Profil Etnik Jakarta

Purchased : 25 June 2007
Price : 35.000-
Author : Lance Castles

Sejarah Para Pembesar Mengatur Batavia

Purchased : 25 June 207 -Price : Rp. 50.000- Mona Lohanda -Pages : iv+304 -ISBN: 978-979-25-7295-7 -1st Edition: Juni 2007
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Jauh sebelum buku ini terbit, ada keinginanku untuk melakukan kajian sederhana dan menulis buku mengenai para Gubernur Jendral VOC yang memerintah Batavia dari Pieter Booth sampai Gubernur Jendral terakhir Hindia Belanda A.W.L. Tjarda van Stakenborgh Stachouver. Sudah banyak juga riset sederhana dan pribadi yang kulakukan dan collecting data selama ini memberikan data yang lumayan untuk hal itu. Hasrat dan keinginan ini timbul karena selama ini gue belum pernah melihat dan membaca sebuah buku mengenai riwayat semua para Gubernur Jendral Batavia ini dalam satu buku lengkap secara kronologis per profile. Sayang sekali memang.

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Tapi masalah paling penting adalah kendala bahasa. Hampir semua arsip dan data yang lengkap dan juga data yang ada di Arsip perpustakaan Nasional Salemba dan juga yang di Leiden masih dalam bahasa Belanda. Holland speken gue nol..welelehh..

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Dengan terbitnya buku ini minimal memberikan ku sedikit rasa lega apalagi di appendiknya Mona Lohanda juga melengkapi dengan daftar para Assisten Residen, Sekretaris dan beberapa jabatan penting lainnya yang tentu saja data baru buatku. Walaupun data yang menjadi acuan Mona adalah buku-buku yang juga sudah ada di Pustabrary gue jadi ya sudah menjadi intertekstualitas dan bukan menjadi hal baru buatku, seperti Social World of Batavia-Jean Gelman Taylor, Strange Company- Leonard Blusee ,juga beberapa buku-buku dari Heuken-Tempat Bersejarah di Jakarta, Menteng, Sumber-Sumber Asli Sejarah Jakarta. Tapi data-data dari buku ini yangpaling banyak manfaatnya buat riset dan penulisan buku ku adalah istilah-istilah dalam bahasa Belanda yang bisa gue jadi acuan dan referensi nantinya. Lumayan

Bahan-bahan dan data-data baru buatku adalah uraian mengenai beberapa Gubernur Jendral periode VOC yaitu sebanyak 21 orang yang paling terkemuka dan memiliki catatan sejarah yang berpengaruh pada masa pemerintahan mereka yaitu dari Pieter Both, Jan Pieterzoen Coen, Jacques Specx, Hendrix Brouwer, Antonio Van Diemen, Joan Maetsuycker, Rijcklofs van Goen, Cornelie Speelman, Joannes Camphuys, Williem van Outhoorn, Abraham van Riebeck, Christoffel van Swoll, Hendricus Zwaadecrroon, Diederick Durven, Dirk Van Cloon, Adrian Valckenier, Gustaff Williem Baron van Imhoff, Jacob Mossel, Petrus Albertus van De Parra, Jeremias van Riemsdijk, Reiner de Klerk, Willem Arnold Alting, Pieter Gerardus van Overstraten. *

Gustaff Willem Baron van Imhoff
Yang mengherankan beberapa Gubernur Jendral jaman VOC itu ada yang tak mendapat pembahasan mengenai riwayat hidup mereka, mungkin Mona Lohanda tak memiliki data atau memang kurang memiliki pengaruh pada masa berkuasanya. entahlah. Ada sekitar 8 Gubernur Jendral. Yaitu Pieter Both ( 1610-1614 ) yang berkuasa pertama kali sebagai GJ VOC di Batavia , 9 tahun sebelum JP Zoon Coen berkuasa ( 1627-1629) . Yang lain dalah Gerard Reyner , laurens Reael, Pieter de Carpentier, Cornelis van Lijn, Carel Reyniersz.

