Java!

My reading "trip" today, exploring the tropical island of Java, ended too quickly!  Mr. W. Robert Moore is the author of "Through Java in Pursuit of Color" in the September, 1929, issue of National Geographic Magazine.  He describes the beauty of the Java natives in countryside and cities and tells of his adventures.

To try to ascertain exactly where in the Pacific Ocean this island of Java is located, I had to flip through and find a more up-to-date map among those I've pulled out of all my old National Geographics.  Java is south of the Philippine Islands and Borneo, west of New Guinea and northeast of Australia.  The old country names of Indo China (now Vietnam), Siam (now Thailand), and Sumatra (still the same) confused me.  Java, along with Sumatra, Borneo and half of New Guinea, are part of Indonesia.  I'm learning. . .

Java is a large island, having "approximately the same area as the State of New York, U.S.A.," and in 1929 had "three and a half times as many inhabitants" (p. 347).  That works out to "727 people per square mile" (p. 346).

At that time, Java was owned by and governed by the Netherlands.  Several Sultans were permitted to live as they always had, although I'm sure they had no political power.  There were incredible contrasts of modern cities and the factories which processed sugar cane, quinine, rubber, and coffee, with the unmechanized countryside full of rice farms.  Fish farming was encouraged by the government.  "Next to Cuba, Java is the most important cane sugar producing country in the world" (p. 346).  Producing batik-patterned fabric was also an important industry.

Malaria was then and still remains a disastrous disease transmitted by mosquitoes to many people in tropical countries.  "The cinchona groves of Java, which have been developed from a few imported from South American trees, now (1929) produce nine-tenths of the world's supply of Quinine," the medicine that cures malaria (p. 362).

Mr. Moore reported that Hindu was the religion of most of the natives but there were also Mohammedans.  There were active volcanoes on the mountains of Semeroe and Bromo which he took great care to explore. "The rich soil of the island is a great volcanic ash heap, and this is one of the chief reasons for Java's fertility and prosperity" (p. 343).

He succeeded in taking beautiful color photos.  Apparently, his subjects had to remain motionless for such a time that discouraged some from remaining long enough to be photographed.  Of particular interest were the dancing, music from bamboo tubes and "Wayang" plays depicting native culture.

Finally Mr. Moore traveled to the city of "Buitenzorg with its world-famous botanical gardens and the palace of the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies. . One could spend weeks in the gardens, visiting the Natural History and Economic museums and in seeing the Government agricultural gardens, but other lands were calling" (p. 362).  Yes, they are calling me, too!