Java’s pilgrimage culture is a dense, batik-like pattern of contradictions: seriousness collides with laughter; curiosity with bewilderment; piety with scepticism; intense spirituality with, in some places, the joy of shopping. The pilgrimage culture on the island of Java in Indonesia – the world’s largest Muslim country – is a rebuke to the conservative orthodoxy that has been gaining ground in Indonesia’s religious landscape since the 1980s. In the rhetoric of this orthodoxy the “real” Islam is pure and exclusive. Piety comes from obedience to religious authority and its rules. Local pilgrimage is anything but pure and exclusive or rigidly authoritarian. It is powerfully Islamic but it fuses Islam with local history, the ancient power of place and a pastiche of devotional practices with roots deep in the pre-Islamic past. Quietly but tenaciously – just outside the great echo chamber of public space – it is growing as fast as the higher profile neo-orthodoxy. Bandit Saints of Java delves deep under the surface of modern Indonesia, exploring personalities and stories in the weird world of local pilgrimage, where Middle Eastern Islam wrestles with the ancient power of Javanese civilisation. It paints an astonishing portrait of Islam as it is practised today – largely invisible to journalists, scholars and tourists – by many of Java’s 130 million people.

This volume takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of religious cultural exchanges around the Pacific in the period 1500-1900, relating these to economic and political developments and to the expansion of communication across the area. It brings together twenty-two pieces, from diaries of religious exiles and missionary field observations, to studies from a variety of academic disciplines, so enabling a multitude of voices to be heard. The articles are grouped in sections dealing with the Islamic period, the Iberian Catholic period, the Jewish diaspora, the Russian Orthodox church, the epoch of Protestant culture and finally Asian immigrant religions in the West; a substantial introduction contextualizes these chapters in terms of both historical and contemporary approaches.

As a work in comparative theology, this book presents how an Islamic concept of sainthood (walāya) informs Christian theology in answering one question that emerges from today’s multi-faith context: “Is it possible for Christians to recognize non-Christians as saints?”

By the fourteenth century the Islamic faith had spread via maritime trade routes to Southeast Asia where, over the next seven hundred years, it would have a continuing influence on political life, social customs, and the development of the arts. Sultans, Shamans, and Saints looks at Islam in Southeast Asia during four major eras: its arrival (to 1300), the first flowering of Islamic identity (1300–1800), the era of imperialism (1800–1945), and the era of independent nation-states (1945–2000). Ranging across the humanities and social sciences, this balanced and accessible work emphasizes the historical development of Southeast Asia’s accommodation of Islam and the creation of its distinctive regional character. Each chapter opens with a general background summary that places events in the greater Asian/Southeast Asian context, followed by an overview of prominent ethnic groups, political events, customs and cultures, religious factors, and art forms. Sultans, Shamans, and Saints will be of great value to students and researchers specializing in the study of Islam and the comparative study of Muslim societies and culture. It will also be useful to those with a world-systems approach to the study of history and globalization.

The growing interest in the history of Indonesia has made it desirable to have an English summary of the principal works of the Dutch historian Dr H. J. de Graaf, who in several books and articles published between 1935 and 1973 has given a description of the development of the Javanese kingdom of Mataram, based both on European and in digenous material. His works form a substantial contribution to the study of the national history of Indonesia. The Summary contains references to the paragraphs of the Dutch books and articles. This makes it easy for those readers who have a know ledge of Dutch to consult the original texts. The List of Sources for the study of Javanese history from 1500 to 1700 is composed of the lists in the summarized books and articles, and the Index of Names refers not only to the present Summary but also to the eight original texts. Many names of persons and localities in the Index have been provided with short explanatory notes and references to other lemmata as a quick way to give some provisional information on Javanese history.

News & media coverage! Book Launch of Golden Dragon and Purple Phoenix - 3rd July 2013 Many books have been written about the Chinese in Southeast Asia, but very few, if any, are written specifically about the multi-ethnic descendants of Chinese immigrants. Golden Dragon and Purple Phoenix is not about the diaspora per se of Chinese in Southeast Asia but about the impact of intermarriage between Chinese immigrants and the natives, that is, the intermingling of blood and the offspring from such unions — the influence they wielded on the society and environment they chose to live in. It is also about how they rose to high positions and their contributions to their societies. Some rose to become kings or king makers, others to become presidents, prime ministers, senior ministers, prominent businessmen, or religious leaders. Some openly declared their ancestry and are proud of their Chinese DNA, while others have forgotten their heritage and in their fervour to prove their allegiance to their country of birth, dissociate themselves, assertively through violence, indirectly through economic sanctions and various other means. In short, the multi-ethnic Chinese descendants form a unique community with unique cultural genes of its own, and these fresh and rarely-known stories about them in this book will be a good resource for historical researchers as well as fascinating reading materials for readers in general. With 14 years' experience as a journalist and a 29-year career as a politician and diplomat, Mr. Lee Khoon Choy has set foot on every land in Southeast Asia and observed closely the local life in each country. Mindful of his Hakka identity, Mr. Lee has a keen interest in multi-ethnic Chinese descendants in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, etc. Contents:The Lokjins in ThailandThe Mestizos of the Philippines (混血儿米斯蒂佐)The Mingling of Chinese and Javanese Blood — The Peranakan (土生华人)The Tayoke Kabya and the Kokangese in MyanmarThe Konkat-Cen in CambodiaThe Minh Huong (明乡) of VietnamSino-Laos and the Hmong (苗) in LaosBaba (峇峇) and Nyonya (娘惹) in MalaysiaWesternised SingaporeansBrunei: Land of the Smiling People Readership: General readers, academics, professionals and students who are interested in the history and culture of multi-ethnic Chinese descendants in ten Southeast Asian countries, including their language, lifestyle, influence as well as stories on prominent state leaders and business of Chinese heritage. Keywords:Southeast Asia;Mixed-Blood Chinese;CultureKey Features:Brings new knowledge about the Chinese immigrants in Southeast AsiaShowcases the differences between Chinese immigrants and their multi-ethnic descendantsBrings awareness to the large portion of younger Chinese citizens of Southeast Asia