Dr Peter Worsley

PhD (Leiden), BA hons (Sydney)
Professor Emeritus


Peter Worsley was Professor of Indonesian and Malayan Studies at the University of Sydney between 1973 and 2000 and is now Professor Emeritus. He is also Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University, where he and Dr Supomo are working on an annotated edition and translation of the old Javanese epic kakawin Sumansåntaka

• Social and cultural history of premodern Southeast Asia
• Indonesian, Balinese and ancient Javanese literature and visual arts.

• Kakawin Sumanasåntaka
  The project will produce an edition, translation and annotation of the ancient Javanese kakawin epic poem, Sumanasåntaka. It is a collaborative project with Dr Supomo of the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University.
• The political meaning of the bas-reliefs of the Rama story at Candi Prambanan in Central Java.
  The project examines transformations of the epic Sanskrit idea of the cakravartin, ‘the universal ruler’, in ancient Java.
• The Ancient Javanese Environment.
  The project explores how the inhabitants of Java in the period before the 16th century apprehended the world in which they lived. More specifically it sets out to describe the literary and mythic context in which works of epic kakawin represent the landscapes of Java. It also raises in a preliminary way the extent to which these same works contain reliable empirical information about the Javanese environment prior to the 16th century.
• Narrative and Social Change in Bali.
  This project seeks to explore the interrelationship between narrative, orality and literacy, state formation and political culture in Bali. It examines the ways in which Balinese know, evaluate and experience their social and cultural existence through certain forms of narrative, and how they use that knowledge to reproduce the social and cultural conditions of their. At the present time the project is focussed on a study of Kamasan paintings, in particular the Brayut narrative in mss and paintings.

• "The Indian Origin of the Old Javanese Kakawin Siwaratrikalpa”, in A. Teeuw, Th. P. Galestin et alia, Siwaratrikalpa of Mpu Tanakung. An Old Javanese Poem, its Indian Source and Balinese Illustrations. Bibliotheca Indonesica 3, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1969.
• The Babad Buleleng. A Balinese Dynastic Genealogy. Bibliotheca Indonesiaca 8, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1972.
• "E74168". Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, Winter 1984.
• "Narrative Bas-Reliefs at Candi Surawana", in D.G. Marr and A.C. Milner (Eds), Southeast Asia in the 9th to the 14th Centuries, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and the Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, Singapore and Canberra, 1986.
• "Mpu Tantular's Kakawin Arjunawijaya and Conceptions of Kingship in Fourteenth Century Java", Variation and Transformation. Perspectives in the Study of Indonesian Literatures, Royal Institute for Linguistics and Anthropology, Leiden, 1990.
• Unlocking Australia’s Language Potential. Profiles of 9 Key Languages in Australia. Volume 5 Indonesian/Malay. National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia, Canberra. 1994.
• “Gouw Peng Liang’s Novella, Lo Fen Koei: Patrons and Women. An Account of the Peranakan Chinese Community of Java in the late 19th Century,” In Archipel, 68, 2004, pp. 241-272.

Submitted for publication and in the press

• (forthcoming 2006) “Cosmopolitan Vernacular Culture and Illustrations of the Rama Story at Candi Loro Jonggrang, Prambanan,” In Henri Chambert-Loir (ed.) History of Translation in Indonesia and Malaysia, Paris: EFEO-Archipel,. (provisional title).
• (forthcoming 2006), “Budaya Bahasa Kosmopolit dan Gambar-Gambar Kisah Rama di Candi Lara Jonggrang, Prambanan,” in Henri. Chambert Loir, Sejarah terjemahan di Indonesia dan Malaysia, EFEO et Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia.
• (forthcoming 2006), “Cosmopolitan Vernacular Culture and Illustrations of the Rama Story at Candi Loro Jonggrang, Prambanan. Part 2: The marriage of the crown prince and the succession in polygamous royal households,” in Chambert-Loir, Henri, and Dagens, Bruno, (eds), Hommage à Jacques Dumarçay, Paris: EFEO. (Provisional title)

• Islam, Trade & Society: Arabia to Southeast Asia. (ASNS 2402)
• Introduction to Research and Methodology (INMS3902)
• Research and Methodology (INMS 6903)

• I am currently writing a further paper on the subject of he political meaning of the bas-reliefs of the Rama story at Candi Prambanan in Central Java for an international conference organised by the Oriental Society of Australia, World without Walls: 21st Century Perspectives at the University of Sydney, December 3-7, 2006.