Precious Metals in Early Southeast Asia
It took a long time, but it did happen: nowadays ancient Indonesian gold is a collector's item. While easily transportable bronze figurines and ceremonial objects had been collected ever since the rediscovery and re-estimation of the Hindu-Buddhist culture of Indonesia in the nineteenth century, and even heavy, hard to move stone sculptures were dragged away from their ruined shrines to decorate the gardens of colonial Dutch and Javanese inhabitants, gold objects were collected only sparingly. The Royal Tropical Institute published a book entitled 'Precious Metals in Early Southeast Asia: Proceedings of the second seminar on Gold Studies'
By PAULINE LUNSINGH SCHEURLEER
No doubt, the find of the treasure of Plosokuning in Central Java in 1990 ushered in a definitive change and stimulated the interest of an international public. This hoard contained a larger number of golden objects in a wider variety of shapes and of a higher degree of craftsmanship than had ever before been found in Indonesia. It is also called the 'Wonoboyo treasure' after the village in the vicinity of the hamlet Plosokuning where it was found. The objects in the hoard are now generally accepted as having originated from the early tenth century. The main part of the hoard is accommodated in the National Museum in Jakarta (see for instance Les Ors de l'Archipel Indonésien, exhibition catalogue Musée National des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris 1995, pp. 58-61, nos. 18, 20-35 and Wahyono Martowikrido 'Der Goldschatz von Plosokuning' in: Versunkene Könichreiche Indonesiens, exhibition catalogue Römer- und Pelizäus-Museum, Hildesheim, Mainz 1995, pp. 257-261 and nos. 34-47).As collecting art objects raises questions, it calls for research. The institute leading the way in research into classical Indonesian gold objects is the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. During the exhibition of the gold collection of the Suvarnadvipa Foundation in 1993, a first seminar on the subject was organized. The contributors to this seminar approached the theme from various angles: archaeology, art history, and archaeometry. The results are published in Bulletin 334 of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam: Old Javanese Gold (4th-15th century): An archaeological approach, edited by W.H. Kal, 1994. However, the activities of the Tropenmuseum did not stop here.
A second seminar was organized. This time on the opposite side of the world, where in Jakarta the National Museum of Indonesia played host. Apart from representatives of the three disciplines present at the first seminar, here experts in anthropology, conservation, registration, and epigraphy attended, and there was even one paper on Philippine gold. In all there were fifteen papers. Space does not allow me to deal with every one of them, but instead, I shall describe some instances that roused my interest.
John N. Miksic talked about the problem of Indonesian gold always being found in hoards, which does not tell us much about the cultural context of the find. He then presents a rare case of eight gold objects found in 1992 near a large group of fourteenth-century archaeological objects in the village of Kemasan at Trowulan, East Java. The most beautiful object, no. 8, is a triangular pendant set with stones and with its chain still attached (pl. 1). The famous, huge (height 38.5 cm.) repoussé gold plate consisting of three parts, one above the other, connected by eylets, the upper part being decorated with a flying Garuda holding the pot containing the elixer of life stolen from the gods, kept in the Museum Mpu Tantular in Surabaya [p88], has been published by Sri Sujatmi Satari. She classifies this masterpiece of craftmanship as a modesty plate, comparable with decorations worn by goddesses on the statues of Durga Mahishasuramardini from Candi Singosari and Candi Jawi and of Bhrkuti from Candi Jago. Jaap Polak, on the other hand, by dint of keen observation, classifies a repoussé plaque in the National Museum in Jakarta (ill. p. 102), which had always been identified as a modesty plate, with decorative plates of the same kind as the one discussed by Satari. He identifies it as the central part of such a piece.
Cecilia Levin discussed the stylistic and narrative features of the bowl decorated with Ramayana scenes, one of the masterpieces from the Plosokuning hoard. Composing a chronology of Ramayana representations based on the narrative reliefs of Candi Prambanan of AD 856, the Jolotundo reliefs of AD 977, the putatively 11th century relief in the Boston Musum of Fine Arts (J. Fontein, The Sculpture of Indonesia, The National Gallery Washington / Abrams New York 1990, no. 19), she assigns it to a place between Prambanan and Jolotundo, contemporary with the bronze figurine of Sri Dewi in the Museum Sono Budoyo, Yokyakarta (Fontein, Idem, no. 48). She also postulates a reason for the selection of the Ramayana scenes depicted on the bowl: each scene represents various forms of loyalty between the protagonists. The theme may also indicate the reason for the commissioning of the bowl as a royal present marking a particular occasion.
Gold language
A previously unexplored aspect of ancient Indonesian gold is language. Hedy Hinzler collected terms for gold, and anything connected with gold, tools to work gold, gold smiths, the shapes of gold before tooling, the techniques applied to gold, etc. etc. from Old Javanese inscriptions and literary texts from the East Javanese Period (10th 16th centuries). It is interesting to see that there are many terms for gold and that all are derived from Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Does that imply that the importance of the material was also derived from Indian culture?
Surprisingly many appliances are found in literary passages for gold. The techniques mentioned are the same as the ones so far met with in the investigations of Professor Riederer and from the observations of others. The question of applying anthropological data as a source of knowledge for the classical period was raised by Wilhelmina Kal by providing examples from Eastern Indonesia. This question would be an interesting issue for further discussion.
A Central Javanese metal group of three figurines represents the triad of the Buddha flanked by Wajrapani and Padmapani, a composition well-known from Candi Mendut and other metal groups from Central Java (Divine Bronze: Ancient Indonesian bronzes from AD 600 to 1600. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam / Brill, Leiden 1988, no. 12), but here the figurines are in standing position. Each figurine is placed on a lotus base and the three lotuses are themselves set on a common rectangular base. The three metals used for the group are applied hierarchically: gold for the Buddha, silver for the Bodhisattwas, and bronze for the bases. The essential conservation of works of art does not always assist the outward appearance. The report of the conservation of this metal group, as an exception, shows the spectacular result of the slim bodies stripped of the crust of corrosion and other extraneous additions that these had acquired during the centuries it had been in the earth.
A point of agreement of many of the authors is the necessity to advance the study of Indonesian gold by involving as many different disciplines as possible. As mentioned already, the editor of this publication has succeeded in bringing together a whole bunch of them. But as multidisciplinity involves many specialists, not only of disciplines, but also of languages, so does the editing of the papers, and this brings me to one main point of criticism. By appointing one editor only a range of serious mistakes could not be avoided and these, regrettably, marr an otherwise well-presented publication.
My second point of criticism concerns the illustrations. The publication is sparsely illustrated and most illustrations included have clearly not been provided by the authors. This makes some of the papers, the ones to which the illustrations are central, less valuable. All the trouble to find specialists and to bring them together from all over the world is wasted if more attention is not paid to the subsequent publication. It is to be hoped that these seminars will be organized on a regular basis, but with more care for the subsequent fate of the proceedings. *
Reference
Kal, Wilhelmina H. (ed.)
Precious Metals in Early Southeast Asia: Proceedings of the second seminar on Gold Studies
Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute, Tropenmuseum, 1999,
ISBN 90 68 32 292 3
Pauline Scheurleer is guest curator at the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden, the Netherlands.
E-mail: pauline@rmv.nl