JAVA--THE BEAUTIFUL.
We had not thought of visiting Java, but we heard so much of it from
returning tourists as we journeyed through Japan, China and the
Philippines, that we turned aside from Singapore and devoted two
weeks to a trip through the island. Steamers run to both Batavia
(which is the capital and the metropolis of the western end of
the island) and Soerabaja, the chief city of eastern Java, and a
railroad about four hundred miles long connects these two cities. A
tour of the islands can thus be made in from ten to fifteen days,
according to connections, but unless one is pressed for time, he can
profitably employ a month or more in this little island, attractive
by nature and made still more beautiful by the hand of man. There
are excellent hotels at the principal stopping places, and the rates
are more moderate than we have found elsewhere in the Orient.
The lover of mountain scenery finds much in Java to satisfy the eye.
The railroad from Batavia to Soerabaja twice crosses the range, and
as the trains run only in the day time, one can, without leaving the
cars, see every variety of tropical growth, from swamp to mountain
top, from cocoanut groves and rice fields on the low land to the tea
gardens and coffee plantations of the higher altitudes, not to speak
of mountain streams, gorges and forests.
Java is the home of the volcano and contains more of these fiery
reservoirs than any other area on the earth's surface. While only
about six hundred miles in length and from sixty to a hundred and
twenty miles in width, it has, according to Wallace, thirty-eight
volcanoes, some of them still smoking and all of them interesting
relics of a period when the whole island was deluged with molten
lava. Some assert that almost all of Java has been built up by the
eruptions of volcanoes. Two extinct volcanoes, Salak and Gedah, can
be seen from Buitenzorg, and from the top of Boro Boedoer temple
nine volcanoes can be counted when the air is clear--at least
Groneman so declares in his description of this temple, although not
so many were visible the day we visited there.
[Illustration: A DRIVEWAY IN BOTANICAL GARDEN--BUITENZORG]
It is only twenty-three years ago that Krakatau, which stands upon
an island of the same name in the Strait of Sunda, just off the east
end of Java, startled the world with an eruption seldom equaled in
history. It began smoking in May, 1883, and continued active until
the 26th of August following, when explosions took place which
were heard at Batavia, eighty miles distant, and the next day the
explosions were still more gigantic, being audible two thousand
miles away. The loss of life caused by the mud and ashes and by the
waves set in motion by the eruption was officially estimated at
over thirty-six thousand. Various scientific societies, especially
of Holland, England and France, made exhaustive reports on the
Krakatau eruption. The Royal Society of Great Britain estimated that
the volume of smoke arose to a height of seventeen miles and that
several cubic miles of mud, lava and stones poured forth from the
crater to the ruin of a large area. At one place the water rose more
than seventy-five feet and threw a steamship over the harbor-head
into a Chinese market; but under the influence of a tropical sun and
abundant moisture the slopes of the volcano soon grew green again,
and now the natives speed their skiffs through the adjacent waters
and the inhabitants of this volcanic belt live and move with little
thought of the mighty forces which have so often demonstrated their
powers in the archipelago.
[Illustration: EXTINCT VOLCANO, SALAK]
If one is interested in the study of trees, plants and flowers he
can employ himself indefinitely in the famous botanical garden in
Buitenzorg. While Batavia is the normal capital of Netherlands
India, the governor general lives at Buitenzorg--a city built on a
mountain slope forty miles from Batavia, where an altitude of some
seven hundred feet gives an average temperature of eight degrees
below that of the sea level. The botanical garden surrounds the
palace and for nearly a century the authorities have been collecting
specimens of the flora of the tropics.
The present superintendent of the garden, Herr Wigman, is an
enthusiast in his line, and we are indebted to him for a most
enjoyable tour through the garden. The main entrance leads through
an avenue of gigantic kanari trees, set some forty feet apart and
forming a verdant roof that entirely excludes the sun. The officials
believe that they have made this the most attractive driveway in
the world, and so far as my observation goes, they are justified
in their claim. Climbing vines of every variety have been trained
upon these trees until their enormous trunks stand like so many
columns draped in living green. One climbing vine, with a trunk
which one would mistake for a tree if it stood alone, has festooned
a row of trees three hundred feet long and is still reaching
out for new conquests. Herr Wigman shows this monster vine with
pardonable pride, but he has found on his visits to Europe that he
could not give a truthful description of it without endangering
his reputation for veracity. We saw, here, also, rattan vines of
seemingly endless length, hanging from lofty limbs or coiling on
the ground like a colony of serpents. A specialty has been made of
orchids, as is evidenced by a collection of between two and three
thousand varieties. Some of these are remarkable for their curious
and variegated leaves, others for the beauty and delicacy of the
flowers. We were shown three kinds of pitcher plants; one kind
is fashioned like a rat trap, the tiny spines pointing downward
so that the insect can enter but can not escape until the flower
withers; another drowns his victims in a syrup-like water; while a
third poisons the unlucky prisoners lured into the recesses of the
blossoms. Several plants growing on tree trunks have porous bulbs
which seem to be designed for ant houses; at any rate the ants are
always found in them. By an admirable reciprocity the ants pay
their house rent by protecting the plants from other insects. Some
of the European nations have defended their occupation of Oriental
countries on the same theory, viz., that they give protection in
exchange for a domicile, but there is no evidence that the ant lives
on the plant, while colonialism is always a burden to the natives.
