More visitors in Leiden: Amelia Fauzia and Fuad Jabali

17 December 2014, just one day after the PhD ceremony for Wahju Satria Wibowo, I came to Leiden for a meeting with two senior scholars at UIN Jakarta. The first but also youngest was Amelia Fauzia of PPIM, the research institute. She has taken a PhD from ANU in Melbourne on Islamic philanthropy (published by Brill) and now wants to do a comparative study on Christian and Muslim philanthropy in the colonial period. She has already dealed with the subject during a conference at the Asia Research Institute on the Ethics of Giving. She has consuilted the Jakarta Jesuit Greg Soetomo for Catholic sources, used the archives at the Jakarta Cathedral and more deeply even the publication of sources on West Java by Tom van den End (in its Indonesian translation of 2006). She has some problems with the internal organization (and divisions!) of Christians in Catholics and Protestants, in formal Vatican and diocesan hierarchy versus the religious orders. But she has a keen eye for the complicated combination of aggressive proselytism and humanitarian charity. Much of our talk was also about the CB Sisters, Carolus Borromeus Sisters and the Schmutzer family, founders of the largest hospitals in Java (or were the Ursuline Sisters also strong in financing this charity?).

In Leiden I also saw again Fuad Jabali. I had forgotten that he had followed my courses while at McGill University (Montreal), in 1992-1993. He had finished his PhD at McGill and published in 2003 (also at Brill) a 550 pages book on the Companions of the Prophet. But now had had turned towards Indonesian Islam and did research in Leiden during one month on the issue of the Righteous King (Ratu Adil), an old Javanese idea that still is very popular among various circles in the country. The Jesuit priest, journalist for football and novel writer Sindhunata has written his German thesis on the subject and now Fuad was looking for older Javanese texts on the same theme. Good to see how these scholars find their way to serious and relevant research.

Jesus as Kurban

The second PhD ceremony this month was in A|msterdam, Free University. Waju Satria Wibowo, from the Gereja Pasundan, teaching at Duta Wacana in Yogyakarta, defended his thesis Jesus as Kurban. Christology in the Context of Islam in Indonesia. In this period of Christmas many names for Jesus have been repeated. Son of God, Lord of Peace, Prophet, Messiah. Many of these Big Words are used and their meaning is often very unclear. What Christ or Messiah means remains for many people uncertain.

Satria Wibowo has opted for Kurban, because it is an Islamic word, although in the Qur'an it is only used for Kain, the brother of Abel. In later Muslim terminology it is attached to the sacrifice of Abraham.
It was an intelligent thesis, summarizing much of the spiritual quest of Indonesian and other Asian theologians. However, I do not think that this new idea will become popular. My question at this occasion started with the first lines of the thesis and I quote these below:

On page 1 you mention that Jesus Christ has been proclaimed in Indonesia for 500 years. Counting backwards I remember the year 1511 as the conquest of the Sultanata of Malakka by the Portuguese. And further 1522 as the arrival of Portuguese traders in Ternate.

 But more than 400 years earlier there were the first Muslim communities, in Samudra Pasai, in Aceh. They proclaimed Jesus as Son of Mary, a Prophet, Word of God, Spirit of God. In your dissertation you do not elaborate these high titles for Jesus, although you want to write and discuss a Christology in the Context of Islam. You also do not open a debate with Muslims denial of Jesus as Son of God.

 Still before the arrival of the Portuguese and the Dutch, there was a Muslim mystical tradition in Java where Siti Jenar witnessed about himself that he was united with the divinity. And he was executed as a martyr for this witness. You consider this also as a nice contact between Christian and Muslim discourse. But you hesitate to develop this idea of shahīd because it stresses the violence and the own will of the actor.

Therefore you turn to the idea of  qurbān. But it is only used in the Qur’ān for the offering of Qabil or Kain, rejected by God; and in later Muslim terminology it is used for the offering by Abraham. As to Indonesia: there is the practice of sesajen for the ancestors, but no animal offerings. Applied to Jesus there is great problem in accepting here the free will Jesus.

At this occasion I also met a lecturer from Semarang, Muslich Shabir. He was for one month in Amsterdam, to do research on Muslims in the Netherlands, financed by the Ministry of Religion. The ministry has signed a contract or MOA with the Free University of Amsterdam to cooperate in research and this was a first result of this agreement. Talking with him and looking after material later at home, I realized that there is not so much material about Muslims in our country, written in English. I could send him some articles, but a comprehensive book and other writings is not available. Anyway, the history of these many groups is quite widely spread over many languages and cultures. Below a picture of Muslich at the VU building in Amsterdam.

