The Forest Withdrawn

Abstract

Abstract Historical chronicles in Southeast Asia often designate the forest as an area where animals and spirits prowl, where heroes meditate or journey across. But the forest is neither a mere setting nor a passive witness to the unfolding of events. Using nineteenth- and twentieth-century historical chronicles from Cirebon, West Java, this article examines how the forest is storied to mediate the past. Discussion is centred around three narrative topoi: the first concerns the establishment of new settlements, as prefigured through forest-clearing; the second accentuates the forest’s rhetorical function as a site of disappearance during Islamization; and the third analyses the creaturely figure Menjangan Wulung, who sabotages the Cirebonese sultanate and lurks in the wilderness. An inquisitive reading of these episodes reveals the forest to be a historiographical trope. Conceived as a topography of concealment, the forest exemplifies a withdrawn reality where contentious pasts are subdued yet sustained, preserving continuity amidst change.