Sultan of Yogyakarta

At a glance

How was the Sultanate of Yogyakarta founded?

Yogyakarta was born out of the collapse of Mataram, the Muslim kingdom that had dominated central Java since the late sixteenth century. By the 1740s Mataram was weakened by rebellions and by the growing power of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In 1745 its court moved from Kartasura to Surakarta. Prince Mangkubumi, born in 1717 as a son of Sunan Amangkurat IV, broke with the court and in 1746 took up arms against the VOC and its allies. According to the Kraton's own history, his following grew from 3,000 fighters in 1746 to 13,000, including 2,500 cavalry, in 1747.

The war ended in a partition. Under the Treaty of Giyanti, signed on 13 February 1755, Mataram was divided into two kingdoms. The Kasunanan of Surakarta went to Sunan Paku Buwono III, and the Kasultanan of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat to Mangkubumi. Two days later, on 15 February 1755, the two rulers met at Jatisari. There, according to the Kraton, they agreed how the two courts would differ in dress, custom, language, gamelan and dance. Yogyakarta chose to continue the old Mataram traditions, while Surakarta would develop new forms. Mangkubumi was proclaimed and crowned as Sultan Hamengku Buwono I on 13 March 1755. A treaty at Salatiga in 1757 recognised a third princely house in Surakarta's territory, the Mangkunegaran, and the boundaries between the courts were fixed again by the Treaty of Semarang on 26 April 1774.

Hamengku Buwono I chose the site of his capital himself, between the Code and Winongo rivers, with Mount Merapi to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south. Building began on 9 October 1755, and the sultan moved into the new Kraton on 7 October 1756. He also built the water palace of Taman Sari between 1758 and 1765, with Tumenggung Mangundipura as architect (Kraton Yogyakarta; World Monuments Fund). A popular legend credits a Portuguese architect. The Kraton remembers him as "a great builder", the equal of Sultan Agung of Mataram.

Who were the sultans of Yogyakarta?

All ten sultans have taken the name Hamengku Buwono, often shortened to HB. Reign dates follow the Kraton's official biographies. The early nineteenth century was turbulent: Hamengku Buwono II was deposed twice and restored twice, so his reign overlaps with those of his son and grandsons.

How did Yogyakarta fare under the Dutch and the British?

Under the VOC, Yogyakarta was a dependent but largely self-governing court. Things changed after the Netherlands fell under French control. Herman Willem Daendels became governor-general on 14 January 1808 and demanded that the Javanese kings treat the Dutch as overlords rather than allies. Hamengku Buwono II resisted. In December 1810 Daendels marched on Yogyakarta with 3,300 troops and forced him to step down on 31 December in favour of his son, Hamengku Buwono III.

When the British took Java in 1811, Hamengku Buwono II took his throne back. Relations with the new Lieutenant-Governor, Thomas Stamford Raffles, soon broke down. On 20 June 1812 British and Indian sepoy troops stormed the Kraton, an event remembered in Java as the geger sepehi, the "sepoy upheaval". The palace was occupied and its treasure and "thousands of Javanese literary works" were looted. The sultan was exiled to Penang, and Hamengku Buwono III was reinstated the next day (Kraton Yogyakarta). Many of the looted manuscripts are now in the British Library. After a digitisation project, digital copies of 75 Yogyakarta manuscripts were presented to the Kraton in 2019 (The Jakarta Post, 9 May 2019). The originals remain in London.

The British also cut the sultanate down to size. Yogyakarta had to give up Kedu, half of Pacitan, Japan, Jipang and Grobogan in return for 100,000 reals a year. Four thousand households in Adikarto (southern Kulon Progo) and part of the capital were granted to Prince Notokusumo, a son of Hamengku Buwono I who had helped the British. The British made him Paku Alam I in June 1812, and on 17 March 1813 the separate princely house of the Kadipaten Pakualaman was established.

What was the Java War?

The Java War (1825–1830) was the greatest uprising against Dutch rule in nineteenth-century Java. It was led by Prince Diponegoro, the eldest son of Hamengku Buwono III, who had withdrawn from court to his estate at Tegalrejo to study religion. Grievances had piled up:

• the leasing of royal lands to Europeans and Chinese, which undermined Javanese rights to the land;
• tax farming and abuses of labour services;
• cholera and harvest failure in the early 1820s;
• court intrigue, and the conduct of the Dutch Resident.

The trigger, in 1825, was a road survey through Diponegoro's own property at Tegalrejo (Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450).

