Panggah Ardiyansyah

Mapping Sendang Duwur, a 16th-c. Islamic Site in Java, Indonesia

Panggah Ardiyansyah recently completed his PhD in the History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS University of London, whose thesis explores the notion of kramat (Javanese/Malay for sacred site/object) as an interpretative framework for understanding early Islamic art and architecture in Java and Sumatra. He is currently a research associate at the Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield, where he focuses on the intersections of imperial history, museum collections, and digital mediation of art and culture.

Sendang Duwur is one of the earliest mosques in Java. The current project, funded by The Barakat Trust, expands the architectural focus on the site by situating the built structures within their wider environmental and topographical context. This shift in scale, from building to landscape, allows for a more integrated understanding of sacred space as something produced through movement, materiality, and ecological setting. By analyzing how architecture and terrain mutually shape ritual practice and spatial perception, the project seeks to reconstruct Sendang Duwur as a sacred landscape in which natural and built elements together articulate religious authority, historical continuity, and local identity. Building on his fieldwork, Panggah will presenting his findings at the EuroSEAS Conference in Madrid, Spain.