Intermezzo: Wayang Golek

@HorseRotorVator: Thanks HRV! No I don't know more than oter people of my age and background, but I van't help showing what I know, it's a form of idleness. On top of that, I see so many pictures raising questions and what I post I also study. Wikipedia makes it easy, I put a link to the wayang- wikipedia page. Then: most pictures are around my living area, and I know more of it of course than most AM3 members in other parts of the world and like to share the "nice-to-knows" with them.

@ajoeh: Thanks Ajoeh, I've always been very interested in Indonesia and also Japan, countries that seem so contrary to all we are used to in the Netherlands: big, warm, full of sun and colors, exotic history, varied food, different nature etc. Industrialization and globalisation demanded their price however. Maybe it's also a kind of feeling guilty about the long colonization period although I personally had nothing to do with it of course. I read everything I could get about Indonesia and asked questions to people who came to Holland again after the Independence. I was shocked by the bloodshed when Suharto took over power from Sukarno. Maybe when I'm retired after two or three years from now I'll go there.

For Indonesians it's very interesting to read the novels by Hella Haasse about her experiences with life there: "Oeroeg", "Heeren van de Thee" ("Gentlemen of the Tea", and "Krassen op een rots" ("Scratches on a rock"). Also Louis Couperus "De stille Kracht" ("The silent Force") is fascinating: how colonialists experienced their stay in Java. As last but not least (there are more) Multatuli's novel "Max Havelaar", a classical Dutch literary monument. Oeroeg and Max Havelaar have also been issued as movies. I don't know if there are translations in English (I bet there are!) or in Bahasa, but there will probably be. All these novels questioned the colonisation and treatment of the Indonesians, reason why some of them were not welcomed by the Dutch government of the time.