Indonesia Books

What a WONDERFUL BOOK! .... this should be on everyones top 10 lists ..... makes you think about NOT buying those next exotic wood chairs.... Eric has such a marvelous way of making you live the jungle and its rhythm....I was sad when the book ended....it was better than Motoring with Mohamed.... wish he would write MANY MORE books .... a gifted writer and free spirit.... love this book

One of my favorite travel adventure books... one of my top recommends to friends who love exotic travel or anthropolgy or have an interest in the rainforest/SE Asia. Hansen is a terrific writer; although he's not funny like Tim Cahill, his simple yet descriptive prose draws you in so that you feel as if you are trekking across Borneo with him. His experiences while traveling with 3 Borneo natives (enjoying barbequed giant grubs and scorpions, finding that after a few days his eyes adjust to the darkness below the forest canopy and he gradually begins to see colors he's never seen before) are so compelling that I found I was unable to put the book down once I began reading it.

Intrigue, mystery and danger abound as author Hansen finds his Western culture colliding dangerously with the myths of a tribe's culture. This section actually had my heart pounding... a few friends who've read the book had the same experience. It was real life scary!

Since it's out of print, try to find a copy. I bought a used copy at a library sale and made my friend promise to return the gift to me if she ever decides she doesn't want it!

A must read for travel adventure enthusiasts.

Eric Hansen is one of the most insightful, sensitive travel writers I've encountered. This book is a delightful window on the world of forest nomads in the jungle of Borneo. Hansen captures their incredible lifestyles that tie them to so intimately to the land but never lets you forget that they are modern human beings, as sophisticated and brilliant at moving through their world as any from what some might call the "civilized" world. As he travels with them, he is like a child in their world and his respect for and dependence on them is evident as they teach him how to survive their jungle.

The book starts where the mother of Jeroen dies. For years he has hated his mother and tries to explain why. This leads him back to the Japanese camp where he and his mom spend several years in torment when he was only 5 years old. In the beginning you think of Jeroen as a strange man, but while the story goes on you start to understand him more and more. The ending will move you to tears. This is my all time favorite book and I can recommend it to anyone.

Angoissant, fascinant, d'une beauté et d'une cruauté absolue. Comment la perte d'un être cher fait ressurgir dans la tête de l'auteur ses souvenirs (insoutenables) d'internement dans un camp japonais en Indonésie, et comment de ces souvenirs, l'homme nait au jugement de lui même, de sa famille (des pages magnifiques sur sa mère) et d'autrui. A lire absolument.

Ce livre retrace la vie terrible dans les camps de concentration en Indonésie détenue par les Japonais.Cela vous arrache les entrailles;et à chaque page les larmes restent bloquées dans notre gorge devant le courage de cette mère face à ce destin inhumain. Il n'y a pas de partie pris car la cruauté en tant de guerre est partout la même.

Perhaps this work needs not just a review, but a following. This volume is a landmark in Laumonier's career as one of the top botanists now working in Indonesian rainforests, but much of this will come to naught if government-sponsored development in these areas wins out. Those of us who buy this book should seriously consider the costs of losing not only the subject of two decades of this scholar's research, but also one of the most diverse ecological landscapes on the planet.

I found Laumonier's book on tropical rainforest ecology, tropical botany, vegetation science and mapping extremely and beautifully compiled. A must for any individual involved or even interested in the subject area.

Laumonier has done an excellent job depicting the complex and beautiful intricacies of tropical rain forests. After over twenty years in Indonesia, and working intimately with Sumatran forests, Laumonier has produced a very instightful book. Looking at Sumatran vegetation from various perspectives, I highly recommend this book to teachers, researchers, and students who have an interestest in tropical ecology.

Mimi Herberts book explores deeply the world of the Wayang Golek, weaving scholarly facts and personal accounts into a tapestry as rich as the art it examines. Whether doing research on Eastern puppet traditions or simply pursuing personal interests, her work offers a fully comprehensive tour of one of Indonesias oldest artforms. Students, scholars and even museum book stores would do well to have a copy on their shelves.

I am Balinese and collect and sell wayang golek puppets.

I hadn't been able to find a really good book on the subject - but now I have. I certainly recommend this one - the text is never boring. The author quotes real puppeteers and traces their histories. Unfortunately the art is dying out a bit, but luckily there are some young puppeteers, so there is hope.

The photographs are superb and the background stories of the epics and the characters in them are excellent.

Most of the puppeteers are men - but not all - there is a very impressive American lady puppeteer too.

This is not just a coffee table book. Highly recommended.

Mimi Herbert and Nur S. Rahardjo with Univeristy of Hawaii Press and the Lontar Foundation have produced an excellent and beautiful book on the Wayang Golek of Indonesia. All students of Indonesia and those interested in the arts of Asia should have this book in their library. The photography is superb and the text is well written and comprehensive. If you have an interest in this subject BUY THIS BOOK. You will not be disappointed.

This is a real page-turner, not just for its great narrative drive but also as a real education in all sorts of things, from morality to institutional politics to the poetics of journalistic
writing--smart, insightful and well written.

