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keyofjetwolf · 4 years

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Pitch Me your thing!

HELLO HELLO MY SUNBEAMS. For most every category, there was an impressive turn-out for pitches, so I thought we’d utilize the weirdness of this year’s GIFTENING to give something new a try. The popular vote winner for each category will happen on the first day, but on the second, the winner will be chosen from YOUR PITCHES. Mostly those pitches will be to me. The exception is in Miscellaneous, where you’ll be pitching to my family, because what I want to do and what is most entertaining isn’t necessarily the same thing.

So! How will we do this thing? GLAD YOU ASKED. I’ll link you to a form in a minute with space for one pitch. Once you fill it out, you’ll be asked if you want to do another. There’s no limit to the number of pitches you can send in! But remember that if you submit multiple entries for the same category, you’ll basically be competing against yourself.

NOW WE’VE GOT SOME RULES FOR DOING THIS (which I mostly stole from Holligay, because I have no creativity this year). Please read them carefully! I’ll toss pitches that break any of these, and I’d rather your hard work not go to waste.

Pitch Me is open for your submissions from RIGHT NOW (22 December) through the very last day of this hellyear (31 December) at 11:59pm MT.

The thing you pitch must have come from what was nominated for THE GIFTENING 2020. (Full list of those nominations in every category below the cut on this post.)

Entries must be unsigned! I’m looking to chose based on the pitch alone, regardless of who submitted it.

The pitch itself must be 100 words or less. HAVE PITY ON ME I CAN ONLY CONSUME SO MUCH.

If you’d like to get some help, ideas, feedback, all that good stuff, the Discord is a FANTASTIC resource I encourage you to use.

HERE IS YOUR PITCH SUBMISSION LINK

And, as promised, below the cut you’ll find the list of all the nominees in every category you guys sent in this year. IT’S A LONG LIST HAVE FUN WITH THAT

Anime

A Place Further Than The Universe/Sora Yori mo Toi Basho Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) Action Heroine Cheer Fruits Aggretsuko Aho Girl Air Master Akuma No Riddle Alien Nine Angel Beats! Angelic Layer Appare-Ranman Aria Aria the Animation Arrietty/ The Secret World of Arrietty (Ghibli film) Ascendance of a Bookworm Azumamga Daioh Baccano! Beastars Black Cat Blood + (the series) Bloom Into You Blue Drop/Tenshitachino Gikyoku Bodacious Space Pirates (starting right where you left off) BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense Boku no hero academia Bubblegum Crisis Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Cardcaptor Sakura Castlevania the Animated Series Cells at Work Chaos; Head Chihayafuru Code Geass cowboy Bebop Cyborg 009 Death Note Death Parade Deca-Dence Demon Girl Next Door Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) Diebuster: Aim For the Top 2 Dog Days dorohedoro Dot Hack//SIGN Dr. Stone Elfen Lied Erased (Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi) Escaflowne Excel Saga Fantastic Children Fate/Zero Flip Flappers Fresh Precure Fruits Basket 2019 Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Ga rei Zero GaoGaiGar gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex Ghost Stories (dubbed) Girls' Last Tour Great Pretender Hoseki no Kuni/ Land of the Lustrous House of Five Leaves/ Saraiya Goyou Inari konkon koi iroha Interviews with Monster Girls Inuyasha Isekai Izakaya "Nobu" Jellyfish Princess/ Kuragehime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable Kaguya-sama Love Is War Kaleido Star Kannazuki no Miko Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Kemono Friends Kiki's Delivery Service Kimi ni Todoke: From Me To You Kino's Journey/Kino no Tabi (2003) Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni) Little Witch Academia Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files EP0 {"A Grave Keeper") Love is Hard for an Otaku Love Live! Sunshine!! lupin the 3rd part 4 Madoka: The Rebellion Movie Magic knight rayearth Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha March Comes in Like a Lion Mardock Scramble Master of Martial Hearts Mawaru Penguindrum Megalobox Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Mob Psycho 100 Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) Monster Mushishi My Bride is a Mermaid (Seto No Hanayome) My Love Story!!! My Neighbor Totoro My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom My Roommate is a Cat NANA Naruto Natsume’s Book of Friends Neon Genesis Evangelion (hateblog) New Cutey Honey Nichijou Ōban Star-Racers One Piece Ouran High school Host club Outlaw Star Paranoia Agent Perfect Blue Please Save My Earth Pop Team Epic Pretty Cure Fresh Princess Jellyfish/ Kuragehime Princess Mononoke Princess Principal Princess Tutu Project A-Ko promised neverland (/yakusoku no neverland) Psycho-Pass Ranma 1/2 Re: Cutie Honey Re:Creators Read or Die (OAV) Red Garden relife Revolutionalry Girl Utena Rose of Versailles Ruroni Kenshin Sailor Moon Sailor Moon (viz dub) Samurai Champloo (english dub) Sarazanmai School Days School-Live! Scum's Wish Senki Zesshou Symphogear (listed as just "Symphogear" on Crunchyroll.) Serei no Moribito (Guardian of the Spirit) Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) Shirobako Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Smile Pretty Cure (Japanese original)/ Glitter Force (english adaptation) Snow White with the Red Hair Sound Euphonium Strawberry Panic (yuri) Sweetness and Lightning The Devil is a Part-timer The Devil Lady The disasterous life of saiki k (saiki kusuo no Sai Nan) The End of Evangelion (movie) the Promised Neverland The Twelve Kingdoms Tiger & Bunny Tokimeki Tonight ToraDora Tsubasa Chronicle Umineko When They Cry Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid Vinland Saga Violet Evergarden Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto) With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun Yona of the Dawn Yu Yu Hakusho Yugioh Duel Monster Yuki Yuna is a Hero Yuri Kuma Arashi Yuri On Ice!!! Zoids: Chaotic Century Zombie Land Saga