The Conversions of Maryse Kruithof

On 11 December 2014 I was a member of the examination committee for the dissertation of Maryse Kruithof at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. At the invitation of her main tutor or promotor,Dick Douwes, I was member of this panel 'by a unique exception' is was written by the president of Erasmus University. In Utrecht I am now longer entitled to be member of an examination committee, because of the age of over 70 years. This is one of the points where universities still may differ. Dick Douwes was himself born in Indonesian Papua in the early 1950s, when it was still Dutch territory. Below he is in the middle in the black toga with the bright blue shawl.

The public ceremony is not a real examination, it rather a ritual, rite de passage. One is not expected to put nasty questions. In Utrecht the dean of humanities, Wiljan van den Acker used to warn us before the ceremony: let the candidate shine, that is the important thing.
The dissertation of Kruithof is entitled 'Shouting in a desert', Dutch missionary encounters with Javanese Islam, 1850-1910. It is a fine detailed examination of the original archival sources about six missionaries: four Protestant in West and East Java and two Jesuits (Frans van Lith and Petrus Hoevenaars) in Central Java. It is a research in the social science tradition and much attention is given to motivations and processes for conversion, besides (nearly as a minor theme) the prejudices they had about Islam.
The only judgment I read was by Bob Hefner who deemed it to be 'comprehensively researched, well-written, and theoretically interesting work of scholarship, among the finest of theses that I have read in recent years.'  His only criticism was about the distinction between religion and culture, made by missionaries. There was already a distinction between adat and agama in local debates both in Sumatera (Ahmad Chatib on inheritance) and Java (see the Serat Cabolek on Javanese culture and true Islam).

In my own appraisal I liked her fine and detailed analysis of the contrast between Kristen Jowo and Kristen Londo, the former the result of preacher like Sadrach and Ibrahim Tunggul Wulung (much more contrast than in the analysis by Alle Hoekema). In her analysis of the tract-selling local preachers she put forward the cases of public debates, much loved by local audiences. Third, in the case of tyhe conversion of the Kalibawang people she gave a much bigger role to healing than I did in my double description of the event in Catholics in Indonesia, volume 1 and 2.
Kruithof is a fast worker. Born in 1988 she defended he master's thesis in missionary Poensen in 2010 and now at the age of 26 years her doctoral dissertation. Snouck Hurgronje was three years younger when he defended his thesis, but still, it is exceptionally! However, in details of Indonesian religious history she made a number of smaller mistakes. Nico Kaptein had a quite long list of mistakes she made in the biography and career of Snouck Hurgronje. Tom van den End was not pleased at various points in her description of West-Java Mission. There was no specialist on Indonesia in the team that was tutoring her work. And so the older people who read this work started to ask, what would come of the future of our own work? She did not have the big volumes with published sources on Protestant mission in Java besides her, but went directly to the archives. This had also its advantages. Van den End skipped the dismissal of missionary Simon van Eendenburg because of the accusation of sexual abuse with youngsters, but here it is mentioned in full, even several times. In the daily Trouw an interview with quite sensational stories about failure and disppointment of missionaries was published that made some friends of the older mission quite angry. I myself also missed a truly debate with the section of my two volumes of Catholic Mission history in her book. So be it. Let they start anew. Let us, the older generation be happy with the new perspectives they offer now.

Elizabeth Pisani and her Indonesia

Elizabeth Pisani was a special guest of honour at the transfer of the KITLV Library to the University Library of Leiden on 16 October 2014. She was interviewed without too much coordination her self between Henk Schulte Nordholt and DEavid Henly. Pisani arrived in Indonesia as a journalist for Reuters in the later 1980s, lost her visa in the eary 1990s, but returned as a specialist in medical affairs, especially HIV/AIDS and undertook in 2009 a trip through Indonesia.

 

There are three covers for this book: A European, and American (sawah, rice fields), and this is the Indonesian for Lontar Books.

The first 60 pages are a concise history of Indonesia from late colonialism to the year 2000. She is wonderful in telling complicated things in a short story, without too much details.

