Indonesia Books

What did a man have in mind when he marked his footprints on the islands he must conquer? 'I' -the main character- chose to surrender in the faces of grass, forest, waves and sand. To "the narrator", those islands -as fertile as a womb of a young woman - stole his identity and turned him into a complete stranger.

Published in 1952, this fiction was considered as masterpiece of one of the most important writers of the modern Dutch literature era, Albert Alberts. In 1939, he was posted in Sumenep Madura East Java and lived a paradise-like life. His dream turned into nightmare in 1942, he was captured by the Japanese soldiers. Transferred from one cell to another, he almost lost his life. He became free when the Japanese fled from Indonesia. After a year of uncertain life during the power-shift from Dutch to England, he decided to return. In the Netherlands, he published `The Islands'. He became a journalist and an editor of a local newspaper in 1953-1964, following the same path Hemingway once took, and wrote mostly about Indonesian politics. In 1975, Alberts received a prestigious Constantijn Huygens Prize award.

Via `The Islands' we can look into the life of a conqueror, on how he scrutinized the islands to exploit and on how he deconstructed his values along with his interactions with the locals. From these short stories, we can look on how a simple man tried to cope his loneliness, on how the ugliness of his exhaustion transformed into a weave of reminiscences.

His personal touches is obvious in Alberts' ignorance to write complete his sentences with `subjects' or `predicates'. He didn't care to place the islands in the structure of reality. Only in one of 11 short stories, did Alberts state the island's name (and it's an imaginative one). Alberts let his readers to freely interpret the context of time and space. Therefore, the editor completed Alberts' work by giving 9 pages of footnotes, 7 pages of preface and 21 pages of introduction.

If it were larger, this would be a great Coffee Table Book on Wayang. Nice Photographs, pleasant to flip through, but not meant for reading on a scholarly level. Already the Title is most unfortunate, and is indicative of the lack of respect, knowledge and sensitivity Mr. Irvine has for the subject. He has really only reviewed most of the exisiting Literature on Wayang and has rearranged it in this Book. This makes for a fair, but unreliable introduction. There are no new insights, no new research and no assessments here. It is not too bad when he reviews Wayang, but when he writes on the Subject of Epic Literature, the Ramyana and Mahabharata, which constitue almost all of the Plays of Wayang, then he is totally out of his element. He obviously has little knowledge of the Indian Epics and it shows. I am still pleased the Book was published because it contains many fine illustrations. This Book is for looking, not reading, like the Style Books of Interior Design.

An interesting look into late 19th, early 20th century European views of the "uncivilized" parts of the world. That being said, it is not a book that moves along too easily

Makassar Sailing is Collins' 3rd book, after Twin Flower, an autobiographic tale about Bali's culture and customs and the author's tragic love affair with a young Balinese girl. East Monsoon was his second, in which he told about the building of his own prahu. Makassar Sailing follows on it, dealing with life in the East Indies (Celebes to be exact). It is well-written and lively, full of interesting legends of these people, and complete with maps and photographs. Collins' good humour and his skill as storyteller make this a most recommendable book.

And that's a complement in itself.
For the short term visitor, this book will be a good read.
It has lots of nice photos, background information and good descriptions of the major tourist areas of Ambon, Lease, Ternate and Banda.
Unfortunately information on other islands (even on rather easily accessible Seram or Halmahera) is extremely limited, and is usually supplemented by lengthy references to old literature like the Malay Archipelago by Wallace, or even descriptions of places based upon hearsay. Needless to say, lots of that is wrong.
This may just be a blessing in disguise however, as most remoter islands of Maluku are ill-equipped to cater for tourists, and those determined to visit such places will find discovering them on their own all the more exciting.
I'd still recommend this book for anyone interested in Maluku, but would warn against expecting too much from it!
In fact, general guidebooks to Indonesia by Lonely Planet and Rough Guides (strictly the 1st edition only!) contain just as much info on the sights and facilities of Maluku as this book, and are certainly more up to date.
But if you find all these too limited, you will just have to wait and see things for yourself!