Non-Anime Animated

Adventure Time Amphibia Animainiacs (Original) Animaniacs (Reboot) Archie's Weird Mysteries As Told By Ginger Barbie Life in The Dreamhouse Batman the Animated Series Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot Big Mouth Bob's Burgers Bojack Horseman Bravest Warriors Captain N: the Game Master Carmen Sandiego (1994) Carmen Sandiego (2019) Castlevania (Netflix) Cats Don't Dance Coco Courage the Cowardly Dog Craig of the Creek Cyber Six Daria Darkwing Duck Dragon Booster Dragons: Riders of Berk DuckTales (2017) Exo-Squad Fern Gully Fillmore! Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Futurama Gargoyles Glitch Techs Godzilla: The Animated Series Green Lantern the Animated Series Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане) Hey Arnold Hilda Infinity Train Iron Giant JEM Kim Possible Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts Legend of Zelda animated series (1989) Legion of Super-Heroes Liberty Kids Magical Girl Friendship Squad Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart The Legend of Korra Moominvalley Motorcity My Little Pony (Classic, NOT FiM) My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks Onyx Equinox Over the Garden Wall Over the Moon (2020 film) Owl House Primal Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Redwall Rise of the TMNT Roco's Modern Life Rugrats RWBY Samurai Jack Seis Manos She-Ra (1985) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Sonic Boom Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Star vs. the Forces of Evil Strange Magic Super Mario Brothers Super Show Superman: The Animated Series Teen Titans The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo The Animals of Farthing Wood The Dragon Prince The Hollow The Legend of Tarzan (TV series) The Magic School Bus (1994) The Mysterious Cities of Gold The Pirate Fairy (Disney Fairies) The Powerpuff Girls (1998) The Real Ghostbusters Thundercats (1985) Thundercats (2011) Transformers: Prime Tuca and Bertie Twelve Forever Undone Venture Bros Wakko's Wish Wakfu Wander Over Yonder We Bare Bears (TV) Winx Club Wreck-It Ralph (2012) X-Men Evolution X-Men: The Animated Series Xiaolin Showdown

Live Action

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 28 Days Later 3rd Rock from the Sun A Series of Unfortunate Events American Horror Story: Asylum Babysitter's Club (2020) Batman (the old Adam West version) Better Call Saul Black Mirror Blackbeard's Ghost (Peter Ustinov) Boston Legal Boy Meets World Boys Over Flowers Bromance (Taiwanese tv series) Brooklyn 99 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cadfael Cagney and Lacey Charmed (2018) Chopped Cleopatra 2525 Cloak and Dagger Clue (1985) Community Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Dead Like Me Dead To Me Deadwood Death Note (Netflix) Derry Girls Dimension 20 - The Unsleeping City Doctor Who (New) Doom Patrol Dracula's Daughter (1936) Escape to the Chateau Farscape Fingersmith Galavant Godzilla (2014) Gokushufudo (2020 Japanese TV drama) Golden Girls Good Omens H20: Just Add Water (somewhere in seasons 1-2) Happy New Year Harley Quinn movie Hateblog a REALLY STRAIGHT soap opera. Haunting of Bly Manor His Dark Materials (HBO series) Holes Hot Fuzz House Inception Inside No. 9 Iron Chef America Joan of Arcadia Julie and the Phantoms Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Kamen Rider Build Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Fourze Killing Eve Knives Out Letterkenny Leverage Little Women (2019) Lucifer Matlock Majisuka Gakuen MASH Merlin Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Money Talks (1997 film) Motherland: Fort Salem Murder She Wrote Mythbusters Nailed It! Never Have I Ever Once Upon a Time Orphan Black Pen 15 PGSM Pi (1998) Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical Puppy Bowl Pushing Daisies Rome (hateblog) Russian Doll Sabrina Sense8 Sera Myu: Un Nouveau Voyage Shameless Sierra Burgess Smallville So Weird Star Trek: TOS (or their films) Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Star Trek: Voyager Stargate Atlantis Suckerpunch Supernatural (out of context speedrun the last three episodes) Sweetheart Switched at Birth Tall Girl Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles The Addams Family (1964) The Big Flower Fight The Booth at the End The Bride With White Hair The Crown The Fresh Prince of Bel Air The Good Place The Kissing Booth The L Word The Librarians The Magicians The Muppet Show The Pregnancy Pact The Room The Steve Harvey Show The Stranded The Untamed The Witcher The Wolfman (1941) Torchwood Twilight Zone (original) Twin Peaks Ultraman Nexus Umbrella Academy Van Helsing Warehouse 13 Warrior Nun What We Do In The Shadows (tv show) Will & Grace Wynonna Earp X-Men 2: X-Men United Xena: Warrior Princess

