Talk:Kidung Sunda

Friends,

I have been wondering soo many times about the story of Bubat War ... considering that the Majapahit Kingdom was located in eastern part of Java, while the Pajajaran Kingdom was located in Western Part of Java ... this definately means that it was almoust impossible that Majapahit Military campaign to unite the Nusantara (the Indonesian Archipelago) did not calculated that Majapahit had to atleast conquered the nearest strong kingdom (which lies in the same island) in order to achieved their ultimate goal before launched their attempt to conquest the further kingdom (I've heard that Malay Archipelago was under Majapahit sovereignity).

I have in mind to think that somehow the story of "Bubat War" was a mock story made during the dutch colonial era as one of the implementation of the Dutch "Devide it impera" policy. As an Indonesian I heard soo many historically unconfirmed story which the main sense of such story was to put a bad stigma to one tribe, is this story was one of those ?

Kindly enlighted me upon this issue.

Dhanny Jauhar dhanny.jauhar@gmail.com

Reply

To begin with your last remark and question, my answer would be yes. This story is historically unconfirmed and I indeed get the impression that it was made to mock or to criticize some ethnical group. But you must not forget that this very manuscript (not the story) was made in Bali, not made in Sunda. As I wrote in the articel, Kidung Sunda has to be considered as a literary work of art and not as a reliable historical chronicle. However the events told in this text might have been based on true factual events.

It is indeed striking to note that Majapahit is depicted badly in many non-Javanese stories. For example in the Malay language Hikayat Hang Tuah, many of the crooks and the villains are from Majapahit or from Java. The king of Majapahit is depicted as a person who cannot make any decision while the grand vizier, Gajah Mada is a sly, cunning, and unsympathetic person.

Furthermore you must not forget that many western scholars downgrade the actual role of Majapahit. In other words; Majapahit did not really subjugated all these kingdoms in the Nusantara. This kingdoms were just tributaries of Majapahit, just as some were tributaries of China.

At last you must not blame everything on the Dutch. The Dutch weren't interested in writing or inventing stories. They were just interested in making money. I am afraid I have to tell you that Indonesians themselves were not united yet, the Dutch just cleverly made use of the situation. As a matter of fact, it were the Dutch who pacified and united the country which we call Indonesia today. I am an Indonesian myself, so please do not feel offended. You should read Benedict Anderson's Imagined community sometime. Meursault2004 15:53, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Hi Mersault, I was really expecting your reply ... thanks for the explanation, honestly speaking my sundanesse friend was the one who told me about this story (I swear I never heard this story during my childhood) it was quiet shocking when my sundanesse friend told me about this story since in the place where I grew up (Surabaya, Indonesia) the glory of Majapahit was highly being admired. Another shocking information I received was that in Bandung people that being found to be a lazy, stupid or indicipline shall be refer by Sundanesse as "JAWEN" which means that he/she is like a Javanesse ... my God ... I laugh at loud having heard that information. Oh well, I never take that seriously since I think several Javanesse I know also stigmatized the Sundanesse more or less the same. However, I can assure you that as a Javanesse I never take that seriously since I never believed the tribe stigmatization. Anyhow, if you don't mind, I am interested to have personal correspondence with you. Thank again.

You're welcome. Well about the term Jawen, I think in Sunda most of the rulers were Javanese or Javanized Sundanese. These rulers didn't do much in the eyes of the Sundanese, so they are calling people who don't do much or lazy Jawen today ... Probably it was created out of grudge against Javanese. But you are right, Javanese also have stereotypes of the neighbouring ethnical groups. For example; Madurese are fierce, Sundanese women are seductive, Balinese are bla bla bla etc. etc. OK I'll write you an e-mail. Bye Meursault2004 12:32, 22 July 2005 (UTC)