Lombard's death a loss to Indonesian studies<\/p>\n
By Myra Sidharta<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Most disturbing among all the bad news I
\nreceived in January was an e-mail from Paris announcing the death
\nof Denys Lombard on Jan. 8. This followed e-mails from Denys'
\nwife, Claudine Salmon, informing me that he was ill, and later
\nthat he was hospitalized.<\/p>\n
But I never thought the end would come so soon for him.<\/p>\n
I met Denys in 1978 through Claudine, with whom I shared a
\ncommon interest in literature written in Malay by ethnic Chinese
\nin Indonesia. She was then preparing her Literature in Malay by
\nthe Chinese in Indonesia, now regarded as the definitive book on
\nthe literature, writers and publishers of the ethnic Chinese,
\nmainly of the pre-World War II period.<\/p>\n
Denys and Claudine shared a profoundness in their writings and
\nthey developed the same systematical approach to their work.<\/p>\n
They met in Paris, where she specialized in Chinese law at the
\nSorbonne, and he studied history.<\/p>\n
She took up the study of Chinese, a necessity for her work,
\nand he also learned that language in addition to Malay, Tagalog
\nand Thai. They married and became one of the most ideal husband-
\nand-wife teams in their research on Southeast Asian communities.<\/p>\n
Denys' parents were also a team in the study of history. His
\nfather, Maurice Lombard, professor at the Ecole Pratique des
\nHautes Etudes, wrote numerous publications about Islamic
\ncivilizations on the north coast of Africa and during the Middle
\nAges.<\/p>\n
His mother, Anne Lombard-Jourdan, concentrated her studies on
\nParis and, as a distinguished octogenarian, continues to publish
\nher research findings.<\/p>\n
In the most recent issue of Archipel, a scientific journal
\ndevoted to Southeast Asian studies, she published two articles,
\none on Augustin de Beaulieu, a Frenchman who visited Aceh during
\nthe reign of Iskandar Muda in the 17th century.<\/p>\n
The second, written together with Denys, was on Pierre
\nBertelot, who died as a martyr in Aceh in 1638. A plaque
\ncommemorates him in the church of St Catherine de Honfleur in
\nCalvados.<\/p>\n
One of Denys' first academic writings, translated from the
\nFrench, was The Sultanate of Aceh During the Time of Iskandar
\nMuda 1967. Publishing house Balai Pustaka translated it into
\nIndonesian.<\/p>\n
In the work, he describes the presence of the French in Aceh
\nin the early part of the 17th century and provides an excellent
\nassessment of the splendor of the area during that time.<\/p>\n
From 1966 to 1969, Denys was stationed in Jakarta as a
\nrepresentative of the French School of the Far East, replacing
\nthe late Charles-Louis Damais.<\/p>\n
It was no easy task for Denys to take over from Damais, who
\nhad resided here since before World War II and was probably the
\ngreatest expert on old Javanese epigraphs.<\/p>\n
Yet Denys documented many aspects of life in Indonesia during
\nhis stay, materials which he would later use to write essays and
\nmore detailed works on the country.<\/p>\n
He urged Claudine to do her research on Chinese-Indonesians
\nbecause he feared their culture might disappear through
\nintegration and modernization.<\/p>\n
She began to study the literature of this cultural group and,
\nwith Denys, wrote The Chinese of Jakarta: Temples and Communal
\nLife, first printed in 1977 and subsequently reprinted three
\nyears later.<\/p>\n
This work has been published in a shortened form in Indonesian
\nas Klenteng-Klenteng Masyarakat Tionghoa di Jakarta by Cipta Loka
\nCaraka in 1985.<\/p>\n
Almost all the capital's temples are thoroughly described,
\nincluding their history and epigraphic objects.<\/p>\n
Back in Paris in 1969, Denys taught social sciences in the
\nSchool of Higher Studies. In 1971, he was one of the founders of
\nArchipel.<\/p>\n
We can follow most of the scope of Denys' interests in issues
\nof this publication. He participated in the special editions
\nabout Islam in Indonesia, the New Order, movies, women and the
\ncities of the country, such as Surabaya and Ujungpandang.<\/p>\n
Other contributions, including those about old manuscripts and
\nmartial arts masters in Central Java, were mostly written from
\nnotes made during his stay. His amazing capacity to absorb
\neverything that he had seen, heard and read made him appear like
\na walking encyclopedia of information.<\/p>\n
I had the opportunity to get to know him well on several
\noccasions when the couple stayed with me in Jakarta. He spun
\ntales about an object or event like an old-fashioned storyteller.<\/p>\n
His knowledge was such that he never failed to date an object
\nbefore him.<\/p>\n
I watched him and Claudine work together in Belitung, a small
\nisland in South Sumatra known for tin mining.<\/p>\n
They were interested in Belitung's Chinese community. One of
\nour first activities was to visit a graveyard, where they wrote
\ndown important data on the first captain of the Chinese residents
\nand his family.<\/p>\n
But Denys was also interested in smaller graves, like single
\nplots by the roadside or one on the slope of a fort. He amazed me
\nfurther by identifying a painting in a commemorative book of the
\nBelitung Tin Company as a work of Raden Saleh!<\/p>\n
I last met him in February last year when he came here for the
\nlaunching of his book Nusa Jawa: Silang Budaya (1996), a
\ntranslation of Le Carrefour Javanais (The Javanese Crossroads
\n1992) a three-volume, 1,000-page work on the history of Java.<\/p>\n
With 2,500 footnotes and a 63-page bibliography, it was hailed
\nby A. Teeuw, a noted Dutch professor on Indonesia, as a
\n"historical encyclopedia on the socioculture of Java in the
\ncontext of Asia and the world".<\/p>\n
In short, it is the history of Java and its international
\nnetwork. Teeuw compared it to such classics on Indonesia as
\nThomas Raffles' History of Java, Pigeaud's Negarakartagama, and
\nKuntjaraningrat's The Javanese Culture.<\/p>\n
Denys had to return to Paris the same evening of the
\nlaunching. Since 1995, he had taken on additional workload as the
\ndirector of the School of Higher Studies, which required frequent
\ntravel to different branches of the institution in Tokyo, Hong
\nKong, Kuala Lumpur and many other cities in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
Denys' death is not merely felt in the passing of a friend,
\nbut particularly in the loss to the science of history, and in
\nparticular for Indonesian studies. Most of all, his passing will
\nbe felt by Claudine, who has lost a good husband, mentor and
\npartner in their important research.<\/p>",
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