engineering structures - canals, piers, dams, moorings, warehouses. Cities founded by the Dutch were laid out according to a regular plan with a church and a town hall in the center (town hall building in Jakarta, 1626), but further developed spontaneously. Characteristic was the principle of urban zoning along racial and ethnic lines (Dutch, Chinese, native quarters). The Dutch type of a stone one-story house on a high plinth with a red tiled roof and diamond-shaped windows has become widespread (Glodok and Jatinegara districts in modern Jakarta). Religious buildings were built - magnificent pseudo-Gothic Catholic cathedrals (the 17th-century cathedral in Jakarta, architect Hulswif), more modest Protestant churches.

At the end of the 18th - the first half of the 19th centuries. there were buildings in the “classical Empire” style - the palace of the governor-general (now the president) in Jakarta (1826) and his summer residences in Bogor and Chibodas; the building of the National Museum in Jakarta (1868), etc. From the end of the 19th century. buildings of a new type began to be erected (banks, railway stations, museums), urban development expanded, ports were built (Tanjung-Priok, 1877-83; Surabay port - with the participation of Russian civil engineer I.T. Blagov). At the beginning of the XX century. buildings in the “tropical modern” style are gaining popularity (the building of the former Stovia Medical School in Jakarta, the College of Technology in Bandung).

During the period of independence (after 1945), measures were taken to streamline urban planning and development (Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung). Characteristic was the creation of large architectural ensembles using concrete, glass, steel: university campuses, sports complexes, large residential areas, satellite cities, hotels, department stores and shopping centers, airports, cultural and entertainment centers. The decoration of Jakarta is the central Merdeka Square with a majestic 137 m high stele-monument, at the base of which there is a historical museum, with a Diponegoro monument (the author is the Italian sculptor Cobertaldo) and singing fountains (1962 - 75), the largest Istiklal mosque in Southeast Asia (architect Silaban, 70-80s), Parliament building, Congress Palace (created with the participation of sculptors G. Sidharth and Sunaryo, artists A.D. Pirus, Priyanto, T. Sutanto, 60-70s). The modern architecture of the country reflects the typical features of world architecture and local traditions.

Folk architecture is represented by various types of dwellings: huts (Irian, Timor), light frame pile houses, large communal “long houses” of the Dayaks of Kalimantan, houses with saddle-shaped high-rise roofs in Batak toba and Minangkabau in Sumatra, traditional Javanese houses with a pyramidal ceiling depicting world mountain Meru.

art

The oldest monuments of fine art in Indonesia are petroglyphs and murals made with paints from local minerals and plants (mainly in the eastern part of the country from Kalimantan to Irian Jaya - Abba, Sosorra caves, etc.): images of people, animals, especially fish , turtles and birds, boats, symbols of the moon and the setting sun. The painting reflects totemic and magical motifs, the cosmological ideas of the ancient Indonesians and the close connection of their life with the sea. Some images (in particular, boats) are preserved in the future in the form of roofs of houses, headscarves, etc.

Ornamentation and sculptural plasticity of megaliths presented in the Pasemakh region in South Sumatra are also examples of ancient fine art: statuary images of animals (buffaloes, elephants) and human figures with swords and helmets, stone sarcophagi covered with ornaments.

Bronze processing reached great perfection. During the period of Dong Son culture, these are cult objects: ceremonial hatchets (Celts), vases, figures of ancestors, ritual drums (belonged to rain casters) with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic ornaments. Found on the island of Bali, a huge drum “Balinese moon” is decorated with an image of a human face with large, wide-open eyes and earlobes drawn by earrings. Later, with the advent of Hinduism and Buddhism (7th - 13th centuries), lampadas, trays, bells with floral patterns and statues of Buddha and bodhisattvas in the Amaravati style appeared, the appearance of which (static postures, impassivity of gaze, roundness of lines) reflected the Javanese concept of the transcendental world. Indian cultural canons were borrowed through their organic assimilation with local elements. The stone plastics and reliefs of the architectural and cultural complexes of Chandi Borobudur, Prambanan, Panataran are distinguished by high craftsmanship. Examples of the fine arts of the late Middle Ages are marked by an increase in decorativeness, dynamism of compositions and a simplified graphic interpretation of images (as in the wayange shadow theater). Ceramic sculpture (finds at Travulan) and the art of carving ritual-theatrical masks were developed.

The advent of Islam, with its canons forbidding the depiction of humans and animals, led to the decline of fine art in most of Indonesia, limiting it mainly to ornamentation. The continuity of ancient artistic traditions was preserved only in the shadow theater and some of its varieties (for example, in wayang beber) and the art of woodcarving (among tribes with animistic beliefs and in Jepara). Only on the island of Bali the traditions of fine arts were not interrupted: the school of stone and wooden sculpture, artistic carving, and painting remained. Despite the penetration of modern Western art, the culture of Bali basically demonstrates adherence to traditional canons: limited plot lines, image techniques (shackled, formal style, lack of expression), colors used.

