JAVANESE CUSTOMS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 425, 9 January 1933, Page 3

JAVANESE CUSTOMS

AGES OF SUBMISSION POPULATION SHOW NO DESIRE TOWARDS MODERN METHODS. QUAINT DRESS. From time to time the people of Java have been adopted into a number of racial families, but no foreign element has done much toward making them anything but- themselves. During the last two thousand years they have been the little brown broth- , ers of several nations, yet to-day they are, at heart, just Javanese. About the first century A.D. traders from India began visiting the island with increasing frequency, and presently they invaded it in large numbers, setting themselves up as merchants. In the course of time they gained sufficient control over the country's affairs to superimpose their type of civilisafion upon it. Buddhism became the formal religion of the 'island and numerous temples were erected. But the new belief never gained a firm grip upon the people-, and to-day the temples are visited only by archeologists. In the' fourteenth century the Arabs invaded Java and forced the Moslem faith upon the inhabitants. The Javanese, being a peace-loving people, submitted to their new rules so far as outward compliance to the forms of religion was concerned. But at heart they retained most of the ancient beliefs which they held -bef ore the coming of the Indian traders. ,The Dutch seized the control^ of the country in the sixteenth century, and have held it ever sinee, with the exception of one brief intermission. 1 That occurred during the Napoleonic wars, when the flag of France was raised upon the island. The Javanese remained the little. brown brothevs of the French for a short time, however, because the English took the country and gave it baek to the Dutch. But the Javanese did not fit into that family very well, either. Instead of wearing wooden shoes and pantaloons, they drape themselves in sarongs and go barefoot. They chew betel nut in preference to smoking long-stemmed pipes, and in general they show no desire whatever to be come Europeanised. The unoffieial umhrella bearer for the Sultan of Solo, a municipality in the central part of the island, plays a typical role in the policy by which the Dutch control Java. They permit the local chieftains to take high sounding titles and to be attended by large retinues of house servants, umhrella carriers, and retainers of every description. The Dutch eneouraga native rulers to make a great irnpression upon their people, and in many cases they help pay the bills for all this ostentation. These chieftains, liowever, have no real authority. In every, matler of importance their policy is dictated by the Dutch ofiicials. Representatives of the Netherlands believe that things run niore smoothly when they jolly the natives aiong and make them think they are ruling themselves, a policy also prevailing in far countries other than Java. The Javanese eating customs show one way in which the little. brown brothers dilfer from their big white brothers. A banquet hall without a speakers' table wuuld be eonsidered the next thing to paradise in any Ame-rican or Europcan city, but in a Javanese banquet hall there is no table for anybody. The food is placed on the floor and everyone squats down tailor fashion. There never is any problc-m about what fork to use, because there are no forks. The food is prepared in such a way that it is readily picked up in the hands. The thumb and the first two fingers usually suffice for transferring the victuals to the mouth. Java is far behind Europe and America in the matter of putting machinery to work. Most of the work in the rural districts is done by manual toil, with the assistance of beasts of burden. And, furthermore., the people go about their work in a leisurely manner. Upon the banks of streams which flow through villages there nearly always are several housewives busily scrubbing and wringing their garments. No soap is used, so the cloth must be rubbed and rinsed with great vigour to cleanse it properly. The sai*ong, which consists of a single pieco of bright coloured cloth large enough to ho wrapped around the body, is worn by many members of both sexes in the rural districts of the island. Even in the cities nearly every native woman possesses several, though she may wear them only occasionally. So the sarong is generally eonsidered the national garment of Java.