This dissertation focuses on the actors and agencies in the transnational Buddhist networks that were involved in the making of Buddhism in Indonesia from 1900 to 1959. Using the framework of... Show moreThis dissertation focuses on the actors and agencies in the transnational Buddhist networks that were involved in the making of Buddhism in Indonesia from 1900 to 1959. Using the framework of transnational networks, this dissertation endeavours to understand how Buddhism gradually secured a place in Indonesian society. By viewing the late-colonial and early post-colonial period as a continuum in which Buddhism continued to take root, it connects developments that have thus far been treated as separated by the demarcation line of Indonesian independence.Furthermore it argues that modern Buddhism in the Indonesian archipelago developed as a result of global and regional religious transformations. Particularly important was the spread of Theravada Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. Especially, the dissertation investigates the dominant roles of lay people, Buddhist missionaries and intellectuals who were living in and travelling to colonial Indonesia. The Peranakan Chinese were the primary local actors in this process because of their pivotal role in the making of modern Buddhism from the beginning of the period under consideration until the post- independence years. The Peranakan Chinese community can be seen as a “place” where people from various backgrounds articulated their ideas about Buddhism and interacted with others. Show less
This research is about the actions taken by lawyers in Indonesia to win land rights for corporations. In order to perform these actions, they not only deploy the weaknesses in the law, but their... Show moreThis research is about the actions taken by lawyers in Indonesia to win land rights for corporations. In order to perform these actions, they not only deploy the weaknesses in the law, but their strategies are supplemented with an acquired structural advantage: social capital in the form of loyalty of others they have vetted, such as judges, policemen and prosecutors.The dissertation gives a comprehensive account of the field that makes the strategies possible from multiple angles, such as courts, business actors, the condition of the rules, and then continues to expose the strategies. It is concluded by highlighting the specifications to the condition of the Rule of Law in Indonesia which need special attention and offer suggestions for substantive and sustainable legal reform. Show less
This dissertation examines the dynamics of memory of violence in present-day society, by zooming in to memory of the anti-communist violence in Indonesia in 1965. The problem starts with the... Show moreThis dissertation examines the dynamics of memory of violence in present-day society, by zooming in to memory of the anti-communist violence in Indonesia in 1965. The problem starts with the contrasting narrative about this particular event. On the one hand, the national narrative by the state commemorates the death of six generals and one low rank army officer during the September 30th Movement or Gerakan 30 September 1965/ G30S. The military accused the Indonesian Communist Party or Partai Komunis Indonesia/ PKI as the mastermind behind the movement. The movement was followed by a regime shift from Sukarno to Suharto in 1966. On the other hand, this new regime initiated a nation-wide purge against communists, leftists, and their affiliates in 1965-66 and in 1968 in some parts of East Java. This violent bloodbath continued to be excluded from Indonesia’s national historiography until today. They became the counter-narrative.This dissertation goes beyond this binary approach of state versus counter narrative. Through a case study in rural area of Donomulyo district in East Java, this research discovered that memories of violence are multi-layered. They are not exclusively determined by the repressive memory project of the state, but are actually embedded in social relations and local context where the violence occurred. Moreover, this case study shows that memories of violence did not diminish over time, not even under state repression. Narratives of violence travel within communities through stories of places, or sites of memory, and also through family narratives. Show less
In the recent international campaigns against child marriage, there is a puzzle of agency: while international human rights institutions celebrate when girls exercise their agency not to marry,... Show moreIn the recent international campaigns against child marriage, there is a puzzle of agency: while international human rights institutions celebrate when girls exercise their agency not to marry, they do not recognize their agency to marry. ‘Child marriage’, defined as “any formal marriage or informal union where one or both of the parties are under 18 years of age”, is considered always forced, assuming that children are not capable of consenting to marriages. In order to re-examine, reflect, and discuss this approach to agency, this dissertation offers empirical evidence of child marriage, based on findings from the author’s fieldwork in Indonesia. Why children marry and how this practice both informs, and is treated within, multiple competing normative frameworks in place? The dissertation starts from analysing child marriage discourse at the international level, moves to discuss the political contestation over child marriage at the national level (Indonesia), and then investigates child marriage as a social practice on the Indonesian island of Bali.This is a socio-legal study of international human rights, which contributes to the scholarly field of human rights and children’s rights by using ideas from the other disciplines in social science. Show less
This thesis is the first large-scale study of Buddhist and Hindu metal statues (i.e. bronze, gold and silver alloys) from the western islands of the Indonesian Archipelago (Java, Sumatra,... Show moreThis thesis is the first large-scale study of Buddhist and Hindu metal statues (i.e. bronze, gold and silver alloys) from the western islands of the Indonesian Archipelago (Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Bawean, Bali, Lombok) since the publication of the catalogue Divine Bronze 31 years ago (Lunsingh Scheurleer & Klokke 1988). To overcome limitations of past studies, I use a network approach inspired by De Casparis’s idea of a “complicated network of relations” linking maritime Southeast Asia and India (1983). Additionally, I apply a multidisciplinary methodology combining art historical methods of stylistic and iconographic analyses with archaeometallurgy (visual examinations, X-ray radiography, neutron tomography, elemental analyses), archaeology for mapping find-spots, as well as religious studies to understand the history of use and ritual functions of sacred images. Examining five case studies drawn from the largest corpus ever considered of Indonesian metal images from museum collections today kept in Indonesia, Europe, and the U.S., my study highlights connections between the Archipelago and other Asian regions—including not only South Asia, but also East Asia—within a large cosmopolitan sphere of interaction and over a long period of time. Show less
