This accomplishment was mainly due to the political skills of King Chula-
longkorn (Rama V, gov. 1868–1910), who managed to impose his vision of
Siam as a buVer state between the colonial possessions of the European
powers. He modernized the country hiring Europeans when needed, visited
Europe in 1897 and in 1907, and sent his sons to be educated in Britain,
Denmark, Germany, and Russia.
Colonialism was, therefore, the framework within which archaeologyWrst
developed in Indonesia, Indochina, and India as well as, in fact, in independ-
ent Siam. The following sections of this chapter explore the extent to which
monumental archaeology was aVected by the political situation. Non-monu-
mental archaeology will mainly be examined later on, in Chapter 10.
BUDDHISM AND HINDU ANTIQUITIES
IN DUTCH INDONESIAIndonesia was, together with Latin America, one of the earliest parts of the
globe to be colonized by the Europeans. However, the decline of the previous
major empires in the area impeded the employment of already existent bureau-
cracies to develop aWrm administrative and cultural infrastructure from which
to form a solid colonial knowledge (something that occurred to some extent
in Mexico and Peru). During the early modern period Indonesia was only thinly
populated by Europeans and Creoles, so it is no wonder that scientiWcexplor-
ation proved patchy. The earliest information about antiquities related to both
prehistoric and monumental archaeology. Some information about prehistoric
Wnds was published posthumously by George Rumphius (1627–1702), a natur-
alist who from 1653 had been employed in Ambon (East Indonesia) by the
Dutch East India Company. In hisHerbarium Amboinenseof 1705 two chapters
were dedicated to prehistoric material. Monumental ruins were found at a later
stage, but attracted a higher degree of attention than prehistoric remains.
The ninth-century Hindu temple of Prambanan in central Java wasWrst men-
tioned in 1733 by a Dutch oYcial, a certain C. A. Lons (Tanudirjo 1995: 62–3).
In the neighbouring island of Sumatra, William Marsden (1754–1836), an
English Orientalist who worked for the British East India Company in Benkulen
(also spelled Bencoolen, now Bengkulu) in West Sumatra from 1771, developed
an interest in the area’s antiquities. Back in England he wrote, among other
works, aHistory of Sumatra(1783) as well asNumismata orientalia or The
Eastern Coins ancient and modern described and historically illustrated(London,
1823–5). Two years before his death his collection of Oriental coins was
presented to the British Museum.
South and South East Asia 215