In the botanical garden, as elsewhere in the island, are to be found
all varieties of the palm--the royal palm, than which there is no
more ornamental tree, the cocoanut palm, with its myriad uses, the
sugar palm, the sago palm, the oil palm, the betel-nut palm, which
furnishes the Malay a substitute for chewing tobacco, the nipa palm,
so helpful in building, the fan palm, etc., etc.
Nature has been prodigal in her gifts to the people of the tropics,
and besides giving plant life in confusing abundance, her generosity
is shown in a number of trees, each of which can be put to many
uses. Reference was made to the bamboo in one of the articles on
Japan, but the Javanese have not only the bamboo, but the palm as
well, and from this one tree they could build their houses (though
the bamboo is usually used for frames and floors because it is
lighter, the trunk of the palm might be employed) and secure food,
drink and light, and in addition, a fermented liquor and a narcotic.
The lakes and pools of the Buitenzorg garden teem with lotus and
water lilies of many colors. One variety, brought from New Guinea,
has blue flowers of various shades and is as yet unknown in Europe
and America. One water lily has enormous flat, circular leaves with
the edges turned up like a pie pan. Some of these leaves are four
feet in diameter, and an imaginative writer has pictured them as
frying pans on which the natives bake hot cakes.
The papyrus, from which the ancient Egyptians made their paper,
grows here, though it is no longer found in Egypt. Here, too, are
flowering trees and shrubs of many kinds, one whose pods are so
exactly like tallow candles that it is called the candle tree.
But it would occupy more space than I have at my disposal to give
an adequate description of the beauties of the garden, with its
mighty banyan trees, its waving palms, its graceful bamboos, its
odorous sandalwood and tangled vines, its rose garden, its depth of
shade and wealth of bloom, its upas tree (not deadly, however, as
tradition has it, but quite innocent of any criminal intent), its
winding ways and really moss-grown paths and its secluded little
cemetery where rest those members of the families of the governors
who died on the island. No wonder Buitenzorg is the Mecca of the
botanist and the one spot never neglected by even the casual tourist
in the island.
Java reminds one of Japan in the appearance of its rice fields, its
cultivated hills and its terraced mountain sides. Though the island
is diminutive in area, containing a little less than forty thousand
square miles, half of which is tillable, the land is so wisely used
that it supports a population of 28,000,000. With so many mountains
and with a rainfall amounting to ten feet per annum in some places;
the island has, as might be expected, an abundance of springs and
running streams, and these make possible a very perfect system of
irrigation which has converted Java into a vast garden. Sugar is
the chief export, followed by tea, coffee and copra, although rice
is the product to which most attention is given. It is the chief
article of food, and so much is required to support the dense
population that its importance as a crop is not indicated by its
place in the table of exports.
[Illustration: A JAVA ROAD.]
As a traveler is more impressed by the unusual things than by the
things with which he is familiar, one who visits Java immediately
notices the numerous fruits peculiar to the island. They have here
all of the fruits usually found in tropical countries and several
that are not found elsewhere. The pineapple grows in perfection and
can be bought in the market for about a cent apiece. The Java orange
is not equal in taste or variety to those of California or Florida,
but the banana, of which there are more than a hundred varieties,
makes up for the deficiency. Mrs. Scidmore, in her book on Java, is
authority for the statement that four thousand pounds of bananas
will grow on the space required to produce ninety-nine pounds of
potatoes or thirty-three pounds of wheat; if her calculation is
correct and the ratio of productiveness anything like the same in
the case of other fruit, one can understand why the problem of
living is so simplified in warm countries. A fruit closely allied
to our grape-fruit is found here, a variety of which grows in China
and Japan. The papaya, which we first tasted in Honolulu, the mango,
whose season had passed in the Philippines, the sour manila and
the durian are all to be bought in the market here. The last named
fruit has succeeded in arraying into ardent friends and unsparing
critics the tourists who have ventured to eat it. Some declare that
it is delicious, while others can not bear the taste, and all agree
that the odor is exceedingly repulsive. It is rough-skinned, very
large, sometimes weighing ten or fifteen pounds, and resembles in
appearance both the bread fruit and the nangka.
Among the fruits which we have tasted for the first time the
mangosteen and the rambutan are rivals in popularity. The first is
a delicately flavored, orange-shaped morsel of pure white, encased
in a thick hull of deep red. It melts in the mouth, and leaves a
memory of mingled flavors. Its fame has spread abroad, and there was
for years a standing offer of thirty pounds to anyone who would put
Queen Victoria in possession of a ripe mangosteen, but it decays so
quickly that not even ice will preserve it during a long sea voyage.
