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.