Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c41.s19: Celebes

Mānasāra Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Mānasāra-Śilpaśāstra; III. Mānasāra on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Mānasāra: Translation; V. Architecture of Mānasāra: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c41.s19

Language: English

Celebes

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The term might have been derived from the Malay words ‘Si Labih’ (land up there), or ‘Seli-besi,’ signifying iron kris. ‘Celebes itself is fourth in size of the various islands, surpassed in this respect by New Guinea, Borneo, and Sumatra itself. Its length is roughly about five hundred miles, and its width is so varying that, while at the middle it is a scant twenty miles, at the north end it is over a hundred.’ The inhabitants of the interior and the central Celebes, known as the head-hunting Toradjas, are still in a savage condition ; only those of the Minahasa District in the north, a small area in the neighbourhood of Macassar, and a few scattered settlements in near proximity to the coasts, are partly modernized. The people of the southern end of Celebes are nearly all Macassarese or Bugis, the latter being the seamen of the Archipelago, the greatest navigators and the most enterpising traders’.³

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³ *Ibid.*, pp. 111, 112.

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‘ The houses of the Kampongs vary in many details from those in Java. They are generally raised several feet above the ground on poles, and have gabled roofs, shuttered windows, and considerable ornamentation in the way of carved woodwork. The walls are of matting or of neatly plaited bamboo, the roofs are of *nipa* or palm-leaf thatch.'¹

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¹ Walcott, *Java and Her Neighbours*, pp. 115–116.

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The house of this type is very usual in villages in Bengal, with only this much difference that the space between the ground and the floor is filled with earth, forming a plinth.

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There are several groups of islands where traces of ancient structures may be seen. The Ambonia, or Ambon, group includes Boeroc (Bourou), Cerum, the Bandas, the Arus, and many smaller islands of the Banda sea coast of Timor.² The Bandas include Banda Lontar, 'a crescent-shaped island, six miles long by a half broad; Banda Neira, two miles by one in dimension, and Gunong Api (the island of Volcano).'³ On a steep hill, at the water's edge, there is a series of mediaeval fortifications, very little of which remains to enable an architectural description.⁴

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² *Ibid.*, p. 166.

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³ *Ibid.*, pp. 174–175.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 174.

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There are the remains of an imposing old fort at Nassau also. 'A moat, now nearly dry, surrounds the walls. . . . This fortification must, in the old days, have been an almost impregnable stronghold, for its walls are, at least on the sides towards the sea, 500 feet long, 20 feet high, and over 15 feet in thickness.' Like the forts at Agra, Delhi, and other places, it is today occupied, laments Mr. Walcott, 'by peaceful dwellings, gardens, tennis courts, while trees and undergrowth have taken the place of cannon on its ramparts.'⁵