TIBAN MOSQUES Vernacular Relics of Java Revianto Budi Santosa Student at Doctoral Program Department of Architecture Sepuluhnovember Institute of Technology Surabaya Indonesia revianto@uii.ac.id Josef Prijotomo Professor at Department of Architecture Sepuluhnovember Institute of Technology Surabaya Indonesia jospri@indo.net.id Murni Rachmawati Associate Professor Department of Architecture Sepuluhnovember Institute of Technology Surabaya Indonesia murniarch@its.ac.id Abstract Vernacular architecture can be seen as a site of resistant towards the mainstream traditional architecture associated with power holder. This paper aims to explore a particular type of mosque in Java belonging to rural community which appear to resemble the traditional Javanese mosque yet it has some critical resistance in its associated narrative and its architectural form.

Some mosques in Java are considered to be monuments and relics. These buildings are commonly associated with royalty or sainthood and constructed in certain historic moments.

There are a number of mosques, however, are revered by people living around because they have no history. These type of mosques commonly found in villages in Central and Eastern Java. Local people say that these mosques are suddenly exist or miraculously found. These type of mosques is known as masjid tiban or immediately existing mosque.

The architectural comparison of Tiban Mosque of Jenar in Purworejo and Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa in Wonogiri show some idiosyncratic characteristics. Jenar mosque was constructed with its four main pillars stood on top of four yoni from Hindu temple remains. Yoni is a cubical stone representing the female aspect of the supreme deity in Hindu Shivaite sect. Wanakersa mosque was built as easily disassembled building. The roof, pillars, wall and floor components of this mosque were loosely connected or each was even almost independently constructed.

Unknown origin and out of the ordinary construction reveal some ways these vernacular mosques resist the hegemony of traditional architecture and royal authority in Java.

Keywords: vernacular theory, resistence towards grand tradition, mosque architecture

INTRODUCTION

Tiban Mosques: Non-elite Places of Worship

The term vernacular is derived from the Latin vernaculus, meaning native, indigenous, domestic, or subaltern. Christopher Tilley et. al. (2006: 30, italic added) argued that the word vernacular connoted popular as opposed to elite idioms,

In contexts of language, vernacular evokes not only spoken language and dialect in contradistinction to literary form, but also everyday language instead of scientific nomenclature. In architecture specifically, the term vernacular embraces an array of traditions around the world everyday domiciles, work structures, non-elite places of worship, and cultural sites (battlegrounds and tourist centers, for example) as well as both colonial/settler and settlements.

Being a non-elite expression, vernacular architecture is associated with the people and situated in between the high-style of the past as represented by traditional architecture of the ruling class and modern architecture with its progressive nature. Henrie Glassie (1990, 9) used the more meaningful term egalitarian instead of popular to emphasize the non-elite nature of vernacular architecture, True vernacular tradition is based on participation, engagement, and an egalitarian political ethic. For Dell Upton (1983) the negative definition by opposing vernacular architecture to high-style architecture has aggravated the fragmentation of focus in studying vernacular architecture. Nevertheless, the distance with high style architecture is necessary to understand the intimacy of vernacular architecture with the communal life of the people.

Relations between vernacular architecture belonging to the common people and high-style classical architecture of the ruling elite is elusive. Glassie (1990, 18) believed that the change from the egalitarian and cooperative mode of work changed into more competitive mode of work caused fundamental change in residential architecture of a certain region. Scruton (1994) argued that some principles including those derived from the aesthetically oriented high style architecture are necessary for a proper vernacular architecture justified by public agreement.

This paper investigates some particular religious buildings known by the Javanese as Masjid Tiban. Literally, this term means a mosque which immediately exists as if it fells down from the sky. These suddenly emerging or existing mosques are commonly found in rural setting far from the courts where culture and tradition of the ruling elite are cultivated. About a dozen mosques in Central dan East Java are designated as Tiban Mosques.

Built in modest sizes in relatively remote places, these Tiban Mosques are mainly revered locally. They do not belong to the grand narratives developed in court circles. We may consider, therefore, that these mosques are example of what Upton (1983) consider as non-elite places of worship being one prominent category of vernacular architecture.