60-217 is a trip through East Indonesia, mostly by simple boats. It reminded me of trip I had with Paule in 1997 to Flores and Timor, as far as Maumere, Larantuka (but not to Adonare or Lembata), and in 2009 to Minahasa, Amon and papua. But Pisani is much more radical: she planned a whole year for this trip, worked really in slow motion.. After East Indonesia she went to Aceh (219-248, with many nuances about GAM: idealiism mixed with much violence, criminality and corruption). 

She took opportunities, invitations by common people.

She is sometimes very critical about NGOs, the 'protest industry'. People who behave as if they defend the rights of the 'local popuation'. She was in Halmahera. A new nickel company had arrived, Japanese and French: The NGOs said they werew speaking on behalf of local people who were too scared of reprisals to give their names. When the NGO organized demos, some locals then stages counter-demos in support if the mine. What is here the truth? Were they paid? Threatened? Or did they also see real profits in the arrival of rogeign companies? The two Chinese companies were much worse than the Japanese and French.

Pisani is not keen on religion. 313-342 is about religion. Much is about faith healing, by Muslim and Christians: simple popular belief, mixed with bad knowledge. About the fine varieties in Islam: p. 314: Many learned volumes have been written about the various flavours of Islam. She does not follow these scholars. She is quite negative about any emo-religion, conservative, not a renewal in society.

In Ambon she had visited a Mega Church, GBI (Gereja Baptis Indonesia), ROCK. She summarize its doctrine: 1. It is your duty to spread the name of Jesus; 2. If we wait patiently Jesus will fullfil our demands. That is the simplicity is AA Gym!

She makes also much fun of the sexual attractivity of Gunung Kemukus, near Solo, a traditional sacred place where one must have sex with another than the usual partner: anonymous sex.

In general, she experienced that low class people do not bother about doctrines or convictions of other people. Only the middle class urban people bother about the rise of Salafi Muslims (328): FPI since 1998, PKS after 2002. They are the successors to Pemuda Pancasila that is no longer used by politicians. There is a new power, on the basis of what is called 'morality'.

p. 340 gives a detailed report of Ahmadi people who live in a poor shlter. Some had been chased from their place of living more than 8 times.

For Java she has a report of restoration of classica;l heritage,old buildings in Semarang: a Dutch professor of conservation: he as huge on every axis with satisfactory Mad Professor hair and the look of an man who appreciates a tankard of beer or two.

Nice book, easy reading and it makes 'academic writing' somewhat light!

The 'Tribute Conference', the final poem and some more pictures

Among the older people who came were also Djam'annuri, Syafa'atun,Mujiburrahman. Damami, Hilman Latief. The wife of Noorhaidi, Nurlelawati, had a nice presentation on the cases of mixed marriages in Shari'a Courts: one of the examples of excellent research, seeking facts and good interpretations.

Here we see Syafaatun al-Mirzanah and Mujiburrahman during the presentations of the second day. I was not in the mood to make precise notes. It will all be published later in a more polished way.
Here I restrict to the four stanza of the syair I wrote to conclude this conference:

Martin dan Karal lama mondar mandir

Minum teh di Yogya, kalau di Belanda suka bir

Di negeri panas kadang-kadang berzikir

Di Belanda mungkin mirip kaum kafir

Martin dan Karel senang dengan mahasiswanya

Seolah mereka sudah bagian keluarganya

Biasa manis dan sabar untuk membimbingnya

Tapi sedih malah marah kalau janji ditinggalkannya

Martin dan Karel sudah sering menguji

Baca paper, dengan potlot merah mengoreksi

Kali ini lain: yang jadi materi justru mereka sendiri

Tetapi hasilnya baik: hanya diberi puji

Martin dan Karel sering menduga: inilah terakhir kali

Mungkin tidak pernah ke Indonesia lagi kembali

Sampai sekarang toh datang, walaupun capai

Datang mungkin terus sampai dunia lalai 

Fredrik Doeka had come all the way from Kupang (here first on the right, with jacket in NTT style, from Alor like my own shirt). The three ladies in front are from right Lies Marcoes, Nurlelawati, Syafa'atun.

A wonderful experience, thank you all for this happening.

The 'Tribute Conference', the older colleagues

The reason for this November trip to Indonesia was the International Conference of the Studies on Indonesian Islam: Tribute to Karel Steenbrink and Martin van Bruinessen, of 17-18 November at Universitas Islam Negeri, UIN in Yogyakarta.
In 1970 i began my study of the Islamic education in Pesantren and Madrasah, in 1978 I was the coordinator for the first group of IAIN staff who came to the Netherlands. Between 1981 and 1988 I was a lecturer in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Martin van Bruinessen arrived in 1982 as a researcher for LIPI. In the early 1990s he was during three years also a lecturer in Yogyakarta. We felt very honoured by the idea of this conference that was initiated by Lies Marcoes and some opther friends. In Yogyakarta Muhammad Nur Ichwan became the actual organiser under the umbrella of the Graduate School.

