We were then regaled with the horrors of the Dutch colonial government, which did sound a fairly nasty regime. The governor's mansion has mediæval style cramped, wet dungeons and water-filled pits where people were thrown in with a load of leeches. I don't think there's any real moral high-ground here for the English from a historical perspective, but apparently the English are somewhat respected here because Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles turned up and governed for a bit and was relatively humane.
I did allow myself to be sold some shadow-puppet souvenirs, a pair of King Rama and Princess Sita. They're quite nice, almost certainly overpriced, but never mind.
The history of religion in the islands seems a little varied; originally there were native animist beliefs, then Hinduism and Buddhism took root for around 1000 years, but was supplanted by Islam from merchants, again from the Indian sub-continent. Despite 16th century Portuguese colonialism (before the Dutch), Catholicism doesn't seem to have had much impact. The aboriginal Sundanese in the west of Java apparently still have mostly animist beliefs.
