By Kathryn Pentecost Fig.1: Dutch architecture, Yogyakarta 2011 (Collection: The author) The Dutch were certainly not the first Europeans to trade in the archipelago; English and Portuguese traders were also keen to exploit the natural resources of the archipelago. The Dutch, however, created the first multinational trading empire with the purpose of breaking the Portuguese…
By Kathryn Pentecost Indonesia is known as the world’s most populace Muslim nation and its cultural history is richly diverse. Throughout their history, Indonesians have been influenced by a diversity of religious and cultural influences, (though some commentators today fear that the country is becoming a less tolerant place) (Vltchek, 2012). Looking back into Indonesia’s…
Last December Dutch Postal Service (PostNL) research showed 90% of Dutch households send an average of 40 cards 6 December 2012 – The Hague – Sending Christmas cards is an old tradition and undeniably contributes to the spirit of Christmas and New Year. PostNL compared the traditions surrounding the sending of Christmas cards in 18…
By Kathryn Pentecost Introduction In this series of monthly essays, I hope to help the readers understand the great complexity that is the story of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. I write as both an ‘insider’ (an Indo) and an ‘outsider’ (an Australian). Having just completed my PhD on my own family history in…
By Jamie D. Stern, Director of Research The Indo Project is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and celebration of Indo culture and history through education and raising public awareness. We present information that allows the world to see that we are an identifiable people, despite our world-wide dispersion due to expulsion from our homeland. Celebration…
Second article chronicling The Indo Project Board Member Emeritus Jan Krancher as he takes a sentimental journey back to his birth land Indonesia. By Jan Krancher, 24 June 2013. After this nostalgic visit, we took a quick drive-by in town to the former residence of Harry Klaare, one of Oma Poenisah’ sons, my uncle, and…
Travel with The Indo Project Board Member Emeritus as he takes a sentimental journey back to his birth land Indonesia, part one of two. By Jan A. Krancher – June 17, 2013 Since my emigration to the United States in the early 1960s, I always have had the urge to revisit the land of my…
By Inez Hollander – June 3, 2013. My mother strongly advised against it. Everyone in my family knew that her cousin, Harry, had seen horrors during the war in the Dutch East Indies that neither he nor his mother, ever talked about it in private or public. As a family, we just did not go…
By Jan A. Krancher, PhD. Jan. 8, 2013 Have you ever been conned? I am sure you have, at least once in your lifetime, as I have, and I won’t tell you how often. But here I am not referring to being “conned” but rather being “coined.” It is the practice that brings about long…
The end of WWII came to the Netherlands on 5 May 1945. This was not the case for their former colony, the Netherlands East Indies. While most of Europe was celebrating the end of German occupation, the war in Asia raged on until the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and…