In the Palace of the Sultan

In the Kraton (Palace) of the Sultan

The Current Sultan and His Wife

Today we visited the Kraton, seat of the Sultanate which began in 1756 here in Yogayakarta, and has had ten  Sultans down to the present one.  The Sultanate actually began while the Dutch were very much a presence here and perhaps in response to them.  Some of the Sultans were depicted arm in arm with the Dutch governors and were educated in Holland.  But in 1945, this city and its Sultan were the first to break away and declare independence, even becoming for awhile an autonomous region of independence.  Today the Sultan is by all reports a rather modest figure. He so loves his wife who has given him five daughters that he would not consider taking a second wife to have sons to succeed him.  So he will  be succeeded most likely by one of his many brothers.  The ninth Sultan had about five wives (I lost count) and 22 children.  Some striking features of the compound that included several pavilions, open-air marble platforms for dances, wayang (shadow puppets) and gamelon performances,  were the ornateness of some of the structures.  The whole kraton is built in a line from Mt. Merapi, still an active volcano, to the kraton to the sea.  In ceremonies such as coronations, women were dressed in noticeably scantier dress than one could find today among women of Islam.  The Hindu influence in ceremonial dress is prevalent.  And many elements of indigenous religion remain as well.  Once a year, on the Sultan’s birthday, there is an offering to the Goddess of the Southern Oceans (Ratu Kidul) where the Sultan and his family make elaborate offerings.