1. Between Two Worlds:
Ethical Policy, Western education and Javanese arts
Tjahjono Rahardjo

2. “Al heb ik een uitgesproken
Westersche opvoeding
gehad, toch ben en blijf ik in de
allereerste plaats Javaan”
Accesion speech,
Sultan Hamengku Buwana IX
of Yogyakarta
(1912 – 1988)

3. Outline
• Introduction
• Javanologie
• Javanese culture, Western references
• Conclusion

4. Introduction
• In 1901 the Netherlands government introduced
the Ethical Policy (Ethische Politiek)
• The Ethical Policy had two objectives:
1. to put the entire archipelago under the direct
control of the Dutch government
2. to prepare the Dutch East Indies for self-
government under Dutch control
• As a consequence, there was the need to
introduce Western education to a selected group
of Indonesians

5. Introduction
• Amongst Western
educated Javanese
emerged a cultural
nationalism
• They established
organizations aimed
at promoting
indigenous arts and
culture

6. Javanologie
• Previously, the Dutch saw
‘native‘ arts through Calvinist
eyes, as signs of Oriental
decadence
• During the Ethical era, with
the emergence of Javanology
(Javanologie), the translation
and analysis (in Dutch), of
things ‘Javanese’ started
• ‘Javanese’: worth
studying, replicating and
disseminating as seen from a
Western viewpoint
“Djawa”
Driemaandelyksch Tydschrift
Orgaan van het Java Instituut

7. Javanologie • The Dutch educated
Javanese were aware of
this
• Their cultural
organizations focused on
the arts of the kraton
which was seen as worth
studying, replicating and
disseminating.
• Very little attention was
paid to the art of the
common people
• The common people had
to be educated to
appreciate court art
Bedhaya
Mangkunagaran Palace 2013

8. Javanologie
• But even court arts
did not automatically
qualify as “high art”
• Wayang wong for
example, had to be
striped of signs of
“oriental decadence,”
such as transvestism
Wayang Wong, Kraton Yogyakarta 1937

9. Javanese culture, Western references
Gamelan
Soorjo Poetro, a gamelan
expert and former
student at the
Technische Hoogeschool
(THS) in Delft tried to
formulate theories of
Javanese music using
European models “Ladrangan Wiro Brodjo”
Stave notation by Soorjo Poetro

10. Javanese culture, Western references
Wayang
Noto Soeroto tried to
explain the reasons why
wayang figures have
exaggerated proportions
using Ancient Egyptian,
Mycenaean and Assyrian
references

11. Conclusion
• Their Western education aroused the young
Javanese intellectuals to a cultural nationalism
but also made them realize that some
elements of their culture did not fit into a
modern, democratic society
• They set out to revitalize Javanese arts and
culture, by setting up art societies

12. Conclusion
• They depended very much on Western models
• By using Western models they hoped that
their Dutch peers will acknowledge that
Javanese culture is equal to Western culture
• This also indicated their own anxiety and
uncertainty.

13. Conclusion
• These early Javanese cultural nationalists
have written much about Javanese culture
in Dutch for a Dutch audience, but
unfortunately little for their own
compatriots.
• Their ideas are now unknown to
Indonesians of today who do not
understand Dutch anymore