Yogya lies in the center of Java's 'Realm of the Dead', a city surrounded by ancient ruins. The Mataram Empire of Central Java fell apart under Dutch pressure and formed the two states of Surakarta (Solo) and Yogyakarta in 1755. The Yogya Kraton is the highest ranking court in Indonesia and 'Special Region Yogyakarta' is to this day responsible directly to the central government in Jakarta and not to the provincial head of Central Java. The layout of the city still reflects the formal, traditional relationship between the sultan, marketplace, and mosque. To the Javanese, Yogya has always been a symbol of nationalist passion and resistence to alien rule. During the Dutch occupation of 1948, the sultan of present-day Yogya locked himself in his kraton and when he finally consented to negotiate with the Dutch it was from the top of his palace wall looking down on them with his people watching.

Yogya was from 1946-50 the grass roots capital of Indonesia and the headquarters of the revolutionary forces; its people were scorched earth fighters, A 3-nation committee tried to bring the Dutch and Indonesians together here, but they could only agree on minor points. At last in 1948 the Dutch launched an all out attack on the city, dropping 900 paratroopers, heavy bombs and rocket fire while US and British planes strafed the city streets. With all of the republican leaders captured and its ministries closed down, the rebel forces retired from Yogya to the countryside and carried out a peoples' war. The US Senate, whose Marshall Plan rehabilitation money appeared to be supporting Holland's fight against the Republican Army, threatened to withdraw support. Finally in Dec. 1949, Holland recognized the new republic.

Today Yogya is a center for higher learning and the Javanese language is said to be spoken in its purest form here. Yogya is the cultural capital of Java, Java's Kyoto. In a town of only 400,000 there are over 75 art organizations. The city has numerous music and dance schools, brilliant dance choreographers, drama and poetry workshops, folk theatre and we yang troupes, its artists excell in the plastic arts. It's one of the best places to shop in S.E. Asia, if you look. Along with Solo, Yogya is a major batikproducing center and because of increased tourist awareness this art is becoming of even higher quality. Its painters and sculptors are Indonesia's elite, strongly individualistic and increasingly commercialized. It's one of the biggest villages in the world