Cinematography

Cinematography began to develop before the declaration of independence. The first film “Lutung Kasarung” (based on the Sundanese legend of the same name) appeared in 1927, it was directed by the Dutch G. Kruger and F. Carly. In 1930, G. Kruger staged the first sound picture "Nyai Dasima". Subsequently, the film industry was largely monopolized by Chinese capital (the film company of the Wong brothers, Java Film Company, Tan Film Company, etc.). During this period, films of an entertaining nature on fairy-tale and historical plots, as well as family melodramas, prevailed. Indonesian reality was reflected in a number of films: “Rice” (1935, directed by M. Franken), “Bright Moon” (1937, directed by A. Balink), “Nurabaya City” (1941, directed by Le Tek Swee). Artists Raden Mokhtar, Rukia Kartolo won great popularity. In 1941, 28 paintings were already delivered. During the Japanese occupation and during the period of the struggle against the Anglo-Dutch intervention, the Indonesians themselves became directors, but the number of paintings was sharply reduced (two in 1948). However, by 1952 there were already 13 film studios that released 62 films. The leading role was played by the association "Perfini", founded in 1950 by director Usmar Ismail. The beginning of filming of the first film "Perfini" "Blood and Prayer" March 30, 1950 is celebrated in Indonesia as National Film Day. The development of non-fiction films was promoted by the creation in 1950 of the state film corporation PFS. In the pictures of national cinema until the mid-60s. patriotic themes prevailed (directors Usmar Ismail, Asrul Sani). Among the actors, R. Ismail, Bambang Hermanto, Sukarno M. Nur, Panji Anom, actresses Chitra Devi, Mila Karmila, Farida Aryani gained fame.

The political events associated with the Movement of September 30, 1965 had a negative impact on the position of the cinema: a number of figures were subjected to repression, production was reduced to 6-12 films a year. The recession was overcome only by the mid-1970s, when a decree was adopted obliging importers to produce one Indonesian film for five imported films, and the national distribution organization Perfin was created (1975). In the 70-80s. cinema was dominated by parlor and historical melodramas, comedies, and horror films. However, even among them there were paintings of a high humanistic sound, which reflected the problems of modern society (“Cycle rickshaw and a beggar woman” by Wim Umboch, 1978). The films of VGIK graduates Ami Prieno (“Jakarta, Jakarta”, 1977; “December Memoirs”, 1977) and Shamanjai (“Atheist”, 1974; “Kartini”, 1982), as well as Teguha Karya (“November 1928” , 1979; “Mother”, 1986) In the early 80s, a series of puppet films about a village boy “Si Uniil” (posted by Kunain Suhardiman) appeared.

There are about 2,500 cinemas in Indonesia, up to 70 feature films are created a year, more than 200 are imported. The Academy of Cinematography (founded in 1977) functions, and film festivals are held annually (since 1973). There are 17,220 national and 106,342 foreign films in video distribution.

Literature

The ethnic kinship of most of the peoples of Indonesia, the commonality of their historical destinies and centuries-old cultural contacts led to a certain unity of both folklore and the literary process as a whole.

In the origin (not earlier than the 8th century) of written literature, ancient Indian (Sanskrit) literature of the Hindu and, to a lesser extent, Buddhist complexes played a formative role. In a modified form, Indian myths from the Mahabharata and Ramayana also penetrated into the folklore of many peoples. Later, legends about the ascetics of Islam and the heroes of Arabic and Persian literature underwent a similar transformation.

Unlike folklore, which existed in the native language of each ethnic group, medieval written literature is characterized by the presence of two main languages ​​- Javanese and Malay. The first was used in the Javanese cultural zone (Java, Madura, Bali and Lombok), inhabited, in addition to Javanese, by Sunds, Balinese, Madurese and Sasaks. The second - in the Malay cultural zone, which includes all other islands, and historically - the territory of present-day Malaysia. Not only ethnic Malays and Minangkabau, but also Aches, Bugis, Makassars, partly Bataks, as well as residents of the Moluccas, some Lesser Sunda Islands, etc. took part in the creation of traditional literature in the Malay language.

All these peoples in the XVIII - XIX centuries. (and occasionally earlier) they also turned to written art in their native languages, while the verbal art of other ethnic groups did not go beyond the oral folklore stage.

From the middle of the XIX - at the beginning of the XX centuries. Enlightenment tendencies appear in local literary works. At the same time, a press and urban literature in the “low” (vulgar) Malay language was born. In the first half of the XX century. individual writers also used the Dutch language in journalism and art, partly also claiming to be the language of interethnic communication.