Miscellaneous

Alpha Flight #41-62 Anime music dance party, the logistics of which are to be determined! Ask Hot Pocket and/or Mina-pup AskSharknado: Giftening Edition Attempt to make French macaroons Commentary on old Goggles Critical Role Crowdsourced: A Black Mirror-style day where Jetty has to ask what her choices are of the audience for everything! I give you a menu, you decide what she has for dinner? What does she wear? Does she walk on the track or do the eliptical? Does she go to a movie with Doc or play a video game with Mike? Can be done alongside other stuff. Doodle Day Dramatic readings of fan fiction! Drunk History (or whatever your favorite subject would be) with Jet Wolf! Drunk Sailor Moon Exorcising Closet Ghost Fic Prompts Day Figuarts Day! (Not specifically freeing anyone, just various fun poses and such) Guess the plot of a show based on its opening Her Shim-Cheong (manhwa) House of X/Powers of X Hubby's Choice IDW Jem comics liveblog Intros Only (watch show openings, give commentary, guess what show is about, etc.) Jackbox Games Jet Wolf paints along with Bob Ross Jet and Doc go to Heaven/Hell, respectively: Jet gets to write reams of words about the awesomeness of Rei Hino and Doc has to read all of them and say ONLY NICE THINGS. Jet does Tiktok dances Jet Liveblogs Holligay: A Nature Documentary Jet Ranks Sailor Moon Image Songs Jet Reads Goosebumps Jet Reads Legion of Super-Heroes Jet redesigns the Wolf and Gay offices! Jet shows off her knitting Jet Wolf attempts to recreate scenes from Sailor Moon with Mina and Hot Pocket and/or whatever is in the house Jet Wolf reacts to Sailor Moon tiktoks (in blog form) Jet Wolf reads Love and Rockets. Jet Wolf reads the Jem comics by IDW Jet Wolf reviews her old top 100 Sailor Moon moments list Jet Wolf talks about Archie Comics Jet Wolf talks about each cel she owns and why they are so awesome. Jet Wolf writes Poetry Jet Wolf's Top 5's Jet, Hubby and/or family play board games Jetty Rants and Raves Jet Wolf tries to crack the Gravity Falls Codes Kiwi Blitz on Hiveworks Let's Play on Webtoon Liveblog: Favorite X-Men comic book arcs Livestream Pathfinder one-shot LOONA (Collection of music videos with an ongoing story/universe about GIRLS who are FRIENDS and SAVE THE UNIVERSE) Lore Olympus on Webtoon Mike regales us with "the story of your love" while you get increasingly embarrassed Mina and Hot Pocket day - liveblog like a nature documentary Mister Tsukino Does His Taxes and the Household Budget (Sailor Moon fan comic by Shadowjack) Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake Not So Shoujo Love Story on Webtoon Pitch Mishaps for Untitled Senshi Game (it is a lovely day in Juuban, and you are a Horrible Minako.) Pitching hubby's favorite media at (readers/holligay/jill/momigay) Playing with dolls (because how could 3 women not have any dolls between them) Re-Take By Studio Kimigabuchi (All Ages Version) Real or Fake Anime (people submit descriptions of anime you guess if it is an anime that actually exists or not) Reviewing succulents Scavenger hunt! Not entirely sure how it would work, maybe folks could send in asks for you to show things like your favorite Rei Hino object, or the thing that's been with you the longest, etc. sewing/knitting/baking tutorial Share or rant about a Roman history topic Sleepless Domain on Hiveworks Talking to Docholligay 2: Doc Harder (basically you talking to Doc's future womb evictee while still in there and telling them stuff like say the greatness of Rei Hino) The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess (manhwa) The Polar Bear Plunge--I take Jetty to our finest Lake Elmo in January, and she jumps in! Note: THIS IS NOT DANGEROUS, WORRYWARTS. I'll bring a life preserver, I've done it before, and I would do it with her if I weren't pregnant. The Senshi Helpline--The Senshi, taking your advice questions, here and now! The World of Moral Reversal Virtual knitting/crafting circle! Let us craft and chat with you! What-If #24 Gwen Stacy Lived Worm the web serial Write an explanation for a drawing we send you! Yuri Hell's Kitchen