Of the old buildings of the IAIN/UIN nothing is left. Already in 2004 there were many new building, but after the earthquake of May 2006 again many building had to be restored or totally rebuilt. There is a great convention hall, where the two days were held: the first day in the largest hall, the second in a somewhat smaller place, but with a more gentle atmosphere. On the early morning of 18 November we were welcomed by a musical group playing music in Arab/Islamic style.

Lies Marcoes was one of my first student to write a 'doctorandus thesis' (now considered as a MA) on a Libyan sufi order. She is now 55 years., but could retire from the Ford Foundation two years ago, because trafic between Bogor and Jakarta became to difficult for her, with one blind eye and other health problems. But she is still very active, among other things in women empowerment. She gave me for Paule a very positive book about 'dream women' who could make improvements in the lives of themselves and of their community.
The title of the book is: A Journey against Defeat. Narratives of Women's Rejection of Poverty. It has wonderful pictures and strong stories. I will later write more about the book. Like the others, also Lies had nice anecdotes of her contacts with 'Romo Karel'  and Sayyidina Martin.

 Here we see Lies Marcoes with Din Wahid (specialist on the Salafi Pesantrens) and Martien van Bruinessen.

Left of Lies is here on the 2rd row Moh. Nur Ichwan, the true organiser and the on the front line Ana Saidi, one of the first colleagues of Martin van Bruinessen at LIPI. Right of Lies is Machasin, now a high official at the central office of the Ministry of Religion (Dirjen Bimas Islam). He regretted that Agama or Religion had been removed during the transfer of IAIN to UIN. The UIN has been going a long way from Pesantren to the way of thinking of international academic institutions, but still there is some soft sentiment for the traditional way of Islamic learning. Noorhaidi Hasan ('Lasykar Jihad') is on this picture first row left (but right from the perspective of the viewer). Utmost right here isHilman Latief (Utrecht dissertation on Islamic philanthropy).

We appreciated very much that Azyumardi Azra was also present. He look older, tired, but had a warm speech on the Development of Islamic Studies. The excellency of the Dutch programmes compared to McGill was that McGill had never truly Indonesia-specialist. They came sometimes for several months, but never for longer period and were not familiar with the country.
He had some nice one-liners: Indonesian Islam is too big to fail. There is Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama: the conservatives are not able to win, and Salafi ideas are too simple. The whole network of UIN and IAIN is much larger in number and in quality than Al-Azhar of Egypt, although it does not have the international impact.
There was a young man from Medan, of Tamil offspring who complained about Islamofobia, also about the difficult position of Islam in Indonesian politics. Azyumardi became angry: we should not consider ourselves as losers and only blame others. We must be proud for what we are, must be confident and sure, that is a much better strategy than playing the card of minority complex.
I did not make good pictures and also that of Azyumardi is not good, but still I post hem below. Here he looks somewhat angry,indeed, while responding this India-from-Medan.

Kees de Jong and Elga Sarapung: two houses

From Jakarta, I arrived amidst heavy rain in Yogyakarta, where Kees de Jong welcomed me at the airport (after some delay: probably I had not communicated well by SMS). Anyway, I had a pleasant time in his house, a fantastic meal at the beach in Depok and a nice visit to Ganjuran, grown as a place of pilgrimage since I was there with our children in 2004.
Kees de Jong lives now in a sector where there is little or no public transport. He told me that the motorbike has become so popular and public transport so bad, that few people take buses and prefer the motor bike. So, he is depending on a car and a driver in the small village where he lives, north of Godean. But his classical-styled house is amidst the sawahs. Nobody knows for how long, but it is a beautiful environment. He has a busy job at the Duta Wacana University.

This house and its furniture could have been anywhere in or near a modern town in Indonesia. He truly adapted to his environment, joins the night watch once every month or two months. And still has a nice view on the ricefields next to his house.