In contrast with these mosques is the monumental mosque belonging to the religio political elite. In Islamic Java this type of mosque is best represented by the Great Mosque of Demak. Situated in Demak in the northern littoral region of central Java, this mosque was constructed in the capital of the first Islamic kingdom in Java. This building is the oldest major mosque in Southeast Asia. Standing as the tallest building in the city, the Mosque of Demak with the adjoining palace and square constituted the urban center

of the capital. Morever, this mosque is highly reverred by the following generations as a holy site for pilgrimage, a relic of the glorious past and a prototype to follow in constructing later mosques especially those built by Islamic rulers.

By comparing the story of origin, the shape and construction of these two types of mosques we may comprehend the way these Tiban mosques resist to be absorbed in the grand narrative of Islamization and fully categorized into the type of Javanese mosques while maintaining intimate relationship with the grand tradition.

Developing Approaches

Closely related with the life of the people, vernacular architecture has multitude of associations with many facets of life. To comprehend this kind of achitecture is involving many variables and approaches. Instead of defining such a hard to pin down notion, Dell Upton (1983) identified four major streams in researching vernacular architecture. First, being the oldest stream was the object-oriented studies concerning the building themselves and the way they were made and altered. Second, the socially-oriented studies concerning how building participated in the life of a society in the past. Third, the culturally-oriented studies concerning the learned behavior that embodies the enduring values and deepest cognitive structures of a social group that are sometimes grouped under the anthropological notion of "culture." The last is symbolically-oriented studies attempting to construct a model of communication in conveying meanings through buildings.

Upton (1983) suggests that after some pioneering studies employing the object-oriented approach have been conducted, the symbolically-oriented approach is the most promising for future development. This approach provides underlying connection between the artifacts observed and the values hold by the people creating, using or adapting these artfacts. As symbolism is a form of social interaction, the symbolically oriented study of architecture searches for the meaning of building. Vernacular builders chose a limited vocabulary of architectural forms from a range of possibilities available to all members of the society. These choices acted as "codes" that depended on, and at the same time reinforced, the connections among small groups of people. The focus was on the social effects of the choice, and it remained a descriptive effort that did not demonstrate why specific forms were chosen.

In performing studies with symbolically-oriented approach, Upton (1983) further gives suggestions to use semiotic approach as

Semioticians presume that all communicative systems are structurally analogous to spoken languages. In the study of architecture, semiotics proposes that buildings and their formal elements are systems of signs that communicate identification with or rejection of a given social group, specific social values, status, or merely assertions of existence in a social or commercial sense.

In employing semiotical approach, the narratives of these Tiban mosques will be discussed along with the material aspect of these mosques to enable cross interpretation between these two domains.

STORIES OF THE MOQUES ORIGIN

Each of these royal and vernacular mosques had stories telling its origin. The story of Demak mosques were popularly told in the entire Java and well recorded in a number of manuscripts, but the stories of Tiban Mosques were only told in limited circles especially among the people living nearby.

The Great Mosque of Demak

Traditionally, there were nine figuresknown as Walisanga or nine wali (saints)preaching Islam in Java to whom the Islamization of Java was attributed. Their names were greatly varied, more than 15 names appeared in many different sources. Some names, however, were more prominent and existed in almost all of the lists. Among these major figures were Sunan Ngampel of Surabaya, Sunan Kudus of Kudus, Sunan Bonang of Tuban, Sunan Gunung Jati of Cirebon and Sunan Kalijaga of Kadilangu. Narratives concerning these figures were hagiographical and quasi mythological in nature. Therefore, these stories should be demythologized in order to discover their symbolic message.

After establishing the first Islamic political power in Java in the last quarter of the 15th century, the Sultan of Demak supported by these Walisanga decided to built a large and monumental mosque at the capital city replacing the older and modest prayer house. Led by Sunan Bonang, these religious figures distributed the task among themselves in preparing construction elements for the mosque. Sunan Kalijaga was in charge to provide one of the four main pillars. When all of the wali had submitted the building component assigned to them, Kalijaga realized that he did not find a proper wood yet. He then collected wood chips left at the construction site to make the pillars. Miraculously, with the Almighty grace, Kalijaga was able to unify these chips into a cylindrical columns later known as saka tatal or wood chip pillar.