The rambutan has not received as much praise as the mangosteen, but
I am not sure but that it is superior for continuous use. The word
rambutan means hairy, and the name was given to this fruit because
it has a covering something like a chestnut burr, except that the
so-called hairs are soft instead of spine-like. There is a variety
of rambutan which has a smoother covering without the hair-like
projections, and this is very appropriately called the kapoelassen
(which means bald) rambutan. The usual color of the covering is a
bright crimson, but there are several different shades, and the
trees present a very attractive appearance when laden with ripe
fruit. The pulp of the rambutan resembles a pigeon's egg in size
and shape and contains a single seed. The flavor is half tart, half
sweet, and recalls all the good things one has ever tasted.
Another Javanese fruit is the doekoe, which on the outside looks
like an apricot, but is divided into sections like an orange and has
a taste peculiarly its own. The jamboa, or Java apple, is conical in
shape and has a white wax appearance. But enough has been said to
indicate the variety of fruits exposed for sale on the street and
peddled at railway stations. The natives usually carry an assortment
of fruit as they go to or return from market, and the floor of the
third-class railroad coaches are always littered with rinds and
peelings. Verily, one can revel in fruit to his heart's content in
Java.
One of the most interesting days that we spent in Java was devoted
to a trip to Boro Boedoer, the great Hindu temple near Djokjakarta.
Leaving the through train at this station with the jaw-breaking
name, we went by tram line about twenty miles and then drove six
miles farther. Near the temple the road crosses a ferry, the
substantial bridge which once spanned the river there having been
swept away, and when we reached this point we found the stream
so swollen by recent rains that the natives were not willing to
risk their boats in the angry flood. We returned to the tramway
station and spent the night in the hospitable home of the Dutch
stationmaster, the only white man in the town. Returning to the
river early next morning we found that the waters had sufficiently
subsided to enable us to cross, and we reached Boro Boedoer while
yet the sun was low. And what a monument is Boro Boedoer to the zeal
of the Buddhist priests, the skill of the Hindu architect and the
patient industry of the Javanese! As a temple it is not surpassed,
in labor expended upon its construction it is comparable with the
pyramids, and in artistic skill displayed in design and execution,
it is even superior to them.
According to archæologists, it was built about twelve hundred years
ago when the Javanese were worshipers of Buddha, but the invasion
of the Mohammedans of the fifteenth century was so complete that
that stupendous pile was first neglected, then deserted and at
last forgotten. It was so overgrown with trees and shrubbery that
the Dutch traders were in the country for two centuries before its
presence was discovered. When it was found and unearthed during
the occupancy of the English under Sir Stamford Raffles in 1814,
the people living in the vicinity were as much surprised as the
foreigners, for all tradition of its existence had been lost. This
seems hardly possible when it is remembered that the temple stands
upon the summit of a mound, is five hundred feet square at the
base and towers to the height of a hundred feet. The structure is
pyramidal in form and rises in eight terraces, the first five being
square and the last three circular. Each terrace has a wall at the
outer edge, which with the wall of the next succeeding terrace
forms a roofless gallery, either side of which is ornamented with
bas reliefs descriptive of the life of Buddha. These carvings,
if placed side by side, would, it is estimated, extend for three
miles, and the story which they tell has been interpreted by eminent
archæologists who have visited the place. These pictures in stone
not only portray the rise and development of the great Indian
teacher, but they preserve a record of the dress and customs of the
people, the arms and implements used, and the fauna and flora of
that time.
[Illustration: TEMPLE AT BORO BOEDOER]
At the center of each side there is a covered stairway leading
to the summit, and there is evidence that the galleries were
once separated from each other by doors. In the niches along the
gallery walls there are four hundred and thirty-two stone images
of Buddha, life size and seated on the ever present lotus. On the
three circular terraces there are seventy-two openwork, bell-shaped
structures, called dagabas, each containing a stone image of Buddha.
Surmounting the temple is a great dagaba fifty feet in diameter and
in it was found an unfinished statue of Buddha similar to those
found on the various galleries.
As the stone employed in the construction of the temple was of a
hard variety the bas reliefs are well preserved. No mortar was used
for cementing the stones and no columns or pillars were employed.
Besides Boro Boedoer there are hundreds of other temples scattered
over the island. Within two miles of the elevation upon which
the great temple stands there are two religious edifices--one a
shrine of exquisite proportions, restored in 1904, and another a
temple of considerable size now being restored. At Brambanan, about
twenty miles east of Djokjakarta, there is a large group of temples
scarcely less interesting than Boro Boedoer. One of the reports
received by Sir Stamford Raffles describes this territory as the
headquarters of Hinduism in Java and the temples as "stupendous and
finished specimens of human labor and of the science and taste of
ages long since forgot."
I must reserve for another article my observations upon the people
and upon Dutch rule of the island and will conclude this paper with
the suggestion that Java should be included in a tour of the world,
whether undertaken for instruction or pleasure, for few sections
of the earth have been so blessed by the Creator's bounty, so
beautified by the skill of the husbandman, or are so rich in ruins.