Some of the worst natural disasters in world history have happened in Indonesia: the 1257 Samalas eruption, the 1815 Tambora eruption, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Despite their global impact, these catastrophes do not always appear in the traditional historiographies of the archipelago. 

Historians seeking corroboration of the geological record of disaster are often disappointed by the vagueness and imprecision of the Indonesian historical texts. When natural disasters are mentioned in premodern historiography, they are depicted more as portents of the power of gods and kings than as unique historical events that need to be documented. While the details of specific disaster events were often forgotten, collective memories of the social impacts of disaster continued to be passed down for centuries. 

This talk reviews the sparse written record of natural disaster in Javanese, Balinese, Sasak and Malay. It considers why these cataclysmic events, whose global effects were recorded as far afield as Europe, did not always survive in the written historical record, and how Indonesian communities preserved their memories of disaster in ways that are less easily accessible to modern historians. 

Speaker

Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan is a lecturer of Indonesian history and language at the Australian National University in Canberra, where he is also director of the Indonesia Institute. He is a historian specialising in the premodern history of Southeast Asia, as well as a teacher of Indonesian and Old Javanese language. He is especially interested in using indigenous Southeast Asian sources to rethink how history is practised. He has written widely on Southeast Asian history in leading history and area studies journals. He has written for New Mandala, The Conversation, Inside Indonesia, as well as blogs of the British Library and Malay Heritage Centre. He has given public talks, seminars, and national radio interviews on his research, and he has an active outreach program on traditional and social media. He has previously held positions at the Ecole française d'Extrême Orient (Paris) and the University of Sydney.

Moderator

Adrian Perkasa is a postdoctoral researcher at KITLV. His research is about Pranata Mångsa, a Javanese agricultural calendar, cultural heritage and the politics of knowledge (re)production. Furthermore, his project involves inventorying and researching the histories, practices, and uses of Pranata Mångsa and other grass-roots knowledge about agricultural calendars and seasons in Java.

Format, date, time & venue

This seminar is an online event via Zoom, on Thursday 23 April from 10.00 – 11.30 AM (CET).

UUKS

The seminar series Unravelling Unconventional Knowledge Systems examines how diverse, often overlooked forms of knowledge can inform responses to contemporary ecological and climatic crises. Rather than privileging institutional science, the series emphasises the cultivation of knowledge through everyday practices, spiritual engagements, ecological relationships, and grassroots adaptations across generations.

The series demonstrates that material, symbolic, affective, and cosmological factors influence interactions among humans, nonhumans, and the environment. Examples such as agricultural calendars, water management systems, forest stewardship, and seafaring routes illustrate how communities have historically adapted to environmental and social change. These knowledge systems, embedded in landscapes and cultural traditions, remain vital resources with ongoing relevance for addressing global challenges.

By examining adaptation strategies across historical and contemporary contexts, the seminar series highlights the importance of recognising unconventional knowledge as central to addressing current challenges. Participants are encouraged to engage critically with pluralistic perspectives that integrate cultural, ecological, and spiritual domains, thereby providing insights into more equitable and sustainable futures informed by longstanding traditions of adaptation.

Image

Photo by Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan.

Flyer

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