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
The aim of the present study is to examine the transformation of teacher training in Indonesia from 1893 to 1969. Public teacher training altered over time to keep in step with the changing... Show moreThe aim of the present study is to examine the transformation of teacher training in Indonesia from 1893 to 1969. Public teacher training altered over time to keep in step with the changing requirements in public primary school curricula which had been incurred by economic and political factors. In colonial time the government policy was to prepare Indonesian teachers in the Netherlands Indies according to a standard which would gradually be raised so that in the end, they could concur with the level of the training originally designed for their European counterparts. The introduction of the Kweekschoolplan in 1927 heralded the re-organization and transformation of the kweekschool and the Hogere Kweekschool (HKS) into Hollands Inlandse Kweekschool (HIK). Alas, the Great Depression in 1929 dispelled the colonial dream and the Japanese invasion in 1942 completely altered the next chapter in the history of Indonesian society. The post-war period witnessed three essential points: the brain-drain from schools of the Indonesians who had been educated at the HIK; the removal of Dutch from public school; and the influx of American professors to the schools of teacher training. Now the patterns of expectations of teachers in Indonesia drastically changed, but the nature of teacher training remained basically unchanged. This disjunction implies that the transition from colonial to post-colonial State revealed a paradox in which continuity and change were juxtaposed. The switch from the Dutch to the American model of teacher training in the late 1950s reflected a spirit of reform but also created confusion in the Indonesian search for the meaning of independence.The institutional re-organization of teacher training during the 1950s which continued into the 1960s reflected the bigger narrative of Indonesian State formation at the time. Here, the process of regime change displayed the politics of elimination with a startling lack of understanding of historical experience. A dichotomous way of seeing matters, a rigid option of ‘either this or that’ and a perspective which sharply differentiated between ‘we’ and ‘they’ came to the top list of priorities. Show less
