Introduction: Kawi Culture

This theme issue explores Kawi culture: a new paradigm in the study of premodern cultures in Indonesia. All the articles in this issue present cutting-edge research that has been conducted by a burgeoning community of scholars, who work in a wide variety of disciplines, including history, philology, archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, literature, anthropology, among many others. To make sense of the issue’s aims and agenda, we first position it within the broader context of the humanities in Indonesia. We describe the opportunities and challenges faced by this research community, before going on to argue for Kawi culture as a novel contribution to our understanding of premodern cultures in Indonesia. This is followed by an overview of each of the issue’s articles, showing their multidisciplinary perspectives on the theme, as well as a brief comment on our editorial policy. We conclude by dedicating this special issue to our recently departed colleagues.