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My favorite things Indonesian
No, I am not there, but one of the loyal -- and an MIT grad student at that -- made a special request for this topic...
1. Music: Riches galore, most of all gamelan music. My favorite CD of the soft, dreamy Javanese gamelan is Javanese Court Gamelan, on Nonesuch. Most gamelan music is from Bali. Golden Rain is one good pick of many, but virtually any gamelan CD without a half-naked woman on the cover will be excellent. Look for the French and Japanese labels in this area. For other areas of Indonesian music, there is a very good Smithsonian set of 20 CDs; the acoustic guitar music is especially interesting. Here is a one-CD sampler from that set.
2. Novel: Pramoedya Toer's Buru Quartet (four volumes, but quite readable) is perhaps the least read great novel of the 20th century. On the surface it concerns imperialism but it is actually about what a life really consists of and how that life is defined. Reading each volume redefines the one that came before it. Like gamelan music, very highly recommended. The author "wrote" most of it during his 14-year stint in Buru prison, but most of the time without the benefit of pen or paper.
3. Food dish: This is a no brainer, Beef Rendang. In general the food from Sumatra is spicier. Get Sumatran Rijstafel when you can, it is better than Javanese though both are wonderful.
4. Textiles: A rich area, but the subtle colors and textures of Sumatra are tops. The early twentieth century is an especially strong time but the quality continues to be high. Textiles from Timor are not to be overlooked, although of course now they are independent. Here is one Sumatran image. Here is another nice piece. Try this one too.
5. Film: I have never seen an Indonesian movie, though in my defense I have never turned down an opportunity to see one either. Nia Dinata is currently a renowned Indonesian filmmaker. The reasonably good Year of Living Dangerously is the only movie I know set in Indonesia. Can you all help out here?
6. Painter: I like the Naive Art of Bali, so how about Nyoman Lesug? Sadly he is not well represented on the web. Dewa Putu Bedi is perhaps better known. Anak Agung Gede Sobrat is another option. Here are some other names to start with. But it is increasingly difficult to run across the better stuff.
The bottom line: Most people underexplore tthe culture of this region, relative to the quality of their best offerings. I am not yet sure, however, whether we should call it a "country."
Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 26, 2006 at 05:22 AM in The Arts | Permalink
Comments
In Holland, real mavens draw a distinction between Indonesian food and Dutch East Indian food, which is what you often get at an Indonesian restaurant. Rijstaffel is apparently a Dutchified, rather than an indigenous, creation. That doesn't mean you shouldn't eat it, of course. I believe the real Indonesian joints cluster in The Hague. Is that right?
Posted by: dominic at Aug 26, 2006 12:46:34 PM
For anyone travelling to Bali, my trip was greatly enriched by reading Fred Eiseman's "Bali: Sekala and Niskala" (the seen and the unseen). Eiseman is a Western convert to Balinese Hinduism, and does a wonderful job of explaining the workings of Balinese society to Westerners. For example, even mundane things like the spatial arrangment of buildings in our hotels became fascinating once Eiseman explained how Balinese Hinduism considers geographic direction to have a spiritual meaning: the direction towards Mt. Agung is holy and the direction towards the sea is profane. So the laundry room (profane) will be on the part of the property closest to the sea, while shrines to the gods will be closest to Mt. Agung. The book is rich in this sort of information that opens up an unsuspected world as you walk along the streets. I highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Bali.
Posted by: jrfay at Aug 26, 2006 1:52:49 PM
Your nod for Pramoedya is much appreciated. He is one of the most evocative writers I have ever read, despite being completely alien to the subject matter. As for Indonesian painters, the Balinese are the best. Le Mayeur and Arie Smit are absolutely top notch, as is Gunarsa. Sasya Tranggono is excellent too, and still alive. As for films, there are no good ones. Indonesia's film industry is all but dead, notwithstanding a slew of excellent blue films in the '70s. You missed out on the most impressive thing about Indonesia however, and that is their temples. The Indian and Buddhist traders in the early centuries created stunning stunning stunning monuments to the Gods. For starters, try Borobudur and Prambanan. Then look to Bali for Tanah Lot and Bedugul in particular, the latter of which consists of several temples on a lake that you must row to get to.
