A report on Javanese people, Gamelan and Majapahit

The ethnic groups native to the island are the Javanese in the central and eastern parts and Sundanese in the western parts.

The eastern Javanese kingdoms of Kediri, Singhasari and Majapahit were mainly dependent on rice agriculture, yet also pursued trade within the Indonesian archipelago, and with China and India.

Classic arts of Java include gamelan music and wayang puppet shows.

The Indonesian archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the 7th century when Srivijaya and later Majapahit traded with entities from mainland China and the Indian subcontinent.

Indonesia consists of thousands of distinct native ethnic and hundreds of linguistic groups, with Javanese being the largest.

Indonesia currently holds twelve items of UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage, including a wayang puppet theatre, kris, batik, pencak silat, angklung, gamelan, and the three genres of traditional Balinese dance.

Performances of wayang puppet theatre are accompanied by a gamelan orchestra in Java, and by gender wayang in Bali.

Indigenous origin (Java): The experts who say that is authentic Indonesian are Brandes, G. A. J. Hazeu, Rentse, Kats and Kruyt. According to Brandes, puppets are native to Java. He presents the results of ancient Indonesian culture, such as gamelan, the monetary system, metric forms, batik, astronomy, how to grow wet rice fields, and government administration. is closely related to Javanese social culture and religious life. Indian puppets are different from Javanese . All technical terms in the are Javanese, not Sanskrit. was not derived from any of the other types of shadow puppet in mainland Asia, but was a creation of the Javanese themselves. This opinion is based on the use of terms related to the stage which are not borrowed from other languages; in other words, these terms are original Javanese terms. Similarly, some of the other technical terms used in the found in Java and Bali are based on local languages, even when the play overlaps with Buddhist or Hindu mythologies. Hazeu said that wayang came from Java. The structure of the puppet is composed according to a very old model (the way of telling the puppeteer, the height of the voice, the language, and the expressions). The technical design, the style, and the composition of the Javanese plays. It grows from the worship of the ancestors. Kats argues that the technical term clearly comes from Java and that was born without the help of India. Before the 9th century, it belonged to the native population. It was closely related to religious practices (incense and night/wandering spirits). Panakawan uses a Javanese name, different from the Indian heroes. Kruyt argues that originates from shamanism, comparing ancient archipelago ceremonial forms which aim to make contact with the spirit world by presenting religious poetry praising the greatness of the soul.

The origin of the stories involved in these puppet plays comes from the kingdoms of eastern Java: Jenggala, Kediri and Majapahit.

Evidence suggests that Borobudur was constructed in the 9th century and subsequently abandoned following the 14th-century decline of Hindu kingdoms in Java and the Javanese conversion to Islam.

The only old Javanese manuscript that hints the monument called Budur as a holy Buddhist sanctuary is Nagarakretagama, written by Mpu Prapanca, a Buddhist scholar of Majapahit court, in 1365.

The monument has become almost an icon, grouped with the wayang puppet play and gamelan music into a vague classical Javanese past from which Indonesians are to draw inspiration.

During the Majapahit era, the area surrounding modern Yogyakarta was identified again as "Mataram" and recognised as one of the twelve Majapahit provinces in Java ruled by a Duke known as Bhre Mataram.

A large majority of the population are Javanese.

Gamelan music, including local Gamelan Yogyakarta which was developed in the royal courts.