HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

[INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE]

GEOGRAPHICAL
The Malay Peninsula is bounded by southern Thailand in the north, and on the west and south by the Straits of Malacca which separate it from Sumatra, which in turn is separated from Java on the south-east by the narrow Sundra Straits. Java is the first of a chain of islands extending eastward Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba and Timor, whence a host a smaller islands leads almost to New Guinea. Another group of islands lies to the east of Sumatra and North of Java across the Java Sea. To the north or Borneo and Celebes lie the Philippines. Much of this vast heterogeneous region is mountainous.

GEOLOGICAL
A long curving band of active and extinct volcanoes passes through Sumatra, Java and Bali, and volcanic rock (solidified lava) has been extensively used for construction work. Eruptions have brought down buildings, but it has sometimes been possible to reconstruct important architectural monuments with the original undamaged stones.

CLIMATIC
Indonesia almost bestrides the Equator, with a tropical climate and no great seasonal variation in temperature. The climate is also generally humid and under the influence of both monsoons.

HISTORICAL / SOCIAL
In the civilization which developed in Sumatra and Java under Indian culture and religious influence and example, society was divided between court and peasantry. Literature, sculpture and architectural were the prerogative of the Kraton, or court. The peasants formed an agriculture community, whose rituals, customs and origins date back to neolitic times and whose lives were almost untouched by the court culture. The first important Indonesian kingdom, and expression of this forth of civilization, seems to have been that of King Jayanaga in south-east Sumatra, which coincided with the birth of the Srivijaya Dynasty (7th to 13th century). Srivijaya emerged as a major power with hegemony over the Malayan peninsula, Borneo and western Java, and mercantile connections extending as far as Persia. Unhappily no architectural records survive. Concurrently with the early years of the Srivijaya leadership in Sumatra, two principal dynasties ruled in Java: the Hindu Sanjaya in the central provinces (mid-7th to 10th century) and the Buddhist Sailendrava little further east. Both have left impressive architectural evidence It is surmised that the Sailendra line ended with the marriage of a daughter to a Sanjaya king, RakryanPikatan, in about the year 840. 1 ORBIEN / REYMAN / UNABIA / SUNGA / FERNANDEZ | PROF. ARNULFO DADO

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

[INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE]

Thereafter the history of the Srivijaya kingdom in Sumatra is concerned with wars for supremacy over Java, the declining strength of the Sanjaya, and ultimately with defeat (c. 1220) at the hands of the east Javanese dynasties of Singasari and Majapahit, with the former first in the ascendant and the latter inspiring a final Renaissance of Javanese art and architecture in the 14th century. In the meantime Moslem influence has been gaining ground throughout Indonesia and, by the end of the 15th century, the Islamic ruler BalenPata, himself a Javanese, had assumed control of the whole of Java, including the state of Majapahit. The subsequent evolution of Indonesia is interwoven with the activities of European colonial powers: the Portuguese, the British and, for three and a half centuries, the Dutch. In 1945 the independent Republic of Indonesia came into being, and in 1954 the last tenuous threads which held the Netherlands-Indonesian Union together were severed.

RELIGION
Two interacting movements have moulded the character of Indonesian art and architecture: the ancient indigenous peasant culture of animistic myth and ancestor worship, and the HinduBuddist beliefs brought to the region, and to Java in particular, from the fourth century A.D. by Indian immigrants who, by the seventh century, had made both Sumatra and Java centers of religious learning and pilgrimage. Many years later Islam came to north Sumatra and Malaya, also from India, and by the fifteenth century had spread throughout Java, ousting the Hindu-Buddhist and ancestral spirit cults, which found a lasting heaven in Bali.

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
It has already been noted that there are no significant architectural remains in Sumatra, Malaya or Borneo surviving from the Srivijaya empire; but from the contemporary Sanjaya and Sailendra dynasties in middle Java a number of buildings of extraordinary distinction still exists on the high table-lands the Dieng Plateau and the Kedu plain, dating mainly from the 8th and 9th centuries, and exemplifying a synthesis of Hindu-Indonesian and Buddhist-Indonesian features. It would appear that this architecture, of solid stone walls, corbelled arches and with no loadbearing columns, which reached its consummation with the stupa of Barabudur and the temple complex of Prambanam, was always associated with isolated religous communities and never with large centers of population. The influences of Gupta (Indian) 5th and 6th century styles and of Sanchi and Barhut stupa reliefs suggest that there was at this period a wide-ranging movement in Buddhist art from Indian to the China seas. A new development began with the shift of power to East Java in the 11th century, characterized by a lessening of Indian influence and increased evidence of the native Indonesian tradition, reflected especially in the sculpture which already foreshadows the folk-art of the Javanese Wayang puppet drama. 2 ORBIEN / REYMAN / UNABIA / SUNGA / FERNANDEZ | PROF. ARNULFO DADO

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[INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE]

The coming of Islam ended the Hindu-Buddhist architectural tradition in Indonesia, except in Bali, where it has lingered on as a folk art, while the arrival of the Dutch introduced European elements. Timber is abundant and varied throughout Indonesia, and has always been used for most building types, especially for houses. The traditional dwelling is a long house, generally raised on stilts, and often sheltering an entire clan. It is seen at its architectural best in the Menangkabau homes of south central Sumatra, which are carried on carves and decorated wooden pillars, the facades adorned with colour patterns of intertwined flowers in white, black and red, the inward-sloping ridge (saddle-back) roofs with high gables at each end ornamented with buffalo horns.