#THE GIFTENING 2020 #THE GIFTENING 2020 admin stuff

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damiankirby99 · 1 year

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I used one of the Shuilanlan pics and draw Watersweet, Kirby, SCP-999 and two pink slimes :3

Enjoy :D

#roco kingdom #shuilanlan #oc #oc art #slime rancher #pink slime #scp #scp-999 #nintendo #kirby #kirby art

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southeastasianists · 5 years

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The Javanese state that flourished throughout the 14th and 15th centuries is often called the ‘Majapahit Empire’. But was it really an empire, and what does the word ‘empire’ mean in premodern Southeast Asia? This article surveys the evidence that can help us answer these questions. This evidence includes a handful of government inscriptions from east Java, Bali and Sumatra, two Javanese chronicles called the Deśavarṇana and the Pararaton, the official records of the Ming court, and the account of a Portuguese apothecary who visited Java in the early 16th century.

The Shadow of Singhasari (1255–92)

Before Majapahit was established as its new capital in 1293, the kingdom of Java had already begun to exercise its authority on other islands. Majapahit’s predecessor court, Singhasari, had begun to extend its influence beyond Java during the reign of Rājasa (1222–47). According to the Mūla Malurung inscription issued in 1255: ‘His Majesty [Rājasa] served as a single parasol for the world, the whole island of Java as well as the other islands’, the parasol being a common symbol of sovereignty in Southeast Asia and the Indian ocean world.

This rather nebulous assertion of authority was made concrete by a mighty Singhasari king called Kṛtanagara (1268–92). Two chronicle sources pay close attention to Kṛtanagara’s career: the 14th-century Deśavarṇana and the 16th-century Pararaton. Both of them depict Kṛtanagara as a militant ruler whose successful wars against Sumatra (1275) and Bali (1284) brought these regions under his personal dominion. Kṛtanagara was said to be an adept of Tantric practices, many of them aimed at boosting his supernatural powers. The Deśavarṇana describes his military victory over the Sumatran kingdom of Malayu as being ‘a result of his divine manifestation’ (41.5d).

Kṛtanagara’s success in subjugating various kings outside Java is illustrated by the Padang Roco inscription in central Sumatra (issued in 1286), which refers to him as the ‘great king of kings’ (mahārājādhirāja). He was apparently the overlord of the Sumatran king Maulivarmadeva, who in this inscription is merely a ‘great king’ (mahārāja). Historians today suspect that Kṛtanagara’s disruption of the power balances in the archipelago earned him the enmity of Kublai Khan, the Yuan Emperor in China.

These sources show that the Javanese king Kṛtanagara had been recognised as the overlord of certain kings on other islands in the late 13th century. The legacy of Kṛtanagara’s expansionist policies would be taken up by his Majapahit successors in the 14th century.

Majapahit’s Modest Beginnings (1293–1309)

Majapahit became the capital of Java in 1293, after a convoluted power struggle between several Javanese factions, an army from the neighbouring island of Madura, and even an expedition sent from China by the Khan. The eventual victor was a new king called Vijaya, who cut a rather less impressive figure than his predecessor Kṛtanagara.

The Kudadu inscription (issued in 1294) claims that Vijaya is simply ‘the lord of the whole island of Java’ (1b). The Sukhāmṛta inscription, issued two years later, again describes Vijaya as ‘the lord of all Java’, but more importantly, it describes Kṛtanagara as having once been ‘the king of the kings of Java, extending as far as the kings of the other islands’ (6b.2). The difference is clear. Kṛtanagara was the conqueror who defeated and ruled over foreign kings, while Vijaya controlled only Java.

The Balawi inscription (issued in 1305) describes Vijaya as ‘the sole ruler of the whole of the circle of Java’ and ‘the one whose throne is ornamented by the hair of the kings of the outer islands’ (1b.5). In this inscription, Vijaya compares his four wives (Kṛtanagara’s daughters) to four islands: ‘in their character they are just like Bali, Malayu, Madura, and Tanjung Pura’ (2a.2). We know from the usage in the later Deśavarṇana that Malayu is being used here as shorthand for the island of Sumatra, and Tanjung Pura for Borneo. The Balawi inscription also reiterates the fact that it was Kṛtanagara, not Vijaya, who ‘had his lotus feet kissed’ by kings of the other islands, ‘especially by the king of Bali’ (2a.4).

