Indian culture arrived on the lush tropical island of Java by ship, carried by spice merchants and monks. The inevitable melding of Indian and Javanese culture produced extraordinary masterpieces of art and architecture such as this masterful bronze in the Musee Guimet in Paris.

For many centuries, both Hinduism and Buddhism vied for supremacy in Java. Borobudur, one of the world's greatest Buddhist monuments was built to express ideas found in the esoteric form of Buddhism. An enormous temple, carved in stone, it soars in nine terraced levels, and represents a sort of three-dimensional mandala, a cosmic diagram of the universe. The terraces of the temple are carved with narrative scenes of the life of Buddha; at the summit are sculptures of seated Buddhas enclosed in perforated stone stupas. The importance of esoteric Buddhism in Java may be seen readily in the proliferation of such three-dimensional mandala.

Side by side with Hinduism, Buddhism flourished in the eighth and ninth centuries but was ultimately assimilated by a form Hinduism devoted to Shiva. The Hindus erected hundreds of temples all over the island. This monumental temple, called Thousand Temple, represents the Hindu concept of the World Mountain, the axis of the universe, and the home of the gods.

Javanese culture was further enriched and finally dominated by the introduction of Islam in the 15th and 16th centuries.