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Malay manuscripts from Patani – The British Library – Asian and Africa studies blog

Patani is a culturally Malay-Muslim region located on the northeast coast of the Malay peninsula, in the southern part of Thailand. It has long been renowned as a cradle of Malay art and culture, and especially as a centre for Islamic learning, with close links with the Holy Cities of Arabia. Patani has produced many…

Poem: Heaven By Chairil Anwar

By Chairil Anwar, 1947 Just as my mother and my grandmother too And as seven generations before I too ask to be allowed into heaven which say Masyumi and Muhammadiyah flows with rivers of milk and is full of beautiful maidens But there’s a voice inside me weighing this up, which dares to scoff: Can…

Poem: Arctic Tuti By Chairil Anwar

By Chairil Anwar, 1946 Between happiness now and in the future yawns a great canyon, My little sis, lapping up an arctic ice dessert; This afternoon you were my love, I decorated you with eclair and Coca-Cola, My wife in training: we made the clock tick stop.

Poem: Night Time in the Mountains By Chairil Anwar

Night Time in the Mountains By Chairil Anwar, 1946 I wonder: Is it this moon that makes the cold, makes the houses pallid and freezes the forest? This is the first time I’ve been so completely able to respond to the desire: Hey, there’s a little kid playing tips with her shadow! Pantja Raja, No.…

Editorial: Not the Representatives of the Corrupt

“…The fact is that the direction taken by the House Inquiry Committee can only be read as intended to de-legitimizing the Corruption Eradication Commission.”

Op-Ed: Will Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission Be Paralyzed During the Term of President Jokowi?

“The actions of the Indonesian House of Representatives Committee of Inquiry into the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have become increasingly absurd..”

“Framing Asia” – The next monthly film screening and discussion during the Leiden Asia Year – KITLV

‘Framing Asia’ is a monthly film screening and discussion on Asia during the Leiden Asia Year. We are very pleased to invite you to the fifth edition of ‘Framing Asia’. You are welcome to join us on Wednesday 7 June at 19.30 h at Lipsius 028. This edition will screen three films centered around the…

‘Adat law 100 years on: Towards a new interpretation?’ – KITLV

REMINDER: The Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society (VVI), in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), organize an international conference on the continued importance of adat law in present day Indonesia on 22 May 2017. International Conference: ‘Adat law 100 years on: Towards a new interpretation?’…

Photography: Exhibition of Colonial Photography

Images from the Dutch East Indies have been legitimizing Dutch colonial activity since the 17th century…

British ‘Islamic’ style seals from the Malay world – Asian and African studies blog – The British Library

The presence of an inscription in Arabic script is such a defining characteristic of seals used by Muslims that it tends to mask the fact that similar ‘Islamic’-style seals were also used by myriad other groups, including Christians in Ethiopia and Syria, Samaritans in Palestine, Hindu subjects of the Mughal emperor, European scholars of Arabic…