The shadow of Singhasari loomed large over the first Majapahit king. We see from these inscriptions that Vijaya’s own claim to sovereignty over the other islands was vague, and that he preferred to look back to the imposing precedent set by Kṛtanagara’s overseas campaigns.

We also know that Vijaya’s claim to rule ‘all of Java’ was an exaggeration. The later historical sources (Pararaton, Rangga Lawe and Sorāndaka) narrate how Vijaya spent most of his reign trying to deal with uprisings by his former comrades who had become dissatisfied with his leadership. Shortly after 1300, the king was forced to give up half of his Javanese territory to a Madura-based ruler called Vīrarāja, an erstwhile ally who had helped to put him on the throne in the first place. Vijaya died in 1309, with much of his own kingdom in open rebellion against him, having no real capacity to continue Kṛtanagara’s imperialist agenda in the archipelago.

Consolidating the Heartland (1309–28)

Vijaya’s successor Jayanagara spent the years between 1309 and 1323 dealing with the challenges to Majapahit authority in Java itself. Little is known about Java’s relationship with other islands during this time. The next important piece of evidence for our inquiry is the Tuhañaru inscription (issued in 1323), which describes ‘the whole span of the island of Java, with its dependencies the islands of Madura, Tanjung Pura etcetera, which produces the effort and sacrifice of all people, who constantly pay homage to and worship the King’ (4a.3). This inscription articulates the relationship between Java and other islands as one of ‘dependency’ involving obedience and homage to the Majapahit king. But it is still worryingly vague on which islands were included among these dependencies. Who exactly fell into the category of ‘et cetera’?

The chronicles show that Jayanagara’s reign was mostly preoccupied with domesticating eastern Java under Majapahit rule, a task he had largely completed by his early death in 1328. As the young king slowly consolidated Majapahit’s grip on the Javanese heartland, he became confident enough to start calling himself a ‘king of kings’ of Sumatra, Borneo, Madura and Bali, just as Kṛtanagara had done and Vijaya had not. What did Jayanagara’s claims of overlordship mean in practice? As yet, we have no evidence of specific military or diplomatic actions taken by the Majapahit court to enforce its theoretical sovereignty over the other islands.

One Oath To Rule Them All (1331–57)

Things changed drastically when a queen called Gitārja and her prime minister Gajah Mada took control of Majapahit in 1329. According to the Pararaton (p. 28), Gajah Mada swore an oath in 1331 to ‘defeat the outer islands: Gurun, Seran, Tañjung Pura, Haru, Pahang, Ḍompo, Bali, Suṇḍa, Palembang, Tumasik’. This is the famous Palapa Oath that Indonesian schoolchildren learn about. It is often paraphrased in Indonesian as a promise to ‘unite the archipelago’ (menyatukan tanah air), but that is not an accurate translation, because the Old Javanese text simply means ‘the other islands are defeated’ (kālah nūṣāntara). The places mentioned in the oath are very far-flung: Pahang is on the Malaysian peninsula, while Ḍompo is on the island of Sumbawa.

The Pararaton was compiled sometime in early 16th century, so it is not a contemporary source for Gajah Mada’s oath. We can’t know whether he really said such a thing. But the list of military targets in the oath matches closely the list of tributaries claimed by Majapahit in the Deśavarṇana. An interesting detail given in the Pararaton is that when Gajah Mada made this oath, the other ministers laughed in his face. Even if this is just a creative embellishment, it illustrates how extravagant the project must have sounded to his contemporaries.

We know that Gajah Mada’s words were followed up with action. The Deśavarṇana (49.4a) states that Java attacked Bali in 1343 and deposed its monarch. North Sumatran inscriptions and chronicles suggest that the same thing happened at Pasai shortly before 1345. Javanese foreign policy during the 1330s and 1340s seems to have consisted of something like this:

1) demand obedience and tribute from kings on other islands,

2) launch a military strike on those who refused the demand,

3) replace them with rulers who would be more loyal,

4) withdraw the military force until the next time it was needed.

From what we can tell from the chronicles, Gajah Mada’s military campaigns were more successful and wide-ranging than those of Kṛtanagara. Majapahit’s overseas power had finally eclipsed that of Singhasari.

In Praise of the Majapahit Emperor (1365)

The definitive claim of Majapahit dominance over the archipelago is found in the Deśavarṇana. This text is a blend of chronicle, royalist propaganda, and personal memoir, written by a Buddhist cleric in 1365. The poem dedicates Cantos 12–16 to listing the overseas dependencies claimed by Java at the time. The Majapahit court is compared to the sun and moon, while the subordinate courts in Java and ‘all the peripheral countries on the other islands’ are like planets; they ‘seek shelter in and humbly approach’ the king (12.6).