Reaching the end of the construction, these wali became conscious that this mosque should be properly aligned to the Kaaba otherwise prayers performed in this mosque would not be valid. Again, Kalijaga performed a miraculous action. Upon his deep meditation, the distance between Demak and Makkah was diminshed. Afterwards, he stretched both of his arms; one of his hands held the Kaaba and the other hand held the Great Mosque of Demak. After the problem of alignment was solved, all of the Wali and Muslim in Demak performed congregational prayer within.

Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa

The discovery of Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa is related with the struggle of Prince Mangkunagara in the middle of the 18th century against Dutch forces. When the Prince with a few of his followers were chased by Dutch troop they hid in the middle of a forest. There, they found a dark space to hide. The Dutch troop searched in the forest but could not find them. After the soldiers left, these Javanese troop realized that the space where they hide were actually the space underneath the floor of a building they identified as a mosque standing on an array of stones. Later, they knew that this mosque was built when some Muslims went into the depth of the forest by the end of the 15th century led by Sunan Kalijaga to find some proper trees to cut for the construction of the Great Mosque of Demak. While they cut some big trees in the nearby forest of Danalaya, they built a small prayer house serving their need for regular prayer or salat. After the recently-discovered building and the surrounding ground had been cleared, this mosque were named Wanakersa. It was unclear how the men from the 18th century got the story of the construction of the mosque from 300 years before.

Tiban Mosque of jenar

The story concerning the way Tiban Mosque of jenar was constructed and discovered are even more vague. For unknown reason, Sunan Kalijaga with few followers wandered around the southern region of central Java while the Great Mosque of Demak was still

under construction. Over there, he built a mosque in a very short period in a village formerly inhabited by Hindu people. He used some remnants of Hindu temples as building construction components. When he was building the mosque, rain fell forcing him to rest for a while. Kalijaga then is known in this region as Seh Udan Baring or the Lord Laying Down during the Rain. After finishing the construction, Kalijaga returned to Demak but his followers stayed in this place. A couple days later, people living next to this mosque discovered it. They were amazed since no one saw the construction process of the mosque. Therefore, they called it Masjid Tiban.

THE TECTONICS OF THE MOSQUES

The Great Mosque of Demak

The main part of the Great Mosque of Demak is a large prayer hall with square plan about 29 x 29 meter. Traditionally, the building type is known as tajug lambang teplok or a building with multi-tiered pyramidal roof with the lower tier roof attached to the main pillars supporting the upper tier roof. This position creates a gap between tiers allowing daylight and fresh air to enter the building. The he Great Mosque of Demak has three tiered roof. Initally, this roof was supported by 36 cylindrical wooden pillars. Now only four main pillars or saka guru supporting the upper most tier of roof are still made of timber. The rest are replaced with masonry or concrete pillars. In most of Javanese traditional buildings, a timber pillar usually stand on stone pedestal or umpak with truncated pyramidal shape. In the main prayer hall of the he Great Mosque of Demak, timber pillars are planted to the ground known as ceblokan type of construction. A false ceiling was added in 1848 at the level of the wall obstructing the view above and avoiding daylight from the gap between tiers of the roof to enter the interior.

The protruding mihrab on the qibla wall have some interesting features. There is an ornament placed right above this niche depicting eight pointed solar symbol recalling the emblem of pre-Islamic Majapahit kingdom. Inside the niche, an ornament with the shape of a tortoise is placed on the qibla wall as figurative chronogram symbolizing the year of 1401 when the mosque was built. These two ornaments refer to the bygone era of Majapahit and the coming Muslim era.

Another association with Majapahit is in the form of a large veranda attached to the eastern side of the mosque. According to a number of Javanese sources, this hipped roof hall with no walls was formerly an audience hall in the royal palace of Majapahit taken as a booty by Muslim forces and rebuilt in this mosque. This building and story further confirm the claim of the Muslim sovereign as the legitimate successor of the pre-Islamic kingdom of Majapahit.

