History of Jogja

When talking-about the history of Jogja, most people often refer to the founding of the Kraton Yogyakarta in 1750 as the beginning. Others say the earliest historical records of Jogja can be traced to the early 8th century, with the emergence the Hindu Kingdom "Sanjaya", and the Buddhist dynasty "Syailendra". There are hundreds of ar¬chaeological sites, most of them temples, the most famous being Borobudur (see: heritage).

By the 10th century, the centre of these kingdoms had shifted to the East Java, and Jogja seems to disappear from historical records until the 16th cen¬tury when the Islam Kingdom of Mataram emerged. Some historians guess that a big eruption from Mount Merapi in 1006 was the cause of this his¬torical vacancy. Many temples were buried under layers of volcanic ash and have only been redis¬covered in the last 150 years.

Panembahan Senopati founded the Islamic King¬dom of Mataram in 1530. The first capital of the kingdom was Kotagede, which is now a suburb of Jogja. (See: Kotagede) Kotagede was the capital until the 3rd king of Mataram, Sultan Agung. In 1640 the capital of the kingdom moved to Desa Kerto Plered Bantul, about 10 km west from Kotagede. In 1680, as the Dutch began to assume the role of colonial rulers, the centre of the kingdom moved again to Kartasura and finally in 1745 under Pakubuwono II, to Surakarta (Solo). Solo is 70 kilometres East of Jogja.

Conflict among the princes and political, intervention of the colonial government caused the Mataram Kingdom, to permanently split into Kasunanan Surakarta and Kasultanan Ngayogya¬karta. The "Gianti Agreement" was signed in 1755, which gave territory to Prince Mangkubumi and the authority to rule. He return to the former seat
of Mataram and built the Kraton of Yogyakarta. The name "Ngayogyakarta" was chosen by the Prince due to its meaning "peacefulness" He wished the new kingdom to be free from conflict.

During the construction of the palace buildings, Prince Mangkubumi lived in Ambarketawang at Desa Tlogo Gamping Sleman, five kilometres west from Jogja (see: Ambarketawang). In 1756 the Prince moved to the Kraton of Yogyakarta and adopted the title of nobility Sultan Harmengku Buwana I. Hamengku Buwana means "take the universe on the lap of the King".

In September 1811, after the defeat of the Dutch, Thomas Stamford Raffles was appointed governor of Java. When the British restructured the colonial rule of the Kasultanan authority, Hamengku Buwana II opposed the policy. However his brother, Prince Notokusumo supported the policy and was rewarded with the small principality of Pakualaman and in 1813 was promoted to Paku Alam I. (see: Pura Pakualaman).

For the Javanese, Jogja is the symbol of resistance to colonial rule. The spirit of resistance actually started in the early Mataram period. Mangkubumi resisted the Dutch while his brother Paku Buwana II assisted the Dutch. From 1825 to 1830 Prince Diponegoro was the leader of a bloody uprising against the Dutch.

After the independence of the Republic of Indone¬sia the first President was Soekarno, Jogja was the centre of the revolutionary forces and became the capital of the Republic in 1946 until 1949. In 1948 when the Dutch tried to occupy Jogja, Sul¬tan Hamengku Buwana IX let rebels the use the palace as their headquarters. As a result of the Sultan's support, Jogja was granted the status of a special territory by the government.

Jogja is a self-governing provi¬nce and has great autonomy, especially concerning the elec¬tion of a governor for the prov¬ince. According to spe¬cial rules the Sultan and Paku Alam auto¬matically become Governor and deputy Governor.