Cantos 13–14 name these peripheral countries and group them into four: the Sumatran countries that ‘are dependent on’ Malayu, the Borneo countries dependent on Tanjung Pura, the Malay peninsula countries dependent on Pahang, and the miscellaneous countries to the east. The places mentioned go as far north as Langkasuka (modern-day Pattani), as far west as Lamuri (Aceh), and as far east as Wwanin (generally thought to be somewhere on the coast of West Papua). An extremely extensive area.

All these regions described as ‘being protected’ (15.1a), ‘paying homage’ (15.3a), ‘bringing gifts that appear every month’ (15.3b), ‘being guarded’ (16.5a), and ‘obedient to all the commands’ (16.5b) of the Javanese king. Majapahit’s method of enforcing this obedience is explained: ‘any that transgressed his commands was attacked and wiped out completely by groups of naval officers, who are variously decorated’ (16.5c–d).

When the other countries did comply with Majapahit’s demand for tribute, Javanese scholars and officers were sent specially to collect the tribute from these places (15.3). There is a statement that religious scholars were sent in order to ‘establish the doctrine’ of Śiva and Buddha in the outer islands, ‘so that there would not be deviation’ (16.1). Does this suggest a sort of religious domination too?

The Deśavarṇana is a dependable eyewitness account of the times, but its main purpose is to flatter the Majapahit king. How seriously can we take its enormous list of countries that were supposedly ‘obedient to all the commands’ of Java?

Ādityavarman’s Autonomy (1347–75)

There are some holes in the Deśavarṇana’s story of Majapahit supremacy. Enter Ādityavarman, a Javanese prince with possible Malay lineage who served as senior minister at Majapahit in the 1330s and early 1340s, apparently outranking Gajah Mada himself during this period. According to an inscription written on a statue of Manjuśrī dated 1343, Ādityavarman was a Buddhist and was a descendant of Kṛtanagara.

After years of service to Majapahit, Ādityavarman did something odd in 1347. He suddenly appeared in central Sumatra declaring himself the ‘great king of kings’, precisely the title Kṛtanagara had used as overlord of that region in 1286. Ādityavarman continued to issue inscriptions in Sumatra on his own authority up until 1375, apparently not acknowledging any loyalty to Java. During this time, he claimed descent from the old Sumatran Mauli dynasty, whom Kṛtanagara had subjugated back in 1275. One of Ādityavarman’s major inscriptions, the Amoghapaśa inscription (1347), is written on the back of a statue dedicated by Kṛtanagara in 1286. And just like Kṛtanagara, Ādityavarman was also interested in Tantric rituals to concentrate his mystical power.

The Deśavarṇana completely ignores Ādityavarman’s claims of autonomy. Instead it reports that his kingdom paid tribute to Majapahit, just like all the other countries in Sumatra. This discrepancy shows that the Deśavarṇana is prone to exaggerating the extent of Java’s hegemony, just as we saw in the inscriptions of Vijaya and Jayanagara in the early 14th century. It means that we can’t take its list of tributaries at face value, but neither can we reject the text’s claims completely.

The Massacre of the Sundanese (1357)

The massacre of the Sundanese, often referred to as the Bubat War, shows another side to Java’s strategy of domination. It is important to note before we start this section that the Majapahit sources almost always list Sunda as one of the ‘other islands’ and not a part of the island of Java. This confirms our impression that when Majapahit documents say ‘Java’, they mean only ‘where the Javanese speakers live’, i.e. central and east Java, whereas ‘Sunda’ means ‘where the Sundanese speakers live’, i.e. west Java.

According to the Pararaton (pp. 28–9), the Sundanese royal family was invited to Majapahit in 1357. They had come to attend a wedding between a Sundanese princess and the Javanese king Hayam Wuruk. Instead they were ambushed and killed by their Javanese hosts. The pretext for this massacre was a miscommunication: the Sundanese had come on the impression that Hayam Wuruk would take the Sundanese princess as his primary wife and acknowledge the equal status of the Sundanese dynasty to that of Majapahit, while the Javanese assumed the princess was being offered as tribute and would have concubine status.

The decision to kill the Sundanese was taken by Gajah Mada and the king’s uncle Kudāmṛta. Gajah Mada evidently viewed the destruction of the Sundanese royal family as fulfilling his promise to ‘defeat Sunda’. After the massacre, he declared that the Palapa Oath was a mission accomplished.

This story is found in the later Javanese sources Pararaton, Kidung Sunda, and Tatwa Sunda, and is also mentioned briefly in the Sundanese history Carita Parahyangan. Strangely, it is absent from all the 14th-century primary sources, such the Deśavarṇana and the inscriptions. Nevertheless, it is an integral part of the story of Gajah Mada’s oath to defeat the kingdoms of the archipelago. The incident shows that Majapahit supremacy was not easily accepted by other kingdoms, but remained an ongoing source of conflict throughout the 14th century.

