Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/174

* JAVA. 154 JAVA. 'heathen' religion. The much-discussed 'Kalangs,' if at all a separate people, which is improbable, are on present evidence part of the aboriginal JJalayan or protoilalayan stock. (Slavery and colonization have added at various periods minor elements to the Javanese population. Thus there still exists in Batavia a 'Bali village,' testifying to the fact of deportation from that adjacent island in times past. The Baduuis and Teng- gerese are less brachycephalic than the Javanese proper, the Sundanese and the JIadurese, and the.v are probably of somewhat greater average height, with a rather lighter skin. Outside of the 'heathen' tribes of the interior, the :Maduresc seem to have aeceptod least the conditions of civilization. The Javanese projier are yielding somewhat to tho JIadure.se on the east, but the. Sun<lanese in the west seem to be becoming more Javanized, and the Javanese may still be looked upon as the average of the island popu- lation. The three principal ])coples of .lava have each their own laULruage, a Malayan dialect with more or less individuality. The marked aris- tocratic tendencies of the Javanese, which find ex- pression in social and governmental institutions, are reflected also in their language, with its 'noble' and "common' forms of speech. The old Javanese of the monuments, inscriptions, etc. — the ancient literary language — is called Kavi (q.v.). Sun- danese". thoiigh not at all neglected, has received less attention. The puppet plays, or Wajaitg, of Java, to which some autliorities have too hastily attributed an entirely Indian origin, and the mask plays, or topmr/. of which both popular and classical varieties exist, have been recently much studied. The labads, or chronicles, are another feature of Javanese folk literature. The Javanese represent, perhaps, the highest point of Malay culture, and show, at the same time, its limitations when controlled by Europeans. Not all of .Tavane^e culture was created or sug- gested by India, probably less than is generally believed. Hindu influence in Java began before the beginning of the fifth century A.n., and had its greatest effects upon the religion, political divisions, language, and literature of the island. The advent of the religion of Islam in the fifteenth centurs' was at first much more rapid and revolutionary in its effects. To-day the great majority of the nearly .30,000,000 Jlalays of .lava are professors in some way or other of Islam, their creed being mi.xed here with relics of primitive Shamanism and there with echoes of Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Besides the loan words in the language, the alphabet in which it is written, and the general influence upon arts of all kinds, Hindu contact has its monument in the great temples to Buddha erected in ,Iava (a.d. 700-14.50). One of these, the 'Great Buddha,' or Boro Buddor (q.v.). is by some esteemed the greatest example of Buddhistic architecture in ex- istence. The foundation, under Hindu influence, of kingdoms such as those of ;Madjapahit, led to the extension of Javanese culture into Sumatra, Borneo, and several of the smaller islands of the ^Malaysian Archipelago, and some have traced it even to Papua and Australia. The great num- liors of the .Javanese Malays, and the fact that they are not at all moribund, but a rapidly in- creasing people, make them one nf the most im- nortant groups of mankind for the historian of human culture. The discovery by Dr. Eugene Dubois (1891-94) of the upper part of a skull, two molars, and a femur, in what is said to be a Pleistocene deposit at Trinil, on the river Ben- giiwan, has given rise to a voluminous literature ot study and discussion. By souje the remains are looked u]>on as those of man of a very low tyi)e; by others as those of a monkey of a high type; by others as the famous 'missing link.' The preponderance of opinion seems to favor the theory of an intermediate type between the low- est uum and the highest monkey. That these re- mains should have turned up in .ustralasia is signiflcanl. Euic.vTiox. Separate school organizations are maintained for natives and Euro|R'ans and tho.so assimilated with them. In 1898 there were 439 primary schools for the natives, of which '223 were maintained by the State, with subventions to many of the others: the pupils in attendance numbered i;((.SS9. Besides these, there are sev- eral middle schools, and a normal school for training native teachers. Fin' the Europeans there were 127 public schools (including several for girls only), with 440 teachers and 12,3.58 pupils, 4 superior primary schools, and 10 others, besides normal schools at Batavia and Surabaya. There is a gynniasiuni at Batavia, and there are an agricultural college, a nniseum, and a botani- cal garden (one of the finest in the world) at Buitenzorg, the residence of the (iovernor-Gen- eral. on the alopo of Mount Salak of Bafavia. ItELiGTON. i'erfei't lilicrty is allowed to all forms of faith. Biddliisui was early introduced, but by 414, when Fa Hicn, the Chinese Buldliist, visited .Java, he wrote that little Buddhism could be found. This was succeeded liy Brahmanism, which continued until the Mohanuuedan con- quest in 147.5-79, and now lingers only in Bali. Nominally the .Javanese are now ilohanuucdans, and great respe<>t is paid to a returned pilgrim from Itlecca. nearly 10.000 ])ilgrinis leaving .lava under this pretext of holy visitation annually. The mass of the natives, however, follow the primitive animism of their ancestors, and are very religious, in the sense of being under the influence of iniseen and mysterious spirits of local importance. About 1.50 Christian mission- ari.'s of various societies, chiefly Xi'therlandish, labor among them, about .300.000 natives being enrolled in the Roman or Reformed churches. History. The history of Java, shr>rn of leg- end, fable, and mythology, is very simple. Civil- ization came to the aborigines from India. Bud- dhism at first being paramount. The Sivaism of the Hindus followed and prevailed for cen- turies, during which lime many Hindu States were set op. that of Madjapahit being chief, with vast power and influence. The struggle between the two faiths introduced from India cidminated in a eomiiromise, which is very marked and easily disiernible in their art, antiquities, and ruins, of which the great mass called Boro Bud- dor (q.v.) furnishes a conspicuous example, superb copies of the sculptures from which were exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1900. The chief towns containing Hindu remains are Sura- baya. Samarang. Solo. lokja. and Magalang. in the centre and east of the island. The third great epoch was introduced by contact with the Euro- peans, when the Dutch navigators and their East India Company had trading stations along the coast. The Portuguese made their way to Java early in the sixteenth century, but about the close of the century they were supplanted by the