38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.70 



is the traditional home of the world's great historical religions, the 

 religious art of which has penetrated the entire world wherever 

 Asiatic influence has at all made itself felt. Perhaps the greatest 

 of these influences may be traced to Buddhism in Indonesia. This 

 has made itself felt through the several invasions and migrations 

 which may be traced direct to India. 



Biologically and geologically Indonesia is divided according to 

 its relationship with the continental land masses of Asia or Aus- 

 tralia. The dividing line is the narrow water passage between Bali 

 and Lombok, two small islands of the southern East Indian Archi- 

 pelago, and the contiguous Strait of Macassar. The great islands of 

 Sumatra, Java, and Borneo were formerly joined with the continent 

 of Asia, while Celebes, the Moluccas, and New Guinea at one time 

 were a part of the Australian Continent. Animals of the Asiatic 

 mainland, such as the tapir, tiger, rhinoceros, and elephant, are 

 found in Sumatra and Java, while marsupials, such as the cuscus 

 and birds of paradise, are indigenous to New Guinea and Australia. 



Borneo and other great islands of the East Indies, as Java, 

 Celebes, and the Philippines, are populated primarily by Asiatic 

 species, although the great animals of Sumatra, as the tiger and 

 elephant, are not represented. The people occupying these islands 

 are decidedly related to the southern Mongoloid group. Their 

 speech is Malayan, and their culture has been repeatedly influenced 

 from Asiatic sources. In thus classifying the population, one must 

 disregard the minority, which is negroid and a somewhat protean 

 population element. In the eastern half of Indonesia, black-skinned, 

 broad-nosed, and wavy or kinky-haired Melanesians and Papuans 

 far outnumber the Malay element, which alone is the indigenous 

 population. The very name Melanesian characterizes the area as the 

 home of a black-skinned race. These negroids of the Malaj' Penin- 

 sula, Andaman Islands, Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippine 

 Islands, are not identical with the New Guinea and Australian blacks 

 but are loosely related culturally to Malayan tribes of surrounding 

 areas. 



Malayan decorative art. — When the island archipelagos of the 

 East Indies were first occupied by the Indonesian immigrants they 

 found them settled by a primitive Negrito stock. These aborigines 

 retreated into the interiors of the larger islands perhaps without 

 attempting contact with the Indonesian invaders. They consequent- 

 ly left but little, if any, mark on the decorative art of the Malayan 

 immigrants. These new occupants of the East Indies have been 

 called Indonesians, Old Mala3^ans, even Old Polynesians. In the 

 Philippine Islands their descendants are clearly distinguishable from 

 the more recent Malays who have everywhere been much influenced 

 by Mohammedan and the earlier Buddhist and Hindu religious cult 



