T H E RO Y AL C OLL E C TIO N S I N C IR E B O N , I N DO N E S IA : A LI V I N G TRADITIO N – TAASA Review March 2014

Joanna Barrkman T he royal collections of Cirebon demonstrate the impact of royal aristocrats on Cirebon’s material culture, evident when considering specific sites connected with Cirebon’s royal courts, keraton, and in relation to art forms associated with the courts, such as batik textiles and pewayangan, shadow theatre imagery.

Ceribon has been a bustling international trading port, as well as a distinguished centre of Islamic religion in Java, for centuries.

These influences have met to configure a distinctive and unique material culture, which is primarily articulated through the lens of the courts and their collections. Interior walls of the Sunan Gunungjati royal cemetery, Cirebon, lined with Chinese, Japanese and European trade ceramics...