changes to the organization of knowledge in the colony, for academicWelds
that had started to diverge in Europe (Chapter 13) were now also separated
from each other in the society. Hoe ̈vell successfully proposed that it became
more focused in its aims. As he speciWed in an address to the society in 1843,
the main focus of research should be the study of language and literature,
complemented by ethnography and anthropology, and archaeology and an-
tiquities (Djojonegoro 1998: 21). To support the government’s eVorts, he
explained, a Kabinet van Oudheden (Cabinet of Antiquities) had been
founded. It would concentrate on historical, ethnological, and numismatic
collections (ibid. 25). A very diVerent destiny awaited the society’s collections
in theWelds of the natural sciences, which were no longer promoted by the
institution: the zoological, mineralogical, and geological specimens were sent
to other specialized institutions, both in Java and in Holland, or were sold at
auction. This renewed interest in antiquities was instrumental for the pro-
clamation of the Law of Treasure Trove in 1855, stipulating that all archaeo-
logicalWnds be reported to the government, which may then decide to give
the society a chance to purchase them (ibid. 22).
In this period projects were undertaken with the aim of documenting all
the inscriptions found in Java as well as the site of Borobudur (ibid. 22). An
engineer oYcer, Frans Carel Wilsen (1813–99), was oYcially sent to make
drawings of architectural details and reliefs at Borobudur in 1849, and in 1856
Jan Frederik Gerrit Brumund (1814–63), reverend of the Batavian Evangelic
Community, was appointed to describe the monuments. He described Boro-
budur as ‘a gloomy, depressing, rather squat building’ (in Krom 1927: 1), yet
despite his criticisms he tried to build his reputation on the ruins. He would
not be alone in expressing disdain towards the ruins. Colonel Sir Henry Yule
(c. 1819–89), writing in theJournal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, said in 1862
that atWrst sight Borobudur ‘seems little better than a vast and shapeless cairn
of stones’, and Alfred A. Foucher (1865–1952), an expert on Buddhist icon-
ography, would say in 1909 that Borobudur seemed ‘a badly risen pie’ (ibid.1).
Misunderstandings between Brumund and Wilsen led to the involvement in
the project of Conrade Leemans (1809–93), a specialist in Egyptology and
director of the Archaeological Museum in Leiden (Holland) between 1839
and 1891 (Leemans 1973), and the work wasWnally published in 1873
(Soekmono 1976: 6). In this study, as was the case in those that followed,
migration became the main hypothesis to explain culture change, notably to
account for how Hindu (as well as Islamic) culture had arrived in the country.
This, it was postulated, had reached the area either with warriors or with
Indian traders (Tanudirjo 1995: 68). An active participation of local commu-
nities in this cultural change was only proposed by some authors after the
First World War (Tanudirjo 1995: 70).
South and South East Asia 219