Majapahit, also known as Wilwatikta, was a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was based on the island of Java. It existed from 1293 to circa 1527 and reached its peak during the era of Hayam Wuruk, whose reign from 1350 to 1389 was marked by conquests that extended throughout Southeast Asia. His achievement is also credited to his prime minister, Gajah Mada. According to the Nagarakretagama written in 1365, Majapahit was an empire of 98 tributaries, stretching from Sumatra to New Guinea; consisting of present-day Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand, Timor Leste, southwestern Philippines although the scope of Majapahit sphere of influence is still the subject of debate among historians. The nature of Majapahit's relations and influence upon its overseas vassals and also its status as an empire still provokes discussion.
Nusantara is the Indonesian name of Maritime Southeast Asia. It is an Old Javanese term that literally means "outer islands". In Indonesia, it is generally taken to mean the Indonesian Archipelago. Outside of Indonesia, the term has been adopted to refer the Malay Archipelago.
Gajah Mada, also known as Jirnnodhara, was a powerful military leader and mahapatih of the Javanese empire of Majapahit during the 14th century. He is credited in Old Javanese manuscripts, poems, and inscriptions with bringing the empire to its peak of glory.
Kraton or keraton is a type of royal palace in Java, Indonesia. Its name is derived from the Javanese ka-ratu-an, meaning residence of the ratu, the traditional honorific title for a monarch. In Java, the palace of a prince is called pura or dalem, while the general word for palace is istana, identical to Malay.
Pigs, widespread in societies around the world since neolithic times, have been used for many purposes in art, literature, and other expressions of human culture. In classical times, the Romans considered pork the finest of meats, enjoying sausages, and depicting them in their art. Across Europe, pigs have been celebrated in carnivals since the Middle Ages, becoming specially important in Medieval Germany in cities such as Nuremberg, and in Early Modern Italy in cities such as Bologna.
A candi is a Hindu or Buddhist temple in Indonesia, mostly built during the Zaman Hindu-Buddha or "Hindu-Buddhist period" between circa the 4th and 15th centuries.
The National Museum of Indonesia is an archeological, historical, ethnological, and geographical museum located in Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, right on the west side of Merdeka Square. Popularly known as the Elephant Museum after the elephant statue in its forecourt, its broad collections cover all of Indonesia's territory and almost all of its history. The museum has endeavoured to preserve Indonesia's heritage for two centuries.
Javanese culture is the culture of the Javanese people. Javanese culture is centered in the provinces of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java in Indonesia. Due to various migrations, it can also be found in other parts of the world, such as Suriname, the broader Indonesian archipelago region, Cape Malay, Malaysia, Singapore, Netherlands and other countries. The migrants bring with them various aspects of Javanese cultures such as Gamelan music, traditional dances and art of Wayang kulit shadow play.
Trowulan is an archaeological site in Trowulan Subdistrict, Mojokerto Regency, in the Indonesian province of East Java. It includes approximately 100 square kilometres and has been theorized to be the site of the eponymous capital city of the Majapahit Empire, which is described by Mpu Prapanca in the 14th-century poem Nagarakretagama and in a 15th-century Chinese source. When it was the capital of the Majapahit Empire, the city was known as Wilwatikta, which is a name also synonymous with the empire's name. It was razed during the invasion of Girindrawardhana to defeat Kertabhumi in 1478. After this event Majapahit's capital was moved to Daha (Kediri). The Trowulan Museum includes a collection of artifacts.
"Piloncitos" is a collectors' term for the bead-like gold masa coins used during the aristocratic era of the Philippines and in the early years of Spanish foreign rule, called bulawan in many Philippine languages or salapi ("coin") or ginto in Tagalog. These are pieces that formed part of various degrees of Southeast Asian gold weight such as amás or táhil. Gold coinage was used along with silver coinage in maritime Southeast Asian currency.
The Trowulan Museum is an archaeological museum located in Trowulan, Mojokerto, in East Java, Indonesia. The museum was built in order to house the artifacts and archaeological findings discovered around Trowulan and its vicinity. The location is one of the more important in Indonesia in relation to tracing the history of Majapahit
Majapahit Terracotta is the terracotta art and craft dated from Majapahit era circa 13th to 15th century. Significant terracotta earthenware artifacts from this period were discovered in Trowulan, East Java.
The economic history of Indonesia is shaped by its geographic location, its natural resources, as well as its people that inhabited the archipelago that today formed the modern nation-state of the Republic of Indonesia. The foreign contact and international trade with foreign counterparts had also shaped and sealed the fate of Indonesian archipelago, as Indians, Chinese, Arabs, and eventually European traders reached the archipelago during the Age of Exploration and participated in the spice trade, war and conquest.
The Kingdomship of Bali was a series of Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms that once ruled some parts of the volcanic island of Bali, in Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. With a history of native Balinese kingship spanning from the early 10th to early 20th centuries, Balinese kingdoms demonstrated sophisticated Balinese court culture where native elements of spirit and ancestral reverence combined with Hindu influences—adopted from India through ancient Java intermediary—flourished, enriched and shaped Balinese culture.
It is quite difficult to define Indonesian art, since the country is immensely diverse. The sprawling archipelago nation consists of 17.000 islands. Around 922 of those permanently inhabited, by over 1,300 ethnic groups, which speak more than 700 living languages.
The archaeology of Indonesia is the study of the archaeology of the archipelagic realm that today forms the nation of Indonesia, stretching from prehistory through almost two millennia of documented history. The ancient Indonesian archipelago was a geographical maritime bridge between the political and cultural centers of Ancient India and Imperial China, and is notable as a part of ancient Maritime Silk Road.
Indonesian numismatic charms, also known as Indonesian magic coins, are a family of coin-like objects based on a similar Chinese family of coin charms, amulets, and talismans but evolved independently from them. Indonesian numismatic charms tend to have been influenced a lot by Hinduism, Islam, and the native culture and often depict religious imagery from Hinduism for this reason. The "magic coins" and temple coins from Indonesia are largely based on the Chinese cash coins introduced to the region during the Tang dynasty era in China, and during the local Majapahit era they began circulating in the region. Unlike with Chinese numismatic charms, the coin charms of Indonesia have not been as well documented both historically and in the modern era. A major modern day work about Indonesian numismatic charms in English is Joe Cribb's Magic coins of Java, Bali, and the Malay Peninsula which is a catalogue based on the collection of coin-shaped charms from the island Java acquired by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles during his lifetime held in the British Museum, the book is further supplemented with data and information available from various other sources.
A Tudor money box is a glazed earthenware container used in late Medieval Britain as a small, portable bank for collecting and saving money. The typical money box was a round, sealed, green-glazed pot with a vertical coin slot. These sturdy, small pots were commonly used by Elizabethan theatres to collect ticket earnings. Money would be retrieved from the full money box by breaking it open and destroying the pot.
Sumberawan is a Buddhist stupa located in Toyomarto village, Sumberawan subdistrict, Malang Regency, East Java, Indonesia. The stupa is located in the highlands, on the southern slope of Mount Arjuno, surrounded by numerous Springs.
