Java warned of eruption if its sultan puts his daughter on throne Indonesia
She may carry the ancient royal title of the One Who Holds the Earth, but Gusti Mangkubumi is the epitome of a thoroughly modern princess, overseeing with her four younger sisters powerful positions under their father, who rules the spiritual heartland of Indonesia’s main island, Java.
In an Islamic kingdom steeped in tradition and myth, they are also at the centre of a rift over culture and power.
At stake are the succession plans of Hamengku Buwono X, the first sultan of Yogyakarta to practise monogamy, who has five daughters but no sons.
The 73-year-old has made no official proclamation but has been rewriting centuries-old rules and titles to allow his oldest daughter to succeed him as the first female monarch in the 265-year dynasty.
Those plans have split the family and alarmed conservative clerics, raising fears of a power struggle when he dies or abdicates.
The eruption this month of nearby Mt Merapi, a volcano which according to folklore houses an angry ogre who must be appeased by offerings from the sultan, has even prompted some omen-watching locals to see a message of divine wrath.
But the kingdom is not just an anachronism of ancient rituals and customs. For the sultan also automatically serves as governor of Yogyakarta province – a powerful political and financial role – while the last monarch had terms as Indonesia’s vice-president and defence minister.
As Merapi spewed ash plumes 5km into the sky, intrigue and gossip swirled around the kraton (palace), a white-walled complex laid out according to the tenets of Javanese cosmology and spiritualism.
Inside, the sultan’s daughters have run the departments of finance, religion, property and culture since their father promoted them to replace the male relatives and advisers who dominated kraton affairs.
Hayu, 36, his fourth daughter, an information technology professional who studied at Bournemouth University, is the palace’s de facto spokeswoman. But succession was off the table, she politely made clear, as we had tea in the sultan’s open-air reception room beneath paintings of previous royals.
‘‘We will learn from my father what the future holds,’’ she said. ‘‘This will be the sultan’s decision.’’
She noted, however, that she and her sisters were raised as equals to men, sent to study overseas and encouraged to pursue careers as working women.
Nobody is in any doubt who her father’s successor will be. He first changed his own title to make it gender-neutral and then bestowed upon his oldest daughter the new name Mangkubumi (the One Who Holds the Earth) – an appellation previously reserved for crown princes.
Next he took a case to the supreme court to clear away obstacles to a woman serving as governor. That confirmed Mangkubumi, now 48, a businesswoman and philanthropist, as the heiress presumptive.
The sultan’s male relatives, who had assumed the throne would be passed to a brother or nephew, were furious. Of his 20 siblings and half-siblings from his father’s four concubines, 15 are still alive, nine of them male. Most, or all, depending who you ask, no longer speak to the sultan.
Asked about the family feud, Hayu responded: ‘‘We’re a big family. If we don’t see some relatives so regularly, well, we can survive.’’ – Sunday Times