Set during one of the most important geopolitical situations of our time, this profound book identifies the depth of insanity of a man and the control of his regime but how one magazine emplemified that although physical structures can be torn down...the spirit can prevail. A true story that grassroots change is just as powerful as high-political movements.

Not only important for understanding Indonesia today but a typology for the region.

This is a fascinating report on TEMPO, a Time-like magazine founded in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1971. The book, by an American journalism professor and historian who has spend considerable time in Jakarta, some as a Fulbright lecturer and researcher (she learned the difficult language to better understand her subject) reviews the key people and events behind an elite news magazine in a developing nation. Along with a number of other journals, TEMPO was closed down in mid-1994 by the Soeharto regime. Publication resumed four years later after the regime fell. Steele was able to closely observe the revived journal's editorial process--a very useful window to how the process works within a developing nation which is the world's largest Muslim country. This is thus an insightful study--and a well written one, at that--into a magazine as important for the four years it did not appear (and its journalists worked elsewhere) as for the years before and after when it did and does. Steel places TEMPO in the context of its place and time, as well as its readers--the movers and shakers within Indonesian society. Recommended!

I am Balinese and I read this book with a critical frame of mind.

I know Stephen Lansing and can vouch for his immense learning - he has spent a lot of time in Bali over many years and speaks perfect High Balinese. His wife was the first customer in my shop in Ubud. She bought a splendid Balinese textile.

Particularly interesting are the accounts of the discoveries, which Stephen, and his team, made of the role of temple priests in the control of irrigation to rice paddies in Central Bali. The results of this research had a great effect on the implementation of the Green Revolution in Bali.

This very readable, short book will interest not only the person who is beginning to study Balinese culture, but also the person who is not a beginner - and that includes Balinese as well.

Lansing does something that few anthropologists can do with ethnography. He applies his knowledge in a real world system in an attempt to alleviate government constraints in regards to Balinese agricultural systems.
This book shows the complexity of conflicting social models of "progress" and strives to make one think about the relationship of Western agricultural ideals and indiginous knowledge.
Lansing also gives wonderful insight into the realm of ethnographic methods by applying his real-world experiences and addressing those experiences. Also, he does a wonderful job of showing how one comes to formulate worthwhile research questions.
I would recommend this book to any introductory course in Cultural Antropology as well as students of Ecology, Agronomy, and Agriculture. This book is also meant for the casual reader.

Dr. Tenzer is not only a well known scholar, but also an expert player and composer in the Balinese gamelan idiom, and a founding member of America's fine ensemble, Sekar Jaya. He brings his wealth of skill, knowledge and experience to this work, an essential and absolute must-have item for both enthusiast and player alike. Over the course of nine chapters he covers everything from construction and tuning; to history; to the music's place in Balinese society: today, in the modern era. This up-to-date aspect is what I found to be so invaluable about "Balinese Music". Outside of actually going to visit the island, reading this book has got to be the next best thing, giving you a very palpable sense of gamelan's power and meaning in its native cultural climate. In addition to the text, Tenzer adds a very helpful glossary of terms, as well as an index of recommended recordings, both of Balinese productions, and of those from the West. I can't find anything in this book that isn't right on the money. Colin McPhee's masterwork may be the Bible of gamelan theory, but for practice, nobody has yet outdone Tenzer's work, and I recommend it highly to everyone interested in this subject.

I am Balinese and live and play the gamelan in Bali and sell the instruments.

I enjoyed this book very much - it's a very clear introduction to Balinese gamelan music, and can be read, with great interest, also by people who do not play the music, but just enjoy listening to it. It will certainly increase the pleasure.

There are excellent drawings and photographs

In Times Literary Supplement's "Books of the Year" (2002), Felipeo Fernandez-Armesto writes:
"Bitter Bonds is the most intriguing work of micro-history since The Return of Martin Guerre."

In 17th-century Batavia, Cornelia van Nijenroode, the daughter of a geisha and a Dutch merchant in Japan, was known as "otemba" (meaning "untamable"), which made her a heroine to modern Japanese feminists. A wealthy widow and enterprising businesswoman who had married an unsuccessful Dutch lawyer for social reasons, she discovered that just after her wedding, she and her husband were at each other's throats. Cornelia insisted on maintaining independent power of disposal over her assets, but legally her husband had control over her possessions and refused to grant her permission to engage in commerce. He soon began using blackmail, smuggling, and secret accounts to channel her wealth back to the Dutch Republic.

Cornelia fought back and tried to get a divorce. The struggle - complete with legal subterfuge, mutual recriminations, and even public brawls - would drag on for fifteen years and culminate in only a partial victory for Cornelia.

