The Precarious Past in Premodern Java
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
- Venue
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Room
- RB01
About this event
The practice of history in premodern Java was profoundly influenced by precarious conditions of textual production and preservation: fragile manuscripts perished in the tropical environment, archival records were scattered far afield, and historical memories faded over many generations.
In this talk, I examine how communities in Java between the fifth and fifteenth centuries CE responded with distinctive strategies to record and transmit knowledge of the past. Drawing on sources in Javanese, Sanskrit, Malay, and related languages from the Indonesian archipelago, I provide a detailed account of diverse forms of history-making in premodern Java, reconstructing a dynamic culture in which written and nonwritten modes of transmission coexisted and intersected. By situating these practices within broader discussions of global historiography, I seek to challenge modern assumptions about what counts as history and to illuminate how societies have developed diverse ways of preserving and remembering the past.
The Art and Archaeology of Pre-Modern Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia Lecture Series
Jointly organized by CSEAS and the SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme, this lecture series invites leading experts to share their latest insights and research on Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia.
About the speaker
Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan is a historian specialising in the premodern history of Indonesia at the Australian National University. He is Lecturer and Convenor of the Indonesian language program in the School of Culture, History and Languages, and Director of the Indonesia Institute in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the ANU. He is currently a David Walker Memorial Visiting Fellow in Early Modern History at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Jarrah has written widely on Indonesian history in leading history and area studies journals, including History and Theory, Journal of Global History, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde and Indonesia. His forthcoming book The Precarious Past in Premodern Java (2026) is published by University of California Press.
Registration
This event free, open to the public, and held online only. If you would like to attend, please register using the link above.
Funding for this lecture series has been kindly provided by the Alphawood Foundation.
- Organiser: SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies and the SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme
- Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk
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