Fgure 1: The Great Mosque of Demak (north elevation) with main building and attached hall (source: Office of Heritage Conservation, Central Java)

Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa

The older portion of Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa has square plan measuring about 7 x 7 meter with a small mihrab protruding on the western or qibla side. This building is fully constructed with timber except the roof tile and some stones placed underneath the timber floor to support the entire building.

The form of this mosque is traditionally known as tajug lambang teplok or a building with multi-tiered pyramidal roof with the lower tier roof attached to the main pillars supporting the upper tier roof. This position creates a gap between tiers allowing daylight and fresh air to enter the building.

Figure 2: Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa with rough stones supporting the entire building (source: author)

The core of this mosque consists of four square pillars or saka guru supporting the top pyramidal roof or gajah. Each of these pillars have a beautifully carved capital with eight pointed star shape. These saka guru are connected one another with piles of beams called tumpang sari creating a square arrangement. Some 50 centimeters underneath the tumpang sari are four tie beams or sunduk. On these sunduk beams the lower roof is attached with two wooden pegs of each beam with ornamental heads accentuating the plain beam. The gajah is formed by radiant rafters creating parasol-like structure requiring higher degree of technical execution than roof with parallel rafters.

While the upper part of this core is neatly and beautifully arranged, the lower part is rather haphazardly composed. Underneath each saka guru is a pedestal consisting of two pieces of wood roughly cut forming a rectangular prism supporting a truncated pyramid. These pedestal are placed on the floor made of wood planks without any fastener. Theoretically this vertical lapped joint is vulnerable in resisting lateral forces.

Walls and twelve secondary pillars supporting the lower roof are placed along the edge of the mosque. The bases of these pillars are placed lower than the floor forming a space underneath. These construction members, however, do not support the floor which are

placed above some large stones. Wood planks vertically arranged form the low walls measuring less than 1.5 meter height. These encircling walls are placed on the wooden floor rather than attached to the pillars.

The central pillars, perimeter pillars, roof, floor and wall of this mosque are relatively independent one another. In Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa, the floor is simply laid on a number of stones, while the four main pillars are simply laid on the floor. The walls touch the perimeter pillars but are not fastened. Each set of components can be replaced, moved or modified without structurally affecting other sets. The whole building, moreover, can be transported at ease.

Tiban Mosque of Jenar

In general the main portion of Tiban Mosque of Jenar is very similar to that of Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa. It also belongs to the typology of tajug lambang teplok. With plan measuring 11 x 11 meter, Tiban Mosque of Jenar is larger than Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa. Furthermore, unlike Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa, Tiban Mosque of Jenar only has four main pillars and roof construction made of timber, while its walls and floors are from brick masonry and rammed earth.

Observed in more detailed level, the central portion of Tiban Mosque of Jenar shows some interesting differences to that of Tiban Mosque of Wanakersa. The saka guru of Tiban Mosque of Jenar have cylindrical shapes requiring more sophisticated carpentry skill to create. Instead of layers of beams on top of this core, these pillars are connected with three levels of beams. The uppermost beams are placed at the lower purlin of the upper roof or gajah. The middle beams are placed at the level of the upper purlin of the lower roof or penanggap. The lower beams are placed at the level of the wall plate supporting penanggap roof. These lower beam are extended to connect the main pillars with the wall plates placed on top of brick masonry walls. The middle beams are also connected to the wall plates by diagonal beams. The result of this beams and columns arrangement in supporting penanggap roof is like eight half trusses with the main columns serving as their kingposts.

All of the twenty horizontal beams connecting the pilars, purlins and wallplates are beautifully carved. These carvings employ ancient motives of decoration similar to those commonly found in royal buildings consisting of some geometric patterns with triangular accents placed on both ends of each beam and some parallel lines deeply cut along the middle of the beam. This array of decorated beams create a fine-looking horizontal grid floating above the prayer hall appearing in contrast with the plain columns and whitewashed walls.

Figure 3: Interior of Tiban Mosque of Jenar with timber columns standing on stone yoni (picture by Transpiosa Riomanda)

The most salient building components in this mosque, however, are the four stone pedestals supporting saka guru. Unlike truncated pyramid pedestal found in most Javanese traditional buildings, these huge pedestals are formerly yoni. With its counterpart, lingga, a yoni is an essential object of worship in Shivaite sect widely spread in pre-Islamic Java. Being a phallic symbol, a lingga represents

the male power of Shiva and yoni represents the female power of Shivas consort; united, both embody the cosmic power of fecundity and fertility animating the universe. A yoni has square base with some horizontal mouldings. On top of it a lingga with roughly cylindrical shape are erected. These cylindrical columns this mosque could be understood as Muslim lingga stood on the Hindu yoni.