The Character of Javanese Hegemony

How did Majapahit actually assert its dominance in the mid 14th century? It is plausible that Java could make long-distance naval strikes against other islands in the archipelago, as described in the Deśavarṇana. It is also likely that those countries sent tribute to Majapahit as a formal acknowledgement of superiority. But Java did not annex those countries, which are always called ‘other islands’ separate to Java. Madura was the only significant island ‘not included among the overseas palaces’, but rather, it was administratively ‘united with the land of Java’ (Deśavarṇana 15.2).

Bali was another somewhat special case. According to later Balinese tradition, Javanese nobles were sent to administer the island after the Majapahit invasion of 1343. The Batur inscription, issued in north Bali in 1384, records that a dispute between one of these nobles and a local community of blacksmiths was referred to the Majapahit court for adjudication.

The Javanese also had the final say in matters pertaining to southern Sumatra. In 1397 the Ming court in China was having difficulties with the Sumatran country they called San-fo-qi, and asked the Javanese to settle the matter because ‘San-fo-qi is subject to Java’ (Ming Shi-lu, 18 September 1397). This is further evidence for the Majapahit court being acknowledged as the highest political authority in this central part of the Indonesian archipelago.

The Majapahit rulers preferred to install obedient local rulers in distant islands, rather than administering them directly. They were sometimes asked to intervene in some domestic problem, suggesting the Majapahit court was seen as having overall responsibility for settling disputes in the region. When these local rulers asserted their autonomy, such as at Pasai and in Bali in the 1340s, or at Palembang in the 1390s, the Javanese deposed them and put in someone they liked better. But this was not always possible. Ādityavarman in central Sumatra seems to have been able to avoid any punishment for defying Majapahit, and it was only after his death in 1375 that the Javanese attempted to reimpose their authority in his kingdom.

Memories of Majapahit

The Malay regions preserved traditions about Majapahit domination for a long time. Between 1513 and 1515, the Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires recorded oral histories about the foundation of Melaka, the leading Malay kingdom at the turn of the 16th century. Pires’ notes were compiled in a document called the Suma Oriental, which has proved an invaluable source for the history of Southeast Asia in this period.

Pires’ sources claimed that around 1400, a Majapahit king called ‘Batara Tamarill’ had as his vassals the kings of Palembang and of Singapore. The son of the Palembang king married into the Majapahit royal family, but ‘when he realised how nobly he was married and how great was his power in the neighbouring islands which were under his brother-in-law’s jurisdiction, he rose against the vassalage and obedience’ (Pires, p. 231). The king of Majapahit sent a punishing expedition that took control of the island of Bangka and then drove his disobedient vassal out of Palembang and forced him to flee to Singapore, after which he ended up founding the Melaka kingdom. This event shows that as late as 1397, Majapahit was still effectively able to enforce its claims over its overseas dependencies.

But the evidence for Javanese hegemony peters out in the 15th century. The Javanese kings continued to refer to themselves as ‘king of kings’ in inscriptions dated 1447, 1473 and 1486, but they no longer talked about the other islands specifically. No further military adventures are mentioned in the chronicles. In the latter half of the 15th century, Javanese shipping slowly passed out of Majapahit’s control and into the hands of the autonomous Muslim-ruled towns on the north coast of Java.

Pires was told that Java ‘used to rule as far as the Moluccas and over a great part of the west, and … almost all of Sumatra, until about a hundred years ago [i.e. until the 1410s], when its power began to diminish’ (p. 174). This account is broadly consistent with what we know from the other sources about Majapahit’s claims of hegemony in the period 1330–1400 and its apparent weakening in the 15th century.

What’s in an Empire?

After all this, can we say that Majapahit was really an empire? The answer depends on what we mean by the word. If being an empire means the direct administration of provinces, permanent military occupation, and the imposition of political and cultural norms over a wide area, then Majapahit was probably not an empire. Javanese rule over the other islands was too intermittent and too indirect to qualify by those criteria.

But if being an empire means the projection of military power at will, formal acknowledgement of overlordship by vassals and third parties, and the regular delivery of tribute to the centre, then Java’s relationship to the archipelago can well be considered an imperial one, especially during the late Singhasari (1268–92) and middle Majapahit (1330–1400) periods. At other times, such as early Majapahit period (1293–1330) and the late Majapahit period (after 1400), the Javanese dream of an overseas empire is much less credible.

#Southeast Asia #Majapahit #History #Resources

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lumpy-veev · 6 years

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I have two new rp blogs!

