Performing Ritual, Sustaining Ways of Knowing: Historicizing Labuhan as Javanese Knowledge and Archive, 1750s-1830s

This study explores the political and intellectual aspects of Labuhan, a Javanese annual ritual performed by the court of Yogyakarta as a form of gratitude and soul-purifying at four designated locations: Parangkusumo beach, Mount Merapi, Mount Lawu, dan Dlepih forest. The study approaches Labuhan as a form of knowledge and archive by historicizing it in the period of turmoil in the 1750s–1830s. As knowledge, Labuhan embedded geo-cosmological understandings that reflected Javanese ways of knowing. Simultaneously, as an archive, Labuhan stored and enabled the production of knowledge through the performance of the ritual and the movement of the processions. This research, therefore, engages with current approaches to the politics of knowledge and the politics of archives that propose new perspectives on epistemic practices in non-Western societies. This study proposes that Labuhan, originating from an old ritual in the Mataram sultanate in the sixteenth century, underwent changes in...Show moreThis study explores the political and intellectual aspects of Labuhan, a Javanese annual ritual performed by the court of Yogyakarta as a form of gratitude and soul-purifying at four designated locations: Parangkusumo beach, Mount Merapi, Mount Lawu, dan Dlepih forest. The study approaches Labuhan as a form of knowledge and archive by historicizing it in the period of turmoil in the 1750s–1830s. As knowledge, Labuhan embedded geo-cosmological understandings that reflected Javanese ways of knowing. Simultaneously, as an archive, Labuhan stored and enabled the production of knowledge through the performance of the ritual and the movement of the processions. This research, therefore, engages with current approaches to the politics of knowledge and the politics of archives that propose new perspectives on epistemic practices in non-Western societies. This study proposes that Labuhan, originating from an old ritual in the Mataram sultanate in the sixteenth century, underwent changes in the 1750s–1830s. I argue here that during the establishment of the court in 1755, the first Sultan of Yogyakarta had adopted the ritual and transformed it into a renewed version, enabling continuous transformation of the ritual in the following years. In this respect, Labuhan was more than a cultural tradition; it was a political and intellectual assertion of the Javanese court of Yogyakarta. The performances of Labuhan revealed that every aspect of the ritual contains dense layers of knowledge that provided distinct interpretations to different groups of people throughout history, contributing to the production of global knowledge and offering potential solutions to recent environmental problems. This research aims to introduce Labuhan as one of Javanese epistemic practices that has been capable of producing and preserving knowledge, suggesting two implications: it foregrounds Javanese ways of knowing and offers them as potential sources of the decolonized historical narrative.Show less

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Performing Ritual, Sustaining Ways of Knowing: Historicizing Labuhan as Javanese Knowledge and Archive, 1750s-1830s