The Golden Century
Portrait
statue of Kertarajasa Jayawardhana ( Raden Wijaya ), founder of the
dynasty of Majapahit, from Candi Sumberjati near Blitar
; now in the National Museum, Jakarta.
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 East Java's century of glory can be
seen roughly to span the period beginning with the reign of Kertanagara,
who took over the throne of Singosari in 1254, and ending with
the death of Gajah Mada, Majapahit's most famous prime minister,
in 1364. As the last king of Singosari, Kertanagara was perhaps
the first to dream of a united Indonesia. He was the only ruler
in south east Asia who was brave enough to defy openly the demand
for tribute by the powerful Mongol emperor of China, Kublai Khan
and, by subjugating Sumatra and Bali, he set the stage for the
successes of the coming century. The story goes something like
this: Kublai Khan, emperor of China and grandson of the Mongol
conqueror Genghiz Khan, sent a punitive expedition to Java in
1293 to bring the Javanese king, Kertanagara, to his knees. What
he did not know, however, was that Kertanagara had been murdered
the previous year and that a usurper now held power.
Through
a cunning strategy, the rightful heir to the throne, Raden Wijaya,
allied himself with the Mongol invaders, defeated the usurper
and then turned on the depleted foreign army, killing most of
them and sending the rest running back to their ships. In this
way, it is told, the last and greatest of East Java's Hindu kingdoms,
Majapahit, was established. In its heyday in the mid- fourteenth
century, Majapahit controlled not only the greater part of Indonesia,
but a considerable part of mainland south east Asia as well.
Much of this success is due to the figure of Gajah Mada, whose
genius and vision as the empire's prime minister and commander-in-chief,
brought to fulfilment the dream of Kertanagara a century earlier.
Scattered throughout East Java are the remains of countless stone
temples and other buildings, which bear witness to the richness
of this past age. Many are already well known, many more far
less known; how many still waiting to be discovered.
Articles
of bronze, dating from the Majapahit period, are still being discovered
in East Java.
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Ancient
silver coins from the Hindu / Buddhist Period.
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