Quite different is the house of Elga Sarapung, director of the inter-religious institute DIAN Interfidei. She also lives in a new neighbourhood, already more densely populated, with some great modern houses in a walled compound, that is in conflict with the earlier village/settlement. They wanted to have an exit for cars from the closed compound, but the neighbours did not like the new busy traffic and built a wall, preventing people to go out of this compound. PSS means:  Persatuan Sepakbola Sleman or the Union of Football Players of Sleman (the district where Elga lives). On the picture below it is clear how the people here prevented the use of the gate for this new walles compound (there is another gate, nearly 800m away).

Elga had her house planned and designed by Romo Mangunwijaya, who hated Aircondition and formulated as the basic need of a proper house in Indonesia that it should have much free ventilation, open window, no doors, something like a pendopo or at least a house without too high walls.

Elga had made Bubur Manado, some kind of everything in a basket, but on the basis of corn. For a small crowd, but here were only Elha and me, besides Kees de Jong and his wife Tuti. The house looks great, but it has only rooms on the ground floor: the rest is ventilation, free air.
With Elga I had a long conversation about all kind of religio-political issues. She is really fond of Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, who is the new Minister of Religion. Still under SBY he invited Bahai, Ahmadiyyah, Sunda Wiwitan (the new name for the Madrais movement, ADS, Agama Djawa Sunda), Shi'a, Christians, Hindus for an iftar in his house. And he will change quite a few things in the relation between religions and politics: the government must be less bound to religious leaders and take more distance.

An International Workshop on Qur'an Interpretation

For Monday 16 November I was invited by Dr. Sahiron Syamsuddin to give two lectures at an 'international workshop' on Qur'an Interpretation. The schedule was only known to me on Saturday 14, so I was happy that I had brought me laptop with me and could prepare the two speeches.
The workshop was attended by some 50 people. Partly staff of the Department of Qur'an Studies at UIN Yogyakarta. Most of them were young graduates who worked in the region of Yogyakarta and who could gain credit (necessary for improvement of their academic status) by a certificate that was presented at the end of the day. The Workshop took place in the Puri Artha Hotel, near the UIN, to give it some more prestige.

I gave the first lecture on basis of my contribution for the Journal of Rotterdam Islamic and Social Sciences, vol 1/1, 2010:155-166, from John Wansbrough to Lüling, Ohlig, ending with Angelika Neuwirth and the Corpus Coranicum project. The second lecture was a detailed interpretation of the Mary-Jesus-section of Surat Maryam. I found it a good exercise for plans to do more work on the Jesus verses. (The Indonesian translation is ready, but Sahiron waits for last preface).

I found the atmosphere very open, critical, ready to start debates. It ended with the usual series of photographs and below I stand besides Sahiron Syamsuddin.

Indonesia again: Bale Ocasa in Tangerang

After the wonderful trip to Japan that was recorded in ten short stories, I had about two weeks to correct the proofs of the book Catholics in Independent Indonesia, 1945-2010, and to compose the index, together with Paule. The index is now ready, some minor corrections still have to be made. I hope that everything will be ready in January 2015. There are 30 documents in the book. Seven are in Dutch or Indonesian. Initially I wanted to publish these in English translation, but Simon Rae suggested that they should be in the original language, like was done in the two earlier volumes. I have now posted these seven documents in https://independent.academia.edu/KSteenbrink. They will later also be posted on this blog.

From 13-23 November I went to Indonesia for a wonderful invitation: a Conference in Yogyakarta commemorating the Dutch-Indonesian Cooperation in Islamic Studies, which started in 1978. Martin van Bruinessen and I were invited to attend this event, even to be the central persons. So, I left Utrecht again on 13 November. I arrived in Jakarta/Cengkareng quite late in the evening of the 14th and was taken to the Bale Ocasa hotel, about 15 minutes from the airport. They have an excellent free airport transfer service. The hotel is quite new: no escalator for the three floors, although the space has been prepared. But spacious rooms, nice garden and low price.

There is special decoration in the lobby and at the reception. Large 2.50-3.00 long would carvings, one of Abraham and the other of Moses/. In somewhat medieval style, with several episodes put together in one big ensemble. Most moving for me was the picture of Abraham, happy that he had his son back, liberated from that impossible divine order to sacrifice him.

There is also a quite extraordinary scene in the hotel lobby: two angels as guardians of something that looks like the Hebrew Tabernacle. Resembling quite healthy young human beings! I received an email, signed by Ferdian Octavianus. Is he family of the well known Evangelical church leader, Petrus Octavianus, founder of the Institut Injil Indonesia in Batu, near Malang? The artist is some Toto from Jepara, apparently not an artist of big fame, but especially the Abraham is beautiful.

