Kal Muller has the best of all worlds

Kal Muller has the best of all worlds

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

An adventurer, writer and photographer, Kal Muller could have led a cushy life or become a "somebody" in a busy metropolis in America or any other part of the globe, for he can live anywhere, adapting to cultures as necessary.

Now 65, the Hungarian-born Muller has traveled to at least 80 countries over a span of 15 years. He lived in Hungary until his father sent him abroad, and has lived in France, Switzerland, the U.S. and Mexico, and later, Indonesia.

"I came here first in 1976 when I was in my mid-30s. On my first day in Bali, I was just leaving the airport for my hotel and said to myself, 'this is it, I'm going to stay here.'"

He traveled extensively throughout the archipelago as research for his books, which include Diving Indonesia, several series on Sulawesi published by Periplus, East of Bali and, cowritten with other editors, Kalimantan, Paradise on the Equator and Grasberg, before settling down in Papua.

His decision to stay in Papua came after much thought. Asked to write a book for mining giant Freeport, the company asked him to stay on as a consultant after he had completed the task.

"I really like working with Papuans, because I think I can make a difference in helping them to preserve their culture and how to enliven it for their economic welfare," said Muller, who is presently in Jakarta in connection with an exhibition on the Kamoro tribespeople.

Now "renting" a room in a Timika hotel, Muller and his Singaporean wife Georjina Chia are more like parents to the Kamoro and Amungme people, both of who are indigenous to what is now Mimika regency.

Unlike the Asmat tribe, who have become a household name, the Kamoro are relatively less well-known, although they have as rich a culture as any other Papuan tribe. With a population of about 18,000, the Kamoro live along a 300-kilometer stretch of the southern coast of the province that borders the Arafura Sea.

Muller has had many diverse experiences in his life. The father of three once worked as an interpreter for the U.S. State Department, as a gym instructor, an art dealer, an artists' model and as a French language teacher at the University of Arizona.

True to his heart, the happiness of the Kamoro people is his reward for working far from his children and the noise of Western cities.

"For an event like this, they are happy and appreciate being here and I also like the fact that people from Jakarta appreciate their culture, although some simply perceive it as exotic," he said, referring to the Kamoro's response to the exhibition.

"It's really rewarding, though, for me to see more Indonesians showing a genuine interest in Papuan culture," he added.

"And I'm not pretending ever to become one of the Kamoro. That's impossible, and I don't want to become one, either. But I share the lives of the Kamoro people quite often: I have eaten the same food as they and slept in their homes many times.

"So, for a short period -- a few days to a few weeks -- I can live the same lifestyle as they. By doing that, I can be quite close to them," Muller said.

He is aware, however, that he always has the option to leave, to return to modern comforts, such as an air-conditioned home.

"Basically, I have the best of all worlds because, as long as I want, I can be in my world, the Amungme world, that of the Balinese, the Kamoro, or even the Jakarta world," he concluded.

This makes him feel "richer" than most people because of his unique ability to assimilate into any culture -- developed from his broad exposure and experience among diverse cultures.

"Someone with a lot of money, of course, can go to Bali or Papua but they don't really feel comfortable with the culture there," Muller said.

His wife, too, finds it difficult to keep pace with his lifestyle. Chia, a documentary producer, was drawn initially to Muller through his slides, which captured the people of the Baliem valley.

"It amazed me to meet the man who had spent time living with the Baliem valley people. So I fell in love first with his work, because at that time I was dating somebody else," she said.

She has learned a lot from Muller, and has come to accept and understand that she would work and mingle with people from startlingly diverse cultures.

"It was very tiring at first. Again and again, I had to remind myself that I was from an urban society, but where did these tribespeople come from? What was their way of thinking?

"If I demanded that they adapt to me, it would have been the equivalent of forcing them to make a huge cultural leap," she said.

Chia said her husband was extremely patient with the various Papuan tribes.

Patience is a necessary character trait in Muller's work, as he convinces tribespeople amid the changing times to preserve their culture and not sell out, abandoning their traditions and customs to conform entirely to modern ways.

Muller underlines that modernity is not a threat to pre-modern cultures, as tribespeople could have modern lifestyles and still retain their traditions and customs.

"I don't really like the term 'exotic', because a lot of my work has been with people who are considered exotic by urban people. I don't see them intrinsically as exotic. I seek them out because I love to observe people that still follow their traditional cultures," he said.