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Sins of the Father?
“The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father.” – Bible: Ezekiel 18:20 When I was 17 in mid-sixties London, I was at school studying for my GCE A levels before going to university. I knew that...
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The Pasola Festival of Sumba | When the Worms Didn’t Come
In 1994, when travel journalist Ron Gluckman observed the Pasola ritual in Sumba, all of the “signs” were good – the precious nyale worms were abundant, suggesting a prosperous harvest and plenty of...
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Operation Starfish: The Untold Story of Australian Commandos in Lombok, 1945
The Lombok Strait averages about a thousand metres in depth, though in places it is far deeper. And not only is the strait deep, it is treacherous. Its southern entrance is guarded by Nusa Penida and...
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The Mysterious, Phantasmagoric World of Javanese Wayang Theatre
The morality and messages conveyed in Wayang Kulit plays still permeate Javanese thought and daily life. The spellbound audience is the best show of all. A wayang show is like eavesdropping on...
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Going, Going, Gone: In Search of the Ultimate Longhouse
Along with blowpipes, traditional tattooing, mastery of plaiting crafts, canoe-building and the custom of wearing huge bunches of metal earrings to elongate earlobes, the longhouse is now beginning to...
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Ende, Flores: The Womb that Conceived Indonesia
Grace Susetyo takes a trip to Ende, where Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, was exiled between 1934-1938. President Sukarno used his time on the island to write plays and poetry with hidden...
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West of the South-Eastern Islands
Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) is one of Indonesia’s 34 provinces. Wedged between Bali and the tiny island of Komodo, it is trying to carve itself a spot on the tourist map of Indonesia. Bali, to its west,...
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The Big Apple and the Spice Islands
For whatever reason, New York picked up the appellation ‘Big Apple’ – is it even appropriate? Unbeknownst to most people, and as a result of a remarkable twist in fate, the city’s fortunes actually...
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Swapping Shirts with Plato: Kicking the Atlantis Football Around
In academic circles, the dreaded ‘A’ word (Atlantis) in a book title is guaranteed to deter serious respectable consideration. In contrast, popular publishers love it, as its inclusion in a book title...
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Indonesia’s War on Drugs
Nearly all UN members have endorsed the 1961, 1971 and 1988 conventions on the prohibition of the main illegal recreational drugs. The objective of these mandates was, in the words of William...
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The Outdoor Museum of Taman Prasasti – a Window to the Past
We take a trip to the Taman Prasasti cemetery in Jakarta, where Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles’ wife, along with many other famous or well-known historical figures, are laid to rest. This interesting...
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Saudara Dalam Sejarah: Exposing the Story of Indonesia’s Forgotten Exiles
In the 1960s, Sukarno sent thousands of students to study abroad, including in China. After the 1965 anti-communist massacre, in which over 500,000 Indonesians were murdered, the new Suharto government...
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Preserving the Balinese Language for Generations to Come
Language represents culture. In culturally-rich Indonesia this is especially true; being an archipelago of over 17,000 islands with around 300 distinct native ethnic groups and 706 living languages....
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The Kids Went Wild in Batavia
“The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician.” – Louis Armstrong Joey Alexander’s nomination for two Grammy Awards has created a heightened international interest in Indonesia’s jazz...
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Kamasan: An Ancient Living Tradition
Imagine you are a master Balinese painter, and your King has recently commissioned you to do a piece of work. As you sit down in front of a large cloth stretched upon a wooden frame with a pencil in...
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Settlers, Saints, Kings and Conversions: The Dawn of Indonesian Islam
Author of A Brief History of Indonesia, Tim Hannigan, travels back in time to explore the history of Islam in Indonesia. The hamlet of Leran lies amidst the low fields north of Gresik in East Java, a...
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The Mapping of Java
The islands of Java and Bali located 8 degrees south of the Equator in the Indian Ocean are two of the 17,000 islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago and the...
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Tugu Kunstkring Paleis: A Culturally Rich Dining Experience in the Heart of...
On a quiet, leafy-tree street corner set amongst stately white mansions and European luxury cars parked roadside is a structural gem designed by the Dutch architect and artist Pieter Adriaan Jacobus...
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Rebuilding Ruins: PT Pembangunan Kota Tua
Most of Jakarta is made of new developments and expanding suburbs, however look to the North and you’ll find Kota Tua, or ‘Old Town’, which was where the original city of Batavia began hundreds of...
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The Influence of Javanese Music on Early Jazz
“Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.” – Herbie Hancock Previously I wrote about the arrival of jazz in Batavia in 1919. What was heard until...
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