Posted by: Rush at Aug 26, 2006 2:02:17 PM
Other things on the list of great things Indonesian: (1) otherworldly beautiful mountainous agricultural landscape, (2) tolerant Islamic faith, which may yet play an important role in world peace, (3) dance, including both classical dance and popular folk dances inspired by martial arts, (4) theater, especially all-night puppet performances of several kinds not just the most famous shadow puppets.
Posted by: Parke at Aug 26, 2006 7:51:29 PM
Some of Garin Hugroho's works are quite good. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0637838/
There are not many Indonesian novels that have been translated into English, I think. Among others, see Mochtar Lubis' Tiger! and Achdiat K. Mihardja's Atheis.
Posted by: Rasyad A. Parinduri at Aug 26, 2006 10:29:50 PM
Sorry, there's a typo in my previous comment. It's Garin Nugroho http://www.timeout.com/film/people/314986.html
Posted by: Rasyad A. Parinduri at Aug 26, 2006 11:09:55 PM
Having been smitten by Sumatran food, a question: do you know of any restaurants serving Sumatran food in the DC metro area? I don’t, and it’s not from lack of trying to find one.
Posted by: ostap at Aug 28, 2006 8:38:48 AM
I'm looking forward to reading the books by Pramoedya. They'll be even more interesting because of the odd background of the author, who to the end of his life was bitter that he had been imprisoned for political purposes (as he should be) but never understood the bitterness of others such as Mochtar Lubis at Pramoedya's hypocrisy.
Pramoedya was a supporter of Sukarno and the communist party in Indonesia (although he didn't join the party), and was a strong, outspoken advocate of having other authors banned if they didn't support 'the revolution'. He ridiculed a group that called for free speech, freedom of ideas and basic human rights for all - a group that objected to art and culture being censored for political reasons (the Manifes Kebudayaan). Pramoedya called for those advocating free speech to be pushed aside (perhaps only figuratively - he hopefully didn't want them to be imprisoned, but he certainly wanted them banned).
One member of this group, Mochtar Lubis, spent years in jail for being anti-communist. Pramoedya never spoke a word against the way Lubis was treated. Yet when Suharto, the next repressive dictator who was anti- rather than pro-communist, threw Promoedya in jail, Mochtar Lubis visited him while he was in exile on Buru Island and helped him to get paper and a typewriter. To the end of his life, Pramoedya was outspoken in condemning how he personally had been treated but never, as far as I've been able to find, said a word against the jailing of Lubis and other anti-communists.
Another aspect that seems to me to be inconsistent - Pramoedya seemed to blame all of Indonesia's problems on foreign ideas and foreign influence, yet his proposed solution was to adopt China's version of communism. Did he think that Marx and Mao were Indonesian?
I'll read the books anyway, since he seems to have been quite a writer and I'll learn something about Indonesian culture. But I'll also try to find some novels by Mochtar Lubis.
Posted by: Ann at Aug 28, 2006 4:18:48 PM
Well said, Ann.
For some reasons, the worlds, it seems, just forget what Pramoedya had done (or should have done) to his colleagues in the early 1960s. Having said that, of course, I agree that Pramoedya's works are some of Indonesia's best.
Btw, here is other Mochtar Lubis' works: http://www.serve.com/inside/edit83/p23_hill.html
Posted by: Rasyad A. Parinduri at Aug 29, 2006 8:01:22 AM
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Posted by: levan at Sep 12, 2006 4:05:24 AM
Rasyad, that Mochtar Lubis URL should now be: http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit83/p23_hill.html
Posted by: Gerry at Jan 7, 2008 3:51:15 PM
Does anyone know of any 1950s or pre 50s painters who painted wayang kulit figures as, as I have (3) large ones and want to know more about them, thanks, John.
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