The war cost more than 200,000 Javanese lives. The Dutch lost more than 8,000 European and 7,000 local soldiers and spent at least twenty million guilders. During it, the Dutch brought the aged Hamengku Buwono II back to the throne on 20 September 1826, hoping he would rally the nobility; he died in January 1828. General De Kock finally hemmed Diponegoro's forces into the hills between the Progo and Bogowonto rivers. Diponegoro came to the Resident's house at Magelang to negotiate, and was arrested there on Sunday 28 March 1830. He was exiled to Manado and then Makassar, where he died on 8 January 1855. In Raden Saleh's famous painting of 1857, the arrest is shown as a betrayal.

The defeat ended the independent power of the Javanese courts. In the words of the Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism, it "placed the Javanese solely and definitively under colonial control". Yogyakarta and Surakarta kept their capitals and core lands, but the Dutch took their outer provinces (mancanagara), including Banyumas, Bagelen, Kediri and Madiun. A treaty signed at Klaten on 27 September 1830, which Hamengku Buwono V signed on 24 October, fixed the border between the two courts. Pajang and Sukowati went to the Susuhunan, and Mataram and Gunung Kidul to the sultan. The sultanate was reduced to roughly the territory of today's Special Region.

How did the sultanate change in the colonial era?

For the next century Yogyakarta was a princely state (vorstenland) within the Dutch East Indies. Each new sultan had to sign a political contract with the colonial government before his coronation. The court remained a centre of Javanese culture. Hamengku Buwono V promoted wayang orang, dance-drama based on the wayang repertoire. Under Hamengku Buwono VII the sugar industry boomed: seventeen sugar mills, owned by the sultanate, private firms and the Dutch, operated in the sultanate. The Tugu monument north of the Kraton, wrecked by an earthquake in 1867, was rebuilt in his reign.

Hamengku Buwono IX, born Dorojatun in 1912, was raised from the age of four in a Dutch family. He studied in the Netherlands, including at Leiden, until his father recalled him in 1939. Before his coronation he spent months negotiating the political contract with the Dutch representative, Lucien Adam, before signing the 59-article document on 12 March 1940. At his coronation on 18 March 1940 he declared, in the words remembered by the Kraton: "Saya memang berpendidikan barat tapi pertama-tama saya tetap orang Jawa" ("I have had a Western education, but first and foremost I remain a Javanese"). The speech was given in Dutch, and a plaque in the Hamengku Buwono IX museum gives the original as "Al heb ik een uitgesproken westerse opvoeding gehad, toch ben en blijf ik in de allereerste plaats Javaan".

What did Yogyakarta do in the Indonesian Revolution?

Yogyakarta became one of the pillars of the new Republic of Indonesia. Two days after Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed independence on 17 August 1945, Hamengku Buwono IX sent them a telegram of congratulations. On 5 September 1945 he and Paku Alam VIII issued parallel amanat (proclamations). The sultan's begins: "Bahwa Negeri Ngajogjakarta Hadiningrat jang bersifat keradjaan adalah daerah istimewa dari Negara Republik Indonesia" ("That the State of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, being a kingdom, is a special region of the Republic of Indonesia"). It adds that he held all governing authority there and answered directly to the President (Berita RI, year II, nos. 4–5).

When the Dutch returned to Jakarta, the sultan offered Yogyakarta as the Republic's capital. President Sukarno and Vice-President Hatta moved there on 4 January 1946, and the city served as the capital until 1949. According to the Kraton, during these years the palace treasury paid salaries of the President, Vice-President and their staff, the army's running costs, and the travel of diplomatic delegations abroad. After the Dutch seized Yogyakarta in December 1948, the sultan refused to cooperate with them. The Republican attack that held the city for several hours on 1 March 1949 (Serangan Umum 1 Maret) became a point of dispute. New Order accounts credited Lieutenant-Colonel Suharto with the idea. Presidential Decree No. 2 of 2022, which made 1 March a national day, states that it was "digagas oleh Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX" (initiated by Hamengku Buwono IX) and does not name Suharto. Historians still acknowledge Suharto's role as field commander.

Hamengku Buwono IX went on to serve the Republic for four decades. He was a minister of state from 1946, minister of defence in 1949–1950 and deputy prime minister in 1950–1951. In 1973 he became Indonesia's second Vice-President, resigning on 23 March 1978. He was also the head of the Indonesian scout movement. He died on 2 October 1988 at George Washington University Medical Center in the United States and was buried at the royal cemetery of Imogiri.

Why is Yogyakarta a Special Region?