My first one is for Happy Heroes.

https://multicolored-hero-friends.tumblr.com/

The second one is for another cartoon called Roco Kingdom. I play an OC named Lumi!

https://sugar-and-ice-and-evrthn-nice.tumblr.com/

#happyheroes

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exhausted-inkwell · 6 years

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Maxwell stood before the king, heart pounding in his chest.

“You…wanted to see me, Sire?” He asked nervously. Straightening his back, he tried to hide the fact that his hands were trembling like leaves in the wind.

The king nodded solemnly.

“I called you down here to tell you to clean up your act!” He yelled.

Maxwell jumped.

“You’ve been making much too many mistakes lately! First, it was the unfinished paperwork! Then it was being late to pick up Kelly from school! Then it was leaving the library unlocked after everyone left!” He griped.

Maxwell winced, shrinking in on himself.

“But Sire-!”

“I know what you’re thinking!” The king cut him off. “"But Sire! All of these are little mistakes!” Well, that’s no excuse to be making them!“

Maxwell closed his mouth, biting back the angry retort he’d spit out if he were braver.

"I expect more from you, Jacksbell!” The king said, shaking his head.

“S-Sire, it’s Maxwell.” Maxwell made a futile attempt to correct him.

“That’s what I said! Matsell!” The king barked. “Look at you! Now you’re talking back to me!”

The blue-coated secretary bowed his head, knowing that it was no use trying to defend himself.

But…he still couldn’t help but feel some resentment pool inside him.

“You’re supposed to be my most reliable subject! But how am I supposed to rely on a lazy, scatter-brained, dimwit like you?!”

The king continued his tirade.

“Don’t forget that I had the kindness to give you a second chance after you betrayed the kingdom to that villain, Enzo!”

The resentment began to bubble, and it turned into anger.

“You even had the audacity to claim that I’ve done nothing for you! After everything I did to raise you into a proper Roco Kingdom citizen! You ungrateful brat!”

That anger turned into hate.

“Why, I have half a mind to fire on the spot!”

That hate suddenly turned into a writhing mass of darkness that slammed against the confines of his soul.

“SHUT UP!” Maxwell screamed. That darkness released itself in the form of a blast of dark magic that tore itself out of Maxwell and crashed into his surroundings.

Vases flew off their pedistals, smashing against the floor. Banners were torn to threads. Anybody present was forcefully swept off their feet. The walls of throne room cracked and split, just barely holding together.

The king recoiled, shielding his face from the incoming blast.

When it passed, Maxwell nearly keeled over on the spot. The only thing keeping him standing was the years of anger and resentment finally having a chance to bare its fangs.

“Was…Was that dark magic?” The king asked incredulously.

He didn’t reply. He didn’t have to.

“Unbelievable. Explain yourself, Mackbeth!” The king screamed, enraged by the fact that Maxwell had made such a mess of the throne room.

“My name, is MAXWELL!” He spat back, fueled by his burning emotions. He continued.

“You would have me fired for some minor mistakes that I’ve made due to the poor health that you caused me? Very well then! I’ll give you something to fire me for!”

“You claim that I am lazy. You claim that I am a scatter-brained dimwit! Well, I’m sorry that I can never manage more than FOUR HOURS of sleep, because I have to finish every single blasted piece of paperwork you leave me! On top of that, it has also become my duty to watch over the little demon you call your daughter!”

“How dare-”

“I’M NOT FINISHED.” Maxwell thundered. “After all this time, you still treat me like a scapegoat and something to dump your unwanted work on! You never truly meant what you said when you gave me your so-called second chance. You just wanted me back because without me, you’d finally have to be responsible and do the work that I do for you every. Single. Day.”

Maxwell panted after his rant.

“I…I should have stayed with Sir Enzo.”

The king was red in the face.

“Well, if you like Enzo so much, Then why don’t you go crawling back to him?!” He roared.

Maxwell tensed.

“What-?”

“Because from now on, you’re fired! I’ve had enough of your insolence! I want you out of this castle by tomorrow morning!”

Maxwell paled. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he fought to keep them from spilling over. Without another word, he turned around and stormed out of the throne room.

——————————–

Maxwell stumbled back to his room, fighting to stay conscious. The blast of dark magic took a larger toll than he thought on his body.

His head throbbed, making it hard to see straight. Leaning against the wall, Maxwell struggled to get his heart to settle and his breathing to even out. Neither was working.

Tears streamed down his face. He didn’t know if he was crying out of pain or his own misery. Maybe both. Maxwell couldn’t find it in himself to care anymore.

Crumpling against the wall, he sobs. He knew he needed to begin packing what little things he had, but he couldn’t muster up the strength to do…anything really.

God…he felt so useless.

I should never have betrayed Sir Enzo…

#roco kingdom

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