Category: Nusantara

Manokwari is a town that is blessed; messages regarding God’s blessings are found on signs at crossroads, on school walls, and in homes. This is the place where Christianity was introduced to Papua, as a result of the work of German missionaries Carl Wilhelm Ottow and Johann Gottlob Geissler, who arrived in 1855. “Im Gotes name Tu Betraten (In God’s name we set foot in this place),” were their exact words, now engraved on a monument on the beach of Mansinam Island, a popular destination for religious pilgrims.

In the late 1970s, after the communist North had won Vietnam’s civil war, many from the South who did not want to submit to communist doctrine chose to flee on small boats. This exodus brought many of these boat-people to Galang. Nguyen was one of them. Escaping from her ravaged country, this young girl’s life ended in tragedy when she was a…

It is home to one of the oldest rainforest, the largest in Asia, the third largest island in this planet. Borneo is divided by three countries that have not been 100 years free from colonialism: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bruney.

The Siak River, still and quiet without a ripple, sits on the edge of a city once known as Senapelan. For centuries trade ships carrying commodities and natural resources from the island of Sumatra would dock along this river. It is a river tightly entwined with trade and the power of the kings of bygone […]

Changing one’s destiny was not an easy matter on the West Sumatran coast.

While provinces across Indonesia welcome a growing number of tourists each year, Jambi and its ancient treasures seem to have quietly slipped under the radar. I arrive early in the morning at the eponymous capital of Jambi. The Batanghari River stretches around the outskirts of the city, and small boats, called getek, are docking on […]

Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world, situated in the midst of the Sumatran wilderness. From colonial times to the present day, it has been a popular destination for tourists. But the Toba region is more than just a lake – it is a culture. From the top of the hillside all the […]

Kebudayaan di suku pedalaman telah mengalami pemudaran, ia tidak lagi lestari. Mereka telah modern. Bagaimana mungkin sebuah kebudayaan bisa dilestarikan sementara ia adalah hal yang terus bergerak? Bagaimana mungkin manusia bisa diharapakan untuk tetap “bersetia pada kekunoannya”, padahal manusia pemilik sah kebudayaan?

  The Kubu Tribe, also known as Suku Anak Dalam or Orang Rimba (‘people of the forest’), is one of the ethnic groups living on the island of Sumatra, mostly in Jambi and South Sumatra. They are called “kubu” because they live deep in the wilderness. The Sumatran forests are their home. The Kubu people […]

Kuda adalah identitas, siapa yang menindas dan siapa yang ditindas