This book is both an introduction to contemporary life in Javanese society and an analysis of the emerging Javanese-Indonesian culture. Since the Javanese constitute half of the highly diversified population of two hundred million, it is only to be expected that they should have a major impact on the evolution of Indonesia as a modern nation-state. Their dominance in the country affairs inevitably gives rise to various tensions, and the Javanese Indonesian culture the new power holders are moulding is not to everybody liking either. This study analyses these developments, explaining cultural persistence and change in a historical perspective and on the basis of the authors twenty five years of first hand observations.