Being the most developed and dynamic, national Indonesian literature finally asserts itself after Indonesia gained independence (1945). Written literature in local languages ​​is also undergoing significant changes. Bilingualism, characteristic of most of the country's inhabitants, is also manifested to some extent in literature, with some modern writers creating works both in the national Indonesian and in their (“mother”) languages.

Music

Traditional musical art is a significant part of the sound and musical creativity of the Indonesian peoples. These are gamelan orchestras, angklung ensembles, tembang solo singing, various theatrical and dance styles (performances of the wayang theater, topeng, etc., bedaya, legong dances, etc.), represented by both urban professional troupes and rural amateur groups. Interaction with Western musical traditions began with the penetration of the Portuguese and Dutch (XVI - XVII centuries). Choral music of a cult type was spreading in Catholic missions, brass bands of military garrisons became popular. The most obvious synthesis of local traditions with Western subculture was observed in urban popular art. On the territory of modern Jakarta already in the XVI - XVII centuries. hybrid genres, forms and styles of music began to take shape, uniting Western European and Asian traditions. Typical in this regard is the vocal-instrumental tradition of kronchong, dating back to the early colonial period. In the XVIII - early XX centuries. popular music orchestras appear in cities, including both local and borrowed types of instruments: tanjidor brass bands (comprising trumpets, trombones, clarinets, horns, as well as rebab, bedug drum, gong kedang); so-called. the Chinese ensembles of Batavia - gambang kromong (since the beginning of the 19th century, they included Chinese, Sundanese, Malay, Portuguese instruments); later - orchestras that accompanied the singing of kronchong and others.

Notable Indonesian composers include Ismail Marzuki (1914-58), Gesang (b. 1915), Supratman (1903-38), Cornel Simanjuntak (1920-46), K.R. T. Madukusuma (1895-1972), N. Situmorang (1908-69), S. Sitompul (1904-74), K.R. T. Varsodiningrat (1882-1975). Among the traditional musicians: V. Beratha (b. 1924), I. Nyoman Kaler (1892-982), Koko Koswara (b. 1915), Tihang Gultom (1896-1970).

Dance

Due to the isolation of individual islands, many dances in Indonesia have retained their original ritual forms. Costumes, styles of musical accompaniment, technique and plasticity of movements are very diverse - from strict court dramas of Central Java, using complex polyphonic music, to archaic rhythmic dances in Irian Jaya. Classical dance took shape in the 13th - 14th centuries. at the courts of Javanese rulers on the basis of a synthesis of animistic rituals and Hindu-Buddhist canons and until the beginning of the 20th century. remained aristocratic. The dancers were selected only from noble families close to the cratons of Surakarta and Yogyakarta. A characteristic feature of classical dance is a peculiar combination of stiffness and grace in postures and movements, designed to reflect the sophistication of court tastes. Moving in accordance with the given choreographic patterns, the dancers often freeze, fixing their poses, with downcast eyes. Slow rhythmic movements, postures of meditation, the melody of a gamelan accompanying the dance have a hypnotic effect on the viewer. In Javanese classical dance, great importance is attached to the movements of the arms, legs, head and body, as well as to the language of gestures. It takes years of training to achieve body control, which is demonstrated by the bedaya or serimpi dancers. Many Javanese classical dances are about the struggle of gods, princes and heroes. The second most important school of classical dance - the Balinese one - was formed on the basis of mysterial actions under the influence of Indian and Javanese canons. Dancers move in a zigzag circle, arms bent at shoulder level with elbows up, head drawn in. An unexpected change in the direction of movement, the accuracy of sharp steps is a feature of Balinese choreography. Almost all Balinese dances are plot dances, many of them include pantomime and clowning (barongan, legong). They are performed, as a rule, in an open area near the temple (pura) or in it during religious ceremonies or holidays.

Folk dances are very diverse, including those on the themes of rural labor performed at harvest festivals: rangguk (Jambi), agilis (Madura), bunchis (West Java), kurung-kurung (South Kalimantan), pacarena (South Sulawesi); ritual dances: sanghyang dedari (Bali), sanjang (Balambangan), etc.; dances expressing the nature and habits of animals and birds: indang barabah (West Sumatra); dances demonstrating the warrior spirit, valor and heroism: baris (Bali), emblek, kuda kepang (Java), ice-hava (Savu island), leko hay (Timor island); modern mass dances: pendet, janger (Bali), joget (everywhere), gundrung (Banyuwangi), ketu tilu (Java); martial arts stylized as a dance (penchak silat); dances with a pronounced Muslim flavor: saman (Ache), japin (South Kalimantan, Riau).

Classical and folk dances are being developed in the productions of contemporary choreographers (Kusumakesovo created the Ramayana Dance Theater in 1961; the artist Bagong Kusudiarjo founded a troupe in Yogyakarta in 1958). Choreographic training is carried out at the Conservatory of Music and Dance in Denpasar, the Academy of Music and Dance in Surakarta, at the Bagong Kusudiarjo School and at the Krido Beksa Virama School in Yogyakarta, at the Institute of Art Education in Jakarta.

