Focus: Gamelan Music of Indonesia is an introduction to the familiar music from Southeast Asia's largest country - both as sound and cultural phenomenon. An archipelago of over 17,000 islands, Indonesia is a melting pot of Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Portuguese, Dutch, and British influences. Despite this diversity, it has forged a national culture, one in which music plays a significant role. Gamelan music, in particular, teaches us much about Indonesian values and modern-day life. Focus: Gamelan Music of Indonesia provides an introduction to present-day Javanese, Balinese, Cirebonese, and Sundanese gamelan music through ethnic, social, cultural, and global perspectives. Part One, Music and Southeast Asian History ̧ provides introductory materials for the study of Southeast Asian music. Part Two, Gamelan Music in Java and Bali, moves to a more focused overview of Gamelan music in Indonesia. Part Three, Focusing In, takes an in-depth look at Sundanese gamelan traditions, as well modern developments in Sundanese music and dance. The accompanying downloadable resources offer vivid examples of traditional Indonesian gamelan music.

Analytical work on Indonesian macroeconomic and financial issues, with an overarching theme on building institutions and policies for prosperity and inclusive growth. The book begins with a 20-year economic overview by former Finance Minister Chatib Basri, with subsequent chapters covering diverse sectors of the economy as well as Indonesia’s place in the global economy.

Indonesia was founded on the ideal of the “Sovereignty of the People”, which suggests the pre-eminence of people’s rights to access, use and control land to support their livelihoods. Yet, many questions remain unresolved. How can the state ensure access to land for agriculture and housing while also supporting land acquisition for investment in industry and infrastructure? What is to be done about indigenous rights? Do registration and titling provide solutions? Is the land reform agenda — legislated but never implemented — still relevant? How should the land questions affecting Indonesia’s disappearing forests be resolved? The contributors to this volume assess progress on these issues through case studies from across the archipelago: from large-scale land acquisitions in Papua, to asset ownership in the villages of Sulawesi and Java, to tenure conflicts associated with the oil palm and mining booms in Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra. What are the prospects for the “people’s sovereignty” in regard to land?

In Politics in Contemporary Indonesia, Ken M.P. Setiawan and Dirk Tomsa analyse the most prominent political ideas, institutions, interests and issues that shape Indonesian politics today. Guided by the overarching question whether Indonesia still deserves its famous label as a ‘model Muslim democracy’, the book argues that the most serious threats to Indonesian democracy emanate from the fading appeal of democracy as a compelling narrative, the increasingly brazen capture of democratic institutions by predatory interests, and the narrowing public space for those who seek to defend the values of democracy. In so doing, the book answers the following key questions: What are the dominant political narratives that underpin Indonesian politics? How has Indonesia’s institutional framework evolved since the onset of democratisation in 1998? How do competing political interests weaken or strengthen Indonesian democracy? How does declining democracy affect Indonesia’s prospects for dealing with its main policy challenges? How does Indonesia compare to other Muslim-majority states and to its regional neighbours? Up-to-date, comprehensive and written in an accessible style, this book will be of interest for both students and scholars of Indonesian politics, Asian Studies, Comparative Politics and International Relations.

This examination of the formation of the Indonesian medical profession reveals the relationship between medicine and decolonisation, and its importance to understanding Asian history.

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world after China, India and the United States. It is also the world's largest Muslim majority country and the third largest democracy. Its economy is currently the 10th largest on the global scale. Indonesia is recognized as an emerging power, and a respected member of the international community. It plays an important role not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but also in the world at large.Indonesia has defied the grim predictions about its imminent collapse following the ouster of Suharto in 1998. Its ability to rebuild and reinvigorate itself into its current status is one of the most impressive stories of the late 20th and early 21st century. Its journey since the fall of Suharto is inspiring at a time when the world has seen many failing nations, recurring economic crises, and growing radicalism and terrorism. Yet, the Indonesian story receives far less attention than the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).The Indonesian story suggests a different pathway to emerging power status. This pathway is based not so much on military or economic resources. Rather, it lies in the ability of a country to develop a positive, virtuous correlation among three factors: democracy, development and stability, while pursuing a foreign policy of restraint towards neighbours and active engagement with the world at large.This is the key lesson from the story of Indonesia that this book seeks to present. It analyses Indonesia's foreign policy and international role under the democratic regime, with particular focus on its role as a leader of ASEAN, its relationship with the major powers of the Asia Pacific, and its place in the global order of the 21st century.

The book shows how the Chinese minority is much more diverse, and the picture much richer and more complicated, than previous studies have allowed. Subjects covered include the historical development of Chinese communities in peripheral areas of Indonesia, the religious practices of Chinese Indonesians, which are by no means confined to "Chinese" religions, and Chinese ethnic events, where a wide range of Indonesians, not just Chinese, participate.