The History of Java

The History of Java

Title page for The History of Java (1817)
Author	Thomas Stamford Raffles
Language	English
Published	1817
Publisher	John Murray
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	vol. 1: xlviii + 479 vol. 2: cclx + 288
OCLC	741754581

The History of Java is a book written by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and published in 1817.¹

In 1811 Raffles was appointed as lieutenant governor of Java. ^{‡ 1} During his short reign, British Java saw a surge of archaeological surveys and government attention on local culture, art and history. Raffles was an enthusiast of the island's history, which he published later in 1817.²

The History of Java was published in two volumes. The first volume describes the physical features of Java island, as well as the Javanese people and their language. The second volume focuses on the island's religion, ruins and arts, and a record of Java history up to 1811. Half of the pages in the second volume are appendices.¹

The first edition was limited to 900 copies and contained 64 etched or aquatint plates, of which 10 were hand-coloured aquatints by William Daniell depicting Javanese life and costume. A second edition followed in 1830.

The book was reprinted by the Oxford University Press in 1965,³ and in 2010 from a digital master by the Cambridge University Press.^{‡ 2}

In 1817, the Quarterly Review criticized how The History of Java is arranged, saying it "... is not the best, either for perspicuity or compression" and claiming the books could be shorter.¹ They however praised how the Javanese language and its literatures are described in detail.

Charles A. Fisher said the book is a monumental work by Raffles, appreciating the depth of detail and care for culture, which was rare for someone in a colonial position. At the same time he lamented how at that time the British public viewed Raffles tenure in Java as a failure compared to his role in Singapore.³

Aquatint of Prambanan from vol. 2 of The History of Java (1817)

Photograph of Prambanan, circa 1895

Sarah Tiffin argued that illustrations of candi in the book followed the picturesque trend of making the ruins more beautiful than they actually were, such as by adding lush vegetation.⁴

Between 1 February and 28 April 2019 an exhibition was held in the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore featuring many items from Raffles private collections that were illustrated and discussed in the book.⁵ And in May 2019, Tang Holdings donated Raffles' own copy of The History of Java to the National Museum of Singapore.⁶

In 2019 ruins were found in Blitar, East Java. The excavation teams suspect they are the remnants of Candi Gedog, which was mentioned in The History of Java. The confirmation is difficult, as there are only written descriptions of the candi. They suspect that Candi Gedog was mostly intact in Raffles time, but became covered in lahar after the Kelud eruption in 1901.⁷

• Weapons
• 
  Varieties of Javanese keris
• 
  Machetes, maces, bow and arrows, blowpipe, sling
• 
  Keris
• 
  Short swords, shields, and a matchlock gun
• 
  Weapons and standards

• Batik
• 
  A Javanese man in court dress
• 
  A Javanese chief, in his ordinary dress
• 
  A Javanese man in war dress
• 
  A Javanese man of the lower class
• 
  A Javanese ronggeng dancer