This book was published in the honour of Larry Hillhouse, who spent 18 months in West Papua. After he had died of cancer, his parents published some of his photos and the tales he collected in this book.
Unfortunately they have done so knowing nothing about Papua.
The result is a collection of potentially interesting tales that are not accompanied by any note on which region or ethnic group they come from. This is a pity, as they seem to come from varied regions, judging from those few that contain place names.
Ditto the photos and drawings that are used as illustration: no information on what they show or where they were taken. It is obvious though that many were NOT taken where the tale in question was collected - highland photos accompany coastal stories.
Even the translation is suspect. Basic Indonesian kinship terms (like adik = younger brother, or kakek = grandfather, but used as grandmother here!) appear as capitalized personal names in the English text!
All in all, the tales might be interesting if you just want to read them for their own sake (maybe for children?).
But if you are seriously interested in the fascinating oral traditions of West Papua, you'd be much better off buying the following book, containing a more extensive collection of folk-tales/myths from the Lani people and accompanied by great background info: Vernacular Christianity Among the Mulia Dani by Douglas James Hayward.

The report is comprehensive, somewhat technical, but limited to one country. The data used is about 10 years old, which is old in the fast moving micro-finance sector.

This well-illustrated book on Borobudur serves only as a light introduction to a more in-depth study on the Buddhist temple. Each chapter spans two-pages long, and considering that the book measures only 9x6," each chapter goes by quickly. Think "Borobudur in 10 minutes."

Because the author has perhaps chosen to limit each chapter to two pages (including the photographic illustrations), he could only go so far on the number of symbolism in the temple's reliefs and the history of the temple. Still, the book provides a light and wonderful introduction to the majestic Prayer in Stone" by Soekmono, Casparis, Dumarcay (ISBN 2878680049), and "Borobudur" by Nou and Frederic (ISBN 0789201348.) Both are filled with photographs, but the latter has more text and a catalog of all the reliefs in the temple.

"The Mysteries of Borobudur" happens to be part of a series in Periplus' "Discover Indonesia." One might want to check out (ISBN 962-593-196-1,) and Balinese Architecture (ISBN 962-593-194-5,) both by Davison and Granquist. END

It covers the period from Indonesia's struggle for independence from the Dutch under Sukarno in the late 40's until the end of the 20th century. Its history is as varied as the expanse of its territory. It ranges from the extremes of its economic cycle to the ethnic clashes between the pribumis and Chinese, from the corruption and fall of the Suharto regime to the genocidal occupation of East Timor.

The author covers each of the above topics in great detail - in addition, he describes the role of Islam in the politics of the country, the influence of the military and the characteristics of the Javanese system of patronage. Each topic is well covered, but for the book as a whole lacks cohesion. It does not detract too much from the content - but potential readers should note that its light on analysis and heavy on factual presentation.

Living in Malaysia and Singapore for most of this period, this book was my first introduction to Indonesia's chequered past. Its neighbours are understandably cautious in how they present views on the largest country in Southeast Asia - controversial news
is often considered sensitive and carefully edited to avoid inflaming the parties involved. For this, I'm glad to have read this book - it was a comprehensive primer on the recent history of modern Indonesia.

This is the only field-guide to the amazing primates of this country. It covers 40 known species (even a few of dubious validity) of which 21 are endemic to Indonesia. Species are illustrated on colour drawings and photos, accompanied by a map showing distribution. Unfortunately the quality of these leaves a lot to be desired...
More interesting is the information in the Indonesian language text, which covers distribution, appearence, ecology, behaviour, conservation status and even recommendations on where to see them in the wild!
The latter is of particular interest to ecotourists and the names of conservation areas or other localities could be recognized even by those who know little or no Indonesian.
You are more likely to find this book in a big bookstore (like Gramedia) in Indonesia than anywhere on-line.