BUILDING EXAMPLES Although religious architecture spread across Indonesia, the art of architecture is growing rapidly on the island of Java. The influence of religion in Java sinkretisasi extends into architecture, resulting in architectural styles that berkhas Java for religious buildings of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and to the people of the small number of Christians. A number of religious buildings like temples, which are often bulky and designed a complex, many built in Java on the glory days of Hindu-Buddhist kingdom of Indonesia in between the 8th century until the 14th. The oldest Hindu temples are still standing in Java is located in Mount Dieng.

STUPA OF BARABODUR The Stupa of Barabudur, theatrically sited on the Java plains against a background of smoking volcanoes, is the supreme expression of Indonesian art, and an architectural masterpiece of the Sailendra dynasty In the form of a shallow stone-clad hill, this extraordinary building symbolizes the world mountain (Meru) of Indian cosmology and the Mahayana Buddhist cosmic system through the nine stages there are nine storeys or terraces which lead to nirvana. Basically square in plan, with a stone plinth-foundation, each 150m (500ft) side having five slightly stepped faces (diminishing to three at the higher levels), Barabudur rises through five rectangular closed galleries and three circular open terraces (the latter carrying 72 bell-like stupas) to the crowning central stupa.

ORBIEN / REYMAN / UNABIA / SUNGA / FERNANDEZ | PROF. ARNULFO DADO

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

[INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE]

TEMPLE OF PRAMBANAN The architecture of Prambanan temple follows the typical Hindu architecture traditions based on Vastu Shastra. The temple design incorporated mandala temple plan arrangements and also the typical high towering spires of Hindu temples. Prambanan was originally named Shivagrha and dedicated to god Shiva. The temple was designed to mimic Meru, the holy mountain the abode of Hindu gods, and the home of Shiva. The whole temple complex is a model of Hindu universe according to Hindu cosmology and the layers of Loka. During the restoration, a well which contains pripih (stone casket) was discovered under the center of the Shiva temple.

Pura Dalem Agung Padan Tegal, Ubud, Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia Padangtegal is a village in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. It is the home to the Ubud Monkey Forest which contains the Pura Dalem Agung Padangtegal temple as well as a "Holy Spring" bathing temple and another temple used for cremation ceremonies.

MOTHER TEMPLE OF BESAKIH The Mother Temple of Besakih, or Pura Besakih, in the village of Besakih on the slopes of Mount Agung in eastern Bali, Indonesia, is the most important, the largest and holiest temple of Hindu religion in Bali, and one of a series of Balinese temples.

TRADITIONAL VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE Rumah adat are at the centre of a web of customs, social relations, traditional laws, taboos, myths and religions that bind the villagers together. The house provides the main focus for the family and its community, and is the point of departure for many activities of its residents. Traditional Indonesian homes are not architect designed, rather villagers build their own homes, or a community will pool their resources for a structure built under the direction of a master builder and/or a carpenter. The norm is for a post, beam and lintel structural system that take load straight to the ground with either wooden or bamboo walls that are non-load bearing. Traditionally, rather than nails, mortis and tenon joints and wooden pegs are used. Natural materials - timber, bamboo, thatch and fibre - make up rumah adat. Hardwood is generally used for piles and a combination of soft and hard wood is used for the house's upper non-load bearing walls, and are often made of lighter wood or thatch. The thatch material can be coconut and sugar palm leaves, alang alang grass and rice straw.
4 ORBIEN / REYMAN / UNABIA / SUNGA / FERNANDEZ | PROF. ARNULFO DADO

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

[INDONESIAN ARCHITECTURE]

Traditional dwellings have developed to respond to natural environmental conditions, particularly Indonesia's hot and wet monsoon climate. As is common throughout South
East Asia and the South West Pacific, most rumah adat are built on stilts, with the exception of Java and Bali.

The sharply inclined roof allows the heavy tropical rain to quickly sheet off, and large overhanging eaves keep water out of the house and provide shade in the heat. In hot and humid low-lying coastal regions, homes can have many windows providing good cross-ventilation, whereas in cooler mountainous interior areas, homes often have a vast roof and few windows.

TYPES OF VERNACULAR HOUSES Batak Architecture (North Sumatra) includes the boat-shaped jabu homes of the Toba Batak people, with dominating carved gables and dramatic oversized roof, and are based on an ancient model. The Toraja of the Sulawesi highlands are renowned for their tongkonan, houses built on piles and dwarfed by massive exaggerated-pitch saddle roofs. The homes of Nias peoples include the omo sebua chiefs' houses built on massive ironwood pillars with towering roofs. Not only are they almost impregnable to attack in former tribal warfare, but flexible nail-less construction provide proven earthquake durability. Types of traditional houses 1. Rumah Melayu House, a Malay traditional house in Kedah, adorned with distinctive carved panels of the northern Malay peninsula. 2. Rumah Lancang or Rumah Lontik with a curved roof and boat-like structure. A Riau Malay traditional house, this is the Riau Pavilion Taman Mini Indonesia theme park. 3. Rumah Lipat Kajang style, a Sumatran Riau Malay traditional house with tiled stairs at Taman Mini Indonesia them park. 4. Rumah Limas, a traditional Palembang house. 5. The Minangkabau of West Sumatra build the rumah gadang, distinctive for their multiple gables with dramatically upsweeping ridge ends.

ORBIEN / REYMAN / UNABIA / SUNGA / FERNANDEZ | PROF. ARNULFO DADO