Java Style [antikvár]

orientation Circumambulating Java Style Mí. Merapi rijej to the north of the temple complex of Frambanan. The jiting of Jai'aneje temple,) rivab Greece; and the continuity of old ideaj of orientation Lt mojt .ftriking. The 'Style' that books of this sort deal with is above all about sense of place, the feeling for a location that comes from its architecture and landscape, from interiors, views and vistas both intimate and panoramic, furniture and fittings, the domestic settings for the mundane moments that make up a way of life. The aim of such books is to sketch out what is particular—in visual terms—about a city, region, island or nation. Attempting to do the same for the island of Java is a rash undertaking (as the reader will come to appreciate soon enough). This is an island of 120 million people, a complex and sophisticated society in the midst of wrenching changes. Here is Jakarta, with the brashest high-rises in all of nouveau-riche Asia, with traffic jams on the epic scale, where yuppies wielding hand phones like pistols eat sushi in super-luxe hotels kitted out with marble, piped-in bird song and two hundred-year-old woodcarvings. Here is Soto, a stately court city where the Susuhunan dons his coat of many colours and his welded-steel tens to perform solemn rituals, to preserve what is left of the cosmic order. The younger scions of his noble court, arrayed in formal Javanese batik skirts and high-collared velvet tunia, capture the proceedings on their video cameras. Here are the villages of the Badui, who have for centuries deliberately rejected novel ways and ideas, farming the old rice varieties, doing without electricity, chemical fertilizer or diesel fuel, and worshipping deities who have Hindu names but the ancestors' features. When the rice is harvested, some will walk the hundred and fifty miles to Jakarta to sell their handmade twine bags on the crowded pavements. In the two thousand years of its recorded history, Java has encountered all the civilizations of Euro-Asia, and has taken, borrowed, purchased or inherited from them what it has needed or desired. Almost every world religion is here in force: Islam, puritan, orthodox and mystical, Christianity both Catholic and Protestant, Hinduism in all its unruly variation. Buddhism of the larger and lesser vehicle, the moral philosophy of Confucius and the old practices of ancestor worship and propitiation of the Thunder God. This openness leads most observers to try and reduce Java to a sum of influences, from India, China, Arabia, or Europe. Rabindranath Tagore tried that too but could not complete the equation: "I see India everywhere but I do not recognize it." Java remains utterly Java. And no matter how confusing the cultural landscape, how rich the mix, how many bends in the road, the Javanese remain oriented. "Walk a hundred meters to the north, then head east". "Leave by the western door". In the Javanese heartland, one navigates using the cardinal directions. Someone who is hopelessly confused is said to be unable to recognize true north. The symbolism of the directions, four plus one, permeates Javanese thought: east, south, west, north and centre. The great ancient monument of Borobudur is oriented two-and-a-half degrees off magnetic compass readings, with ranks of