Collector offers wide range of rare books

Collector offers wide range of rare books

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): Having trouble locating books and other printed
materials dealing with the history of Indonesia?

Browsing the virtual bookstores on the Web might prove
helpful. Or you can simply ask Djaja Laras, a noted bookseller
who specializes in antique books on Indonesia.

At his modest house in Muara Karang, North Jakarta, Djadja,
62, who has been in the business for some 20 years, currently has
a collection of more than 1,000 books about Indonesia. The books
cover a wide range of topics, but their main focus is on the
history of Indonesia.

His regular clients include local and foreign scholars,
observers, and librarians, with people from as far as Japan,
France, the Netherlands and Australia coming to visit him and his
books.

Noted scholars like Denys Lombard, Claudine Salmon and Myra
Sidharta are among his frequent customers.

Among the institutions included on his client list are the
Library of Congress, Smithsonian Museum and Harvard University,
all in the United States, the Singapore National Library and
Kyoto University in Japan.

Local institutions such as state-owned University of Indonesia
and privately owned Tarumanagara University also have benefited
from Djaja's collection.

Djaja said he could not remember how many people had completed
their doctorates thanks in part to his collection of rare books.

"Several embassies here have even recommended my name to
scholars searching for printed sources," said Djaja, who was born
Gouw Keng Lie.

Djaja, who speaks fluent English, is not an expert in any
particular field of study, nor is he a historian. In fact, his
formal education ended when he graduated from elementary school.

But he has come to be regarded by numerous international and
domestic institutions as "the main supplier of old and rare books
on Indonesia".

He earned this distinction thanks to the superior service he
provides customers, who in return helped promote his business
through word-of-mouth publicity.

At the moment, his collection includes old recipes,
manuscripts of Chinese martial arts, ancient maps and marriage
documents of noted figures from the past, such as Khouw Kim An,
who was the last "major" (a community leader during the colonial
era) of Chinese descent in Jakarta.

Some of the documents are faded, or partly torn or have been
ravaged by book louse.

Manual

Djaja does nothing special in the treatment of his collection,
simply stacking them in four racks according to his own personal
system.

"I can remember where I put the materials," he said.

He said he purchased all types of printed materials for his
collection because he firmly believed the documents had to be
bought and saved by someone.

Djaja said he often experienced miracles while running his
rare business. Numerous times, he recalled, customers came to him
asking for books he just discovered.

Through this kind of fortune, Djaja is able to support his
wife, Liauw Bie King, and their only son, Anton Laras, a high
school student.

Djaja said he has loved books since he was a child. He decided
to get serious as a rare bookseller in the early 1970s after
earning large profits selling used copies of the famous book on
old Jakarta titled Oud Batavia (Old Batavia).

"At that time, I sold the book for Rp 80,000 each, whereas I
bought each book for Rp 5,000," he said.

It was also with the money he earned selling old book that
Djaja was able to marry his wife in 1974.

"(In the beginning), I did not have the guts to marry her
since I had no money. I was always asked by my future parents-in-
law when I would marry their daughter. The only thing I had at
that time was a collection of 48 boxes of old Chinese books,"
Djaja recalled.

Unexpectedly, these books were purchased for Rp 7.5 million by
the National University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Djaja said by chance, through a bookseller at a book market
here, he knew the institution was looking for the books. But the
bookseller did not want to give Djaja the address of the
interested party for free, so Djaja eventually had to pay for the
address of the university.

He said he could not hide his joy after receiving the cash,
which was quite a large amount of money at that time.

"My hands were trembling as I counted such a large amount of
money. With the money, I married my wife, bought a sedan and we
spent our honeymoon in several countries, including Singapore,
Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand," he recalled.

Djaja has a unique way of locating printed materials for his
collection. "Everyday I pay a great deal of attention to death
notices in newspapers.

"If I think a person who has died, especially a prominent
person, was a book collector and their family does not want the
collection, I will visit the family sometime after they have
observed the 100th day of the death and ask the family if they
are willing to sell the books," he said.

By tradition, he said, the family of the deceased end their
mourning after observing the 100th day of the passing.

"I once was scolded by members of the family when I visited
them not long after one of their family members had passed away.
I was told that the grave was not even dry yet, and I came asking
them to sell the deceased's books," he said.

Djaja sometimes travels as far as East Java to locate antique
books. "I'm satisfied if I can help people who badly need the
books."

He said he sells the books at a price several times higher
than what he paid for them. "But it depends on the scarcity of
the material. So I need a good instinct for this business, but
the most important thing is the books' statistical data."

For example, Djaja traces the circulation number of a book and
researches the estimated number of educated people and schools at
the time the book was published in an attempt to gauge the
rareness of the book.

Based on the available data, Djaja then sets his prices, which
currently vary from between Rp 5,000 and Rp 2 million.

He also maintains good relationships with vendors at flea
markets, such as at Senen in Central Jakarta, to maintain his
stock.

And sometimes people come to him to sell their old books.
"Lots of times, my suppliers offer me the same books which have
just been ordered by my clients," he said.

If you are interested in visiting Djaja in Muara Karang you
can contact him at (021) 667-8838.