Figure 4: A Shivaite lingga yoni (www.kitlv.nl)

ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVES AND ALTERNATIVE TECTONICS

Considering their geographical distribution, earliest major mosques in Javawith the Great Mosque of Demak being the most prominent among themwere situated along the northern littoral regions of Java or pasisir as they were constructed by prominent religio-political figures, epecially the nine-saints living in these places in the 15th century. Federspiel (2007, p. 27) emphasizes the importance of these figures, The saints were credited with building several important mosques, establishing schools, training others to become propagators of Islam, and instructing innumerable Javans to worship and believe standard Sunni doctrine". Pasisir, therefore, was regarded as more Islamic than the southern part of the island. By the mid sixteenth century, the power of the coastal region gradually shifted to the interior part of Java. This southern portion dominated almost the entire island of Java under the reign of Sultan Agung of Mataram (r. 1613-1645). To install himself as the ultimate leader, Sultan Agung attempted to reconcile the pre-Islamic characteristics of Javanese culture with Islamic teaching.

The Sultans assertion as the supreme political sovereign as well as the Islamic leader over the island was supported by the establishment of religious monuments. He built a mausoleum for himself on a hill to the south of his capital following the examples of the wali constructing tombs on hilly terrains. His ruling descendants and their family are buried in this place till now. In his capital city of Kerta, he built a large mosque for congregational prayer and royal celebration of Islamic holiday.

Albeit the construction of these monuments, Sultan Agungs descendants still regarded the Great Mosque of Demak as the most respected religious building in the empire. When Sultan Agungs grandson, Amangkurat I built a mosque in his newly established capital city of Kartasura, he considered Demak Mosque as the pattern to follow. Half a century later, the king of Mataram, Paku Buwana I, after all of his power-laden sacred objects were confiscated by Dutch Colonial Government, faced a desperate situation. He was reported to tell his Grand Vizier that even though these objectstraditionally considered as having supranatural power enhancing the authority of the king and protecting the kingdomhad lost, everything was all right as long as the Great Mosque of Demak and the Tomb of Sunan Kalijaga in Kadilangu still existed as they were the greatest relics of Java.

Among the wali living along the north coast of Java, Sunan Kalijaga was the most reverred by rulers of Mataram and their people. Centuries after the historical Sunan Kalijaga lived, this wali was still regarded as the protector and teacher of Mataram sovereigns supranaturally guiding these kings in ruling the realm (Carey, 2008).

Considering the role of Kalijaga in its construction, the Great Mosque of Demak can be understood as a relic left by the Sunan being a talisman to keep and a model to follow by rulers of Mataram to ensure the presence of Kalijaga through the object he made by his own hand.

According to chronicles and other narratives wrote in the court circles, the southern portion of central Java, however, had no mosque built by the wali, let alone the beloved Sunan Kalijaga. As the legitimacy of the wali was highly referred there, people of Mataram and surroundings made an effort to relate their community and the mosque they had to the wali.

Kings built grandiose mosque with shape, construction and size similar to those of the Great Mosque of Demak. The Great Mosque of Yogyakarta, one of the descendants of Mataram court, built two centuries later has 30 x 30 meter main prayer hall with some 20 meters height is closely resemble Demak Mosque. The Great Mosque of Surakarta, the sister court of Yogyakarta, is even larger than that of Yogyakarta and Demak.

With the same aspiration, common people in this southern region, affiliated their mosques with Sunan Kalijaga. Although the shape and size of these mosque were obviously much smaller than Demak Mosque, the presence of these local monuments were no less meaningful than Demak Mosque. Not only places to perform daily prayers, these humble mosques in rural areas were also considered as talismans. Therefore, I would like to treat them as vernacular relics.