Theater

The performing arts were most developed in the Javanese cultural zone. The main form of traditional theater associated with ancient theatrical rituals and cults is wayang. Varieties: wayang kulit, or wayang purvo (shadow theater of flat leather puppets); wayang klitik (flat wooden puppet theatre); wayang golek (cane volumetric wooden puppet theatre); wayang beber (the theater of the presentation of paintings painted on the canvas); wayang wong or wayang orang (live actor theatre); wayang topeng (mask theater). The first three types are characterized by a verbal beginning, for the other two - choreography and pantomime.

All types of wayang are united by a common plot related to a mythological or mytho-historical cycle (local versions of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, cycles about Panji, Damar Wulan, Menakjing, Chalon Arang, etc.), and the typologies of heroes, stylization of images and tension actions. The common thing is the presence of a leader - dalang: in wayang kulit and wayang golek he manipulates the puppets, pronounces dialogues, explains the course of events; in wayang topeng and wayang beber he directs musicians and singer-dancers whose performances, which are not related to the plot, create the appropriate mood among the audience; in wayang wong, where the actors themselves sing and pronounce dialogues, he explains the course of events, makes offerings to the gods before the start of the performance. A necessary attribute of all types of wayang is kayon or gunungan - a decorative headpiece in the form of a leaf, symbolizing the world mountain (Meru) or the world tree. It is set before and after performances, as well as during breaks and at moments of change of action, and at the same time can serve as a decoration (depict a tree, mountain, fire, etc.).

The most popular is wayang kulit, whose canons have also influenced other types of wayang: actors in wayang wong, for example, dance, imitating the movements of flat leather puppets. Leading wayang troupes include Srividari, founded in 1895 in Surakarta by Chinese entrepreneur Gan Kim.

The best-known form of traditional theater outside the Javanese cultural zone is mayong (Riau Archipelago). In the 19th century spectacles typologically close to such European theatrical genres as vaudeville and melodrama became widespread in the cities. These are Malay opera bangsavan, or comedy istanbul, Sundanese sandivara, Javanese ludruk and ketoprak, Jakarta lenong. A large place in them is occupied by clownish interludes, songs and dances that are not directly related to the main plot. The themes of the plays are borrowed from chronicles, legends, fairy tales (“Thousand and One Nights”), urban stories of the late 19th century. (“Nyai Dasima”, “Si Chonath”), popular European novels. Later, original plays appeared (Anjar Asmara and others). Great fame in the 30s. 20th century had the Jakarta troupe "Miss Chuchih" (sandivara), in the 40s. - “Opera Dardanelle” (Comedy-Istanbul). Currently, “Ludruk Mandala” and “Sri Mulat” are popular.

The first dramatic productions appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. and were carried out mainly in school theaters. At the same time, dramaturgy in Indonesian began to develop. In the late 20s - early 30s. Significant dramatic works are created by such Indonesian writers as Rustam Effendi, Muhammad Yamin, Sanusi Pane, Armain Pane. During the years of Japanese occupation and the struggle against the Dutch intervention, the troupes led by Usmar Ismail and Anjar Asmara became famous. In the 50s. Utui Tatang Sontani, Abu Hanifa, Ahdiat Kartamihardja, Sitor Situmorang, V.S. Rendra, Agam Wispi, Bakhtiar Siagaan, Mottingo Boucher. The best plays created during this period are characterized by democracy, social pathos, and the search for new ways of developing theatrical art.

Surrealist and neo-expressionist tendencies (Arifin S. Nur), absurd drama (Putu Vijaya) and philosophical plays (F.K. Martha) dominate in modern national dramaturgy. The tragedies of Sophocles, Shakespeare, Schiller, plays by Chekhov, Gogol, Brecht, Camus, Becket, Ionesco are staged. Many of them are adapted to local conditions. The main theaters and troupes are concentrated in Jakarta. Among them are “Koma Theater” (directed by N. Raintiarno), “Kechil Theater” (directed by Arifin S. Nur), “Mandiri Theater” (directed by Putu Vijaya), “Populer Theater” (directed by Teguh Karya), “ Lisendra Buana” (headed by Chok Hendru), “Lembaga Theater” (headed by Senombung), “Saja Theater” (headed by Ikranegar), “September Theater” (headed by Ali Shahab). The Bengkel Theater in Yogyakarta (headed by V. S. Rendra) is very famous. The movement of university and other amateur semi-professional theaters has received significant development. In the 70s - 80s. theater festivals held by the Jakarta Cultural Center in Ismail Marzuki Park have become a frequent occurrence. The main training center for the theater is the National Theater Academy, established by Usmar Ismail in 1955.

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