Under a tropical sky: a history of astronomy in Indonesia

This paper reviews the birth of astronomy as a branch of natural science in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on Java, Indonesia, through the three ans a half period of the Japanese occupation during World War II. In the 1950s astronomy as a science received new impetus by incorporating the science into thr higher education system in Indonesia. The newly-founded Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences in Bandung was honourably charged to carry out the modern science education, including astronomy. The introduction of the Anglo-Saxon system of higher education in the late 1950s, which replaced the continental system of education, is briefly sketched to serve as background information for astronomy education in the later years in Indonesia.