ABSTRACT

On Friday evening, September 28, 1923, in the Dutch colonial city of Bandung, Java, two architects faced each other in debate before a joint meeting of the Bandung Art Society and the Royal Institute of Engineers. The two architects along with most of the audience entered the hall in rough agreement on several significant points. Given the prominence of Indonesia as the fourth largest country in the world, remarkably few historians have engaged its vibrant and distinct cultural histories, even in comparison with the also under-examined histories of China and India. Pont, in contrast, was unfazed by the challenge of the marriage between East and West either in his professional life or in his personal as he was married to a Javanese woman. This relationship provided a window into the world of Javanese culture filled with its own interpretation of Indian and Chinese "great civilization" manifestations.