Comparing the narratives and constructions above, we may understand some of the ways people permeated their mosques with significance:

a) The creation of these mosques through miraculous action of a wali b) The typological affiliation of tectonic of these mosques with the Great Mosque of Demak

The Actions of Sunan Kalijaga

During the making of these mosques, the role of Sunan Kalijaga was indispensable, but there were some fundamental differences in the initiative of construction. In Demak, the assembly of wali and the ruler were in agreement to build the monumental mosque. Many common people witnessed and even participated in its construction process. All the wonder acted by Kalijaga were not intended at the beginning, but rather as actions performed in emergency situations.

In Wanakersa and Jenar, Sunan Kalijaga himself decided to build the mosques. With few followers he constructed these buildings with no explicit miraculous action performed. People of Jenar who later discover, use and inherit the mosque do not see the construction process. The Mosque of Wanakersa even have to wait for centuries before it was discovered by the people using it for regular prayer and narrating the story of the distant past about the Wali they never met.

Even though there are many versions, stories concerning the erection of Demak Mosque were attempts to clarify that the building is the result of join endeavor by the wali who build and the sultan who own and use it. On the contrary, stories concerning the building of Tiban Mosques in Jenar and Wanakersa emphasize the dissociation of the wali and the people. Instead of intended to be regarded as history, these stories highlight the absence of history. These holy buildings are just happen to exist with no necessary explanation about the reason.

The Tajug Type and Tectonics

While Sunan Kalijaga is the major figure relating Tiban Mosques of Jenar and Wanakersa with the Great Mosque of Demak, these mosques also share typological relations with Demak Mosque. With rectangular plans and multi-layer pyramidal roofs, these Tiban mosques were easily identified as tajug lambang teplok type. Due to their smaller sizes, these Tiban mosqueslike most of other small mosquesonly had two layers of roof instead of three with a gap between these two layers of roof. The central structural core consisting of four main pillars supporting the upper pyramidal roof and tied one another with some layers of beams were very common for this type of building.

The particularity of the tectonics of these Tiban mosques were situated at the lower part of this central structure. In Tiban mosque of Jenar, the cylindrical main pillars stood on stone yoni. The use of yoni as pedestal in Tiban Mosque of Jenar, on the one hand, recall the cosmic power of the pair. Erecting a cylindrical column over a yoni gives an image that the column is equal to a lingga. The verticality of the plain columns is easily associated with the lingga being the male counterpart of the yoni. On the other hand, it negates the validity and the efficacy of such power in Islamic era, especially in Islamic building for worship. These yoni, in this mosque, are placed upside down so that the mortises on which the tenons of lingga are inserted face the floor. This placement might be understood as an expression of subjugation rather than continuity of older tradition. It shows that the yoni is no longer an object of Shivaite worship but a contribution to the establishment of Islamic house of worship. Every Shivaite temple commonly has at least one lingga-yoni placed at the center of the temple. Even though the presence of lingga was identified since the beginning of Hinduism in Java, the worship of lingga particulary in its association with salvation was prevalent in the late fifteenth century (Santiko, 1995 cited in Duijker, 2010, p. 17). By that time Muslim community also started to develop in Java particularly in the northern coastal regions, and that was also the time when the historical Sunan Kalijaga lived.

The message concerning the relationship between the new and older faith is very ambiguously conveyed in this yoni+column composition, but the sense of detachement of the upper structure from its stone base are quite clear, giving the appearance of the independence of the timber structure building from its ground. These stone yoni were definitely much older than the timber structure of the mosque and were supposedly found in situ. With its younger existence and incongruous appearance with its awkward supporting pedestal, this upper structure looked as if it fell down from above and stood unintentionally on the cubical stone placed upside down. This appearance enhance the designation of this mosque as Tiban.

Stone belonged to the earth, the concrete geographical terrain of the place, while the timber came from somewhere else. With this detachment, timber structure had the sense of portability. Since the pre-existing stone could be arrange to fit with the timber structure, other solid grounds with proper sub-structure might also be created to receive the coming of portable upper structure.

The Tiban mosque of Wanakersa had even more profound expression of detachment. The timber pedestals supporting its four main pillars were laid freely on the wood plank floor. The stones supporting the floor were roughly cut so that they looked like some boulder stones shaped by nature and found in that place. These stones, furthermore, were not in uniform shape and size, and they were haphazardly arranged beneath the floor.