In recognition of 1945, Yogyakarta became a Special Region (Daerah Istimewa) under Law No. 3 of 1950, with the sultan and the Paku Alam at its head. Its exact status was left vague for decades. In 2010 a dispute with the national government over whether the governor should be elected kept the question open.

It was settled by Law No. 13 of 2012 on the Privileges of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, enacted on 31 August 2012. Its Article 18(1)(c) requires that a candidate for governor be "bertakhta sebagai Sultan Hamengku Buwono" (enthroned as Sultan Hamengku Buwono), and a candidate for vice-governor "bertakhta sebagai Adipati Paku Alam". Under Article 25 they serve five-year terms but are not bound by the two-term limit that applies to other governors. In other words, the sultan is governor for as long as he reigns. Hamengku Buwono X has been governor since 1998. President Joko Widodo inaugurated him and Paku Alam X for the 2022–2027 term on 10 October 2022, his seventh term in office (Suara Surabaya). The law also has a chapter on land, confirming the rights of the sultanate and the Pakualaman over their estates, known locally as Sultan Ground and Pakualaman Ground.

Land remains contentious. A 1975 instruction by the deputy head of the region (No. K.898/I/A/1975 of 5 March 1975) bars Indonesian citizens of "non-indigenous" descent, chiefly Chinese Indonesians, from holding freehold title to land in Yogyakarta. Court challenges, including a civil suit in 2018, have not overturned it. In February 2018 the regional office of the national Ombudsman said that it "tidak bisa dijadikan dasar untuk menolak" (cannot be used as grounds to refuse) land certificates to citizens of Chinese descent.

Who will succeed Hamengku Buwono X?

Hamengku Buwono X has five daughters and no sons. In 2015 he issued two royal decrees (sabdaraja and dhawuh raja). The first, on 30 April 2015, changed his title, dropping "Khalifatullah" and replacing "Buwono" with "Bawono", a form that, unlike the old title, can also suit a woman. The second, on 5 May 2015, renamed his eldest daughter, GKR Pembayun (born 1972), as GKR Mangkubumi and named her crown princess. Several of the sultan's brothers rejected the decrees as contrary to the court's rules of succession (paugeran). His half-brother, Prince Yudhaningrat, called the decision "unacceptable" (The Jakarta Post, 7 May 2015).

The law also had to change for a woman to become governor. Article 18(1)(m) of the 2012 law required candidates to submit a CV listing, among other things, their "istri" (wife). On 31 August 2017 the Constitutional Court struck out that wording (Decision No. 88/PUU-XIV/2016), opening the governorship to a woman (Hukumonline). The succession inside the Kraton remains disputed.

What is the Kraton of Yogyakarta?

The Kraton is the sultan's palace and the ceremonial centre of the sultanate. It is a complex of pavilions (bangsal), courtyards and gates laid out on a north–south line. The public Pagelaran and Sitihinggil face the northern square (Alun-alun Lor), and the sultan's private residence lies behind. Royal regalia, gamelan sets and heirlooms are kept and ritually cared for there. Court retainers (abdi dalem) still serve, and the court maintains its own guard regiments and ceremonies. These include the Garebeg processions and Sekaten, the celebration of the Prophet's birthday. The court is also known for its classical dance. Hamengku Buwono I set out the principles of the Mataram dance style (Joged Mataram): nyawiji (total concentration), greget (spirit), sengguh (self-confidence) and ora mingguh (full responsibility).

The Kraton sits on a wider plan. On 18 September 2023 UNESCO inscribed "The Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta and its Historic Landmarks" on the World Heritage List, at its 45th session in Riyadh. The property runs along a six-kilometre south–north axis through central Yogyakarta, from the Panggung Krapyak in the south through the Kraton to the Tugu in the north, symbolically linking Mount Merapi with the Indian Ocean. UNESCO accepted it under criteria (ii) and (iii) as "an exceptional testimony to Javanese civilisation and culture" and noted that the Kraton's location was chosen "by Sultan Mangkubumi in 1755". The property covers 42.22 hectares, with a buffer zone of 291.17 hectares.

Common myths about the Sultanate of Yogyakarta

Timeline of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta

What the map shows next

On our map the sultanate is drawn from 1744 to 1829, together with Surakarta. The start reflects where the border data begins, not the founding, which was in 1755. At 1787 on the map the two halves of Mataram sit side by side under the VOC. From 1830, after the Java War, the region is drawn as part of the Dutch East Indies, and from 1946 as part of the Republic of Indonesia.