"Melodramatic and ripe for Hollywood" - Suddeutsche Zeitung

"Blusse's fine research has given us a fresh picture of a woman living between worlds and of the cultural and economic crosscurrents in the Pacific." - Natalie Zemon Davis, author of The Return of Martin Guerre

Winner of the 1998 Golden Owl award for nonfiction, Bitter Bonds: A Colonial Divorce Drama Of The Seventeenth Century by Leonard Blusse (Professor of History of European-Asian Relations, University of Leiden) is the compelling story of Cornelia van Nijenroode, the strong-willed daughter of a Dutch merchant and a Japanese geisha. Cornelia married a Dutch lawyer for social reasons, yet was soon betrayed by her husband, who sought to plunder all her personal wealth. Cornelia strove to obtain a divorce in an era when the law and customs were especially stacked against women, after a grueling fifteen-year-struggle, Cornelia emerged with only a partial success, and in the process, became a footnote to the history of women's rights. An emotional, turbulent true story of betrayal and the quest for independence, Bitter Bonds is ably translated into English by Diane Webb and a highly recommended contribution to academic Women's History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

As with the previous reviewers comments, this is a great synopsis of the broadcasting world in Malaysia. It would benefit from a revised edition, particularly to reflect the efforts of RTM to expand to the new media formats (Internet broadcasting, etc.)

The book provides excellent background knowledge which is useful to anyone in the region's broadcast history, or anyone interested in regional broadcast network developement. The research is in depth, and explores all governmental and cultural influences which steered the path of broadcast in the Malaysian-Indonesian archipelago. However, the information requires updating for Malaysia at least, as the addition of two new private terrestrial stations (Metrovision and NTV in Kuala Lumpur) and the two competing Pay TV services (Mega TV [cable] and Astro [satellite]), and the planned privatization of RTM2. For history, Broadcasting in the Malay World is a valuable reference, but hopefully Drew McDaniel will be authoring an updated version in the near future to reflect the current state of the industry in the archipelago.

Robert W. Hefner's latest scholarly work tells the tale of Indonesia's desperate search for religious identity. Being the largest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia has gone under tremendous pressure to prove itself to the outside world that Islam, being a major force within its society, is compatible with the universal values of current global politics.

This book represents an in-depth cross-cultural study on democracy and civil society in the Muslim context. Though it reveals a variety of religious interpretations within the Islamic body politic typically found in Muslim states, Hefner speaks not only to Muslims, but also a wide range of audiences interested in the issue of religion and contemporary politics.

To a significant portion, "Civil Islam" is dedicated to the cultural, political and intellectual efforts made by liberal Muslim leaders to secure Islam from being overridden by the power struggle during Suharto's New Order. It elaborates how liberal Muslim leaders such as incumbent President Abdurrahman Wahid was able to bring his conservative constituents, namely the 35-million-strong Nahdhatul Ulama, into a more liberal ideological stance, independent of the authoritarian state.

The analysis was done in an explicable manner that depicted the political confrontation between liberal Muslim leaders in alliance with civil society against regimist Muslims in coalition with the ultraconservative wing of the armed forces (i.e. army). For the Muslim liberals, secularization was thus a mere detour to prevent a recurring pattern of Indonesian history in which religious violence was no stranger in the land.

In writing the book, Hefner correctly assumes that in all religious communities, without the exception of the Islamic ummah, there are always uncivil elements stalking and even disrupting the democratic march in any given state. The Indonesian experience has many lessons to be drawn upon, and the most important one is that while society can be violent and uncivil, the state itself is often an essential sponsoring agent that spurs societal and cultural devastation. And when such political machination is in place, true democracy and civil society will only prevail via an all-encompassing reform movement or social revolution.

"Civil Islam" is an intriguing book and a must read for all serious Indonesianists and those interested in religion and the politics of change.

Robert W. Hefner's latest scholarly work tells the tale of Indonesia's desperate search for religious identity. Being the largest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia has gone under tremendous pressure to prove itself to the outside world that Islam, being a major force within its society, is compatible with the universal values of current global politics.

This book represents an in-depth cross-cultural study on democracy and civil society in the Muslim context. Though it reveals a variety of religious interpretations within the Islamic body politic typically found in Muslim states, Hefner speaks not only to Muslims, but also a wide range of audiences interested in the issue of religion and contemporary politics.

To a significant portion, "Civil Islam" is dedicated to the cultural, political and intellectual efforts made by liberal Muslim leaders to secure Islam from being overridden by the power struggle during Suharto's New Order. It elaborates how liberal Muslim leaders such as incumbent President Abdurrahman Wahid was able to bring his conservative constituents, namely the 35-million-strong Nahdhatul Ulama, into a more liberal ideological stance, independent of the authoritarian state.

The analysis was done in an explicable manner that depicted the political confrontation between liberal Muslim leaders in alliance with civil society against regimist Muslims in coalition with the ultraconservative wing of the armed forces (i.e. army). For the Muslim liberals, secularization was thus a mere detour to prevent a recurring pattern of Indonesian history in which religious violence was no stranger in the land.

In writing the book, Hefner correctly assumes that in all religious communities, without the exception of the Islamic ummah, there are always uncivil elements stalking and even disrupting the democratic march in any given state. The Indonesian experience has many lessons to be drawn upon, and the most important one is that while society can be violent and uncivil, the state itself is often an essential sponsoring agent that spurs societal and cultural devastation. And when such political machination is in place, true democracy and civil society will only prevail via an all-encompassing reform movement or social revolution.

"Civil Islam" is an intriguing book and a must read for all serious Indonesianists and those interested in religion and the politics of change.