Observed in more detailed level, the floor, wall and upper structure of this mosque were loosely attached. These components were easily disassembled in case this building were going to be transported to another place. The notion of Tiban mosque, in this case, did not necessarily mean that the structure arrived once in a certain place, but it also could be moved and arrived somewhere else.

CONCLUSION: ASSOCIATION BY DISSOCIATION

Royal establishment of an Islamic Sultan necessarily included a number of mosques, hierarcically organized with the the great mosque at the capital city stands at its apex. In Yogyakarta, for instance, at the beginning of the 19th century had no less then fifty religious sites affiliated with the Sultanate. They might be religious boarding schools (pesantrn, pondhok), centres of scholars learned in fiqh law (pathok negari), and tax-free areas set aside for men of religion and keepers of royal grave-sites (pradikan, pamutihan, jurukuncn) (Carey, 2009). Most of the sites in this extensive networks centered in mosques. Sharing politico-religious authority with the Sultanate, these networks also provided a social basis for the proliferation of court style mosques.

A great many mosques in Java, however, were independent as every village has its own mosques. These village-based mosque were built by local villagers willing to provide a place for regular prayer and a local pride being the sign of their piety. These mosques often emulated court style mosques in more modest style and size. They can be regarded as generic vernacular mosques.

Tiban Mosques were quite different. Since they came from nowhere, these mosques actually had no history. The story told by the people only emphasized that they did not know. Sunan Kalijaga, as the major legendary figure behind the establishment of Wanakersa and Jenar mosques, did not taught the people on Islamic tenets or did not meet the people at all while he building the mosques. People affiliated themselves and their mosque with the deed of the wali by circulating stories of the presence of Kalijaga that they did not really meet. Not only the king might had a direct relationship with the Sunan, the villagers also had chances to be protegees of Kalijaga by means of the building built by the Sunan himself. A Tiban mosques, therefore, became a relic left by the holy man to be discovered by people venerating it.

In terms of the tectonic aspect of the mosque, some parallel lines can be drawn. Tiban mosques were easily identified as tajug lambang teplok type. The super-structures of these mosques, however, expressed the sense of their dissociation with their sub-structure (Hindu yoni in Jenar and rough stone in Wanakersa) and the ground they currently stood. The geographical terrain where a Tiban mosque was located was just a place to locate among other possible locations.

These miraculously existing mosque had special status being the relic not because they were fully associated with the people using them. They were built by Sunan Kalijaga but no one knew. They existed in the village but were not really attached to the ground. The association of the mosque with the grand narrative of the wali and certain location in the villages provided resistance tor these mosques not to be absorbed into the history and networks of religious sites of the court. The dissociation opened the possibilities for other places to have similar claims of such Tiban mosques. The interplay of the notion of knowing/not-knowing and attached/not-attached was important in understanding Tiban mosques being relics of the villagers.

In relation with vernacularism, local idiosyncracies in these cases, played significant role in shaping a building wich was very intimate with the live of the people.

REFERENCES

Carey, P. B. R., 2008, The Power of Prophecy: Prince Dipanagara and the end of an old order in Java, 1785-1855, Leiden, KITLV Press.

Duijker, M., 2010, The Worship of Bhima: The representations of Bhima on Java during the Majapahit Period, Amstelveen, EON Pers.

Federspiel, H. M., 2007, Sultans, Shamans, and Saints: Islam and Muslims in Southeast Asia, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press

Glassie, H., 1990, Architects, Vernacular Traditions, and Society, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. Vol. 1, 9-21.

Scruton, Roger, 1994, The Classical Vernacular: Architectural Principles in the Age of Nihilism, Manchester, Carcanet Press.

Tilley, Christopher et. al., 2006, Handbook of Material Culture: Vernacular Architecture, Sage Knowledge.

Upton, D., 1983, The Power of Things: Recent Studies in American Vernacular Architecture, American Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 3, 262-279.

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This paper is part of a doctoral research on Impermanence in Javanese Architecture at Department of Architecture Sepuluhnovember Institute of Technology by the first author.