MAJAPAHITOLOGY

MAJAPAHITOLOGY

Mandala Majapahit UGM

This article published on November 2022 (Warta YAD Vol. 18 – 2022)

The month of November marks the 729th anniversary of Majapahit. While celebrating this milestone, one should also look towards the future, reflecting and projecting about how to better conserve the cultural heritage left in our custody by the great Majapahit civilization. Mandala Majapahit UGM thus seeks to collect various scientific publications (along with a few popular publications) related to Majapahit. These studies are scientific papers from all college level, research results, national and international level journals, as well as paperback books (including historical fiction) under the theme of Majapahit.

We have witnessed the extensive efforts to conserve the cultural heritage of Majapahit, and how it had attracted many researchers from various educational backgrounds to examine the myriad of aspects of Majapahit civilization from their own scientific perspectives. The scope of study on the theme of Majapahit can be found in many clusters from science and technology, social sciences, humanities, and even from the arts. Some of these studies are monodisciplinary in nature, but quite a few are also working on them with multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, even transdisciplinary approach. All these studies are working towards producing either an output or an outcome that can give practical benefits and theoretical contributions.

Various understandings, definitions, and terminology known as multidisciplinary is a research strategy that involves at least two academic disciplines with the aim of combining perspectives and adding to each other’s strength despite few interactions between these disciplines. Interdisciplinarity, on the other hand, is a research strategy that involves knowledge transfers between a mixture of various academic disciplines. This approach tends to be more interactive and there are interactions between the disciplines. Meanwhile, transdiscipline gears towards involving stakeholders outside of the academia. This approach implies a combination of knowledge from various disciplines as well as public knowledge, which may lead to the birth of a new concept, theory, methodology, even new innovations that are holistic in nature; a comprehensive approach from various disciplines.

Looking at these facts, we come up with an idea to introduce a term that represents and accommodates Majapahit-themed studies with the term: MAJAPAHITOLOGY. We can foresee that Majapahitology will become one of the keywords in various scientific studies. It is more or less similar to Egyptology, which is the study of all aspects of Ancient Egyptian civilization from various perspectives and through various approaches and methods, from theoretical approach of humanities to hard sciences such as physics and radiocarbon dating. However, unlike Egyptology which has become an academic discipline in universities, Majapahitology is still unlikely to go to that direction.

As of now, we do not have a concrete idea yet as to how to realize this concept of Majapahitology. It may take some time for the formula to be recognized by scientific communities (both on national and international level). However, at least the road to this direction has already been paved, for example with the existence of the directory majapahit.id, initiated a while ago by Mandala Majapahit and YAD. The missions of each of Mandala Majapahit; ManMa Trowulan, ManMa Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, ManMa Hasanuddin University in Makassar, and the future ManMa Udayana University in Denpasar, will consistently accumulate scientific research on the Majapahit in their respective areas. This can still be improved with potential of ManMa in other places and institutions, such as a ManMa at University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Jambi University in Jambi, or Halu Oleo University in Kendari. These institutions have Archeology department, which is the pillar and driving force for Majapahit conservation efforts, especially in collecting, documenting, as well as disseminating Majapahit cultural values.

Surely this effort is well worth it, considering the cultural values of Majapahit are undeniably significant for for national character building of the Republic of Indonesia. The cultural heritage of Majapahit has been cemented as the pride and identity of Indonesia, and has even become a model in the nation’s statehood. Geopolitically, Majapahit is considered to be one of the great empires which territory and sphere of influence covered almost the entirety of the archipelago in its golden days. This image as the unifier of the archipelago has cemented Majapahit as a model and inspiration for Indonesia. Various cultural achievements of Majapahit from the 13th to the 15th centuries have been crucial in shaping and structuring Indonesia as a nation and a state. Majapahit cultural values can also be considered as one of the pillars for the development of National Resilience, especially Socio-Cultural Resilience.

Thus, Majapahitology can be one of the more relevant efforts to conserve cultural heritage of Majapahit from an academic perspective. We hope that in the future, there will be a discourse regarding how and in what manner this concept of Majapahitology can be realized. Contributions of ideas from various researchers and stakeholders will undoubtedly contribute to making this idea a reality, fingers crossed. * JK

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