From Bale Ocasa I arrived easily back at the airport. I had to move from one hall to another. By shuttle bus: I felt immediately at home in Indonesia. There were few buses, overcrowded in the hustle of the traffic at the airport, so different from Japan and also from Kuala Lumpur, we I had seen modern shuttle trains between the terminals.

Tokyo, last encounters and impressions

From 17-27 October 2014 I went with Paule to Japan for guest lectures in Nagoya (Nanzan) and Tokyo (Sphia University). But we took also the opportunity to see more of the country. This is impression no 10 and also the last in the series. We thank Kobayashi Yasuko who took the initiative for the series of lectures, insisted on the participation of my wife Paule and facilitated everything from our arrival until departure. Thank you very much for your kind hospitality, Yasuko!

On this nice Sunday morning, Yasuko suggested that we make a walk from our hotel along Sophia University to the big garden surrounding the large New Otani Hotel. Yasuko once stayed in one of its 1479 rooms, at the occasion of a visit by President Abdurrahman Wahid to Japan (to receive an award by Sophia University). She stayed here, hoping that she could interview Wahid. I put already sme pictures of the garden and its 'Christian' chapel in the section on wedding chapels. The three of us here on a picture by some people waiting to attend a marriage ceremony later that day, because in the early morning the chapel was still used for a Christian service.

Thew hotel itself looks like one of these big international buildings. But the garden is truly Japanese and the view from the restaurant is superb. Look also to the quite big waterfall, left of Yasuko: all man-made, but in perfect harmony, at least that is the impression we should have. On top of the hill is the wedding chapel.

Our guide on this day was Motoki Yamaguchi, close to Yasuko in academic interest. He had continued his academic studies and written a dissertation on the Arabs in Indonesia, especially the Jamiatul Khair versus Al-Irsyad debate and the thinking and writing of Ahmad Surkati. His doctoral dissertation is finished and accepted. So, now he has to think about a post-doc position: my own two sons Floris and Stijn did not like to pursue an academic career as their father did. They studied engineering and work in more practical (and better earning) jobs!
With Motoki we went to one of the largest temples of Tokyo, in the district of Asakusa, built for an old statue found somewhere around 650. It was immensely crowded with people having fun, shopping in the many petty stalls, looking a little bit like the entrance to the grave of Sunan Ampel in Surabaya, but with more order and more fine buildings. But after visits to so many temples and shrines it looked as if it was more of the same, also because we do not understand very much of this language of images and ceremonies.

The second visit was to the Yasukuni shrine, in honour of the souls of those he fought during the earlier wars and especially the Pacific War for the 'peace of Japan'. Yamaguchi Motoki is standing here on the right. I had no better picture of this learned specialist of Indonesian Islam, concentrating on the writings of Ahmad Surkati (Motoki is able to read the Arabic of Surkati: complicated debates of fiqh and one of the few to study this after Pijper!)
In the official leaflet of the Yasukuni shrine it is said that behind the main building, another kind of archive room is built. 'It houses the Symbolic Registers of Souls, lists the names of all the divinities worshipped here at Yasukuni Shrine.They are written on handmade Japanese papers.' This is some kind of bad translation or bad Shinto theology?

 It was not allowed to make pictures close to the main shrine, but with my camera I could make some pictures of bowing and clapping people, paying honour to the 'divinities' here. There is also a Museum for the Pacific War' with prototypes of the planes that were used. Probably also the airplanes that destroyed the American fleet in Pearl Harbour. Also the locomotive that was used at the inauguration of the Burma railroad. For Dutch visitors these items in the museum have special elements as well.

On the map of Tokyo it is clear that the district of our Hotel has many small shrines. We made a few walks in this section of Tokyo, narrow streets, but many houses with a garage for a car, and many nice gardens and statues of deities or something old and religious here.

These are just only a few impressions of an extraordinary trip to Japan. So many issues came together: meetings with a group of colleagues in Indonesian Studies whom we could meet here in their own situation in Japan. Visits to Japanese places, but in contact with students and scholars of Indonesia. Of course, there was much comparison between the countries. The impressions were so overwhelming that Paule said: we must put the pictures and the texts in a booklet that is easy to handle. As a tributre to Yasuko Kobayashi and so many of her students and colleagues who made this trip possible, we put this here on a blog, as a small sign of our gratitude for their hospitality, liberality and concern with our condition. Terima kasih!