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Buku ini tidak membahas mengenai para GJ setelah jaman VOC (1610- 1799 ) atau pada jaman Hindia Belanda ( 1800-1942 ). VOC dibubarkan karena hutang ada tanggal 31 August 1799 dan smeua hutang di ambil alih oleh pemerintahan Hindia Belanda. Secara efektif VOC berkuasa sekitar 189 tahun bila dihitung sejak tahun 1610 ketika Pieter Both. Secara keseluruhan buku ini memberkan wawasan baru atau mempertegas gambaran mengenai kehidupan sosial jaman VOC di Batavia walaupun tentu tak bisa di bandingkan dengan buku Jean Gelman Taylor " The Social World of Batavia ".

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Dari semua buku yang ku baca dan ku koleksi mengenai masa VOC , sangat jarang memang membahas mengenai kehisupan sosial secara lengkap pada jaman awal abad ke 17, bahan itu nampaknya sangat kurang beredar di kalangan umum. Satu hal yang paling menjadi obsesiku dan menjadi pertanyaan dengan harap-harap cemas, kenapa belum ada yang mau menterjemahkan F De Haan " De Priangan " atau buku Encylopdeia of Ducth East Indies yang masih dalam bahasa Belanda. Sayang memang. Mungkin sedikitnya minat kalangan umum mengenai sejarah. Barangkali. Semoga ada ilmuan yang punya keinginan gila itu . Who knows ? Kalau jadi, aku adalah pembeli pertama !!!

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Tuanku RAO

Purchased : 20 June 2007
Price : Rp. 130.000-
Author : Mangaradja Onggang Parlindungan
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Buku ini seperti ditulis oleh orang yang marah dengan bahasa yang mengalir lancar tapi kadang bertabrakan tanpa sabar , meletup-letup, walaupun berusaha sopan tapi terasa bara api yang menjalar pada setiap sudut halaman, pada setiap paragraf , pada setiap alenia, pada setiap kalimat, bahkan pada setiap sisipan kata.

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Pertanyaan penting, bagaimana bila naskah arsip Poortman ini benar ? Bagiku kecinaan sejarah Banten atau bukan tak lagi relevan, kalaupun ada cina di urat sejarah kebantenan, so what ? What is the impact of it ?

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Buku buku kontroversial seperti ini kadang seperti cabe rawit, pedas banget, sampai bercucuran keringat dingin, blingsatan dan kalur cari pendingin, setelah itu ., beberapa saat, beberapa tahun, hilang begitu saja. Tak ada gizi ! Tapi kadang kita butuh kaget-kagetan kayak gini.

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Jaman berubah banyak. Luka-luka lama tentang teror agama mungkin tak gampang dilupa. Menjelma dalam bentuk yang lain. Yang lebih beradab , tapi jauh lebih keji dan mematikan. Mungkin tak lagi pakai pedang seperti Imam Bonjol pada perang paderi, tapi dalam bentuk pita kaset , cd, ceramah tv, selebaran .

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Jadi kalau Gus Dur mengaku dan mendeklarasikan bahwa beliau bermarga Tan ( CHin ) dari garis silsilah kakek buyutnya, bagaiamana dengan anda ?

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Dutch Culture Overseas 1900-1942

Purchased : 29 June 2007
Author : DR. Frances Gouda

The Magdalene Legacy-The Jesus and Mary Bloodline Conspiracy

Purchased : 19 December 2006
Price : Rp. 224.000-
Author : Laurence Gardner

Bloodline of The Holy Grail

Purchased : 3 March 2005
Price : Rp. 275.000-
Author : Laurence Gardner

Batavia in The Nineteenth Century Photographs

Purchased : 31 December 2004 -Price : Rp. 475.000- Author : Scot Merrillees Binding:HardcoverDewey-DecimalNumber:900-EAN:9780700714360-ISBN:0700714367-Label: RoutledgeCurzon-Manufacturer: Routledge Curzon-Number Of Pages: 282-Publication Date: November 03, 2000-Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon-Studio: RoutledgeCurzon
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Batavia in 19th-Century Photographs
To begin with, 'Batavia in 19th-Century Photographs' apparently had to take a European perspective for the simple reason that all of the photographic material presented was produced by Europeans for Europeans. This, of course, does not automatically mean that the author fosters nostalgic sentiments idealizing the 'good old times'. And it would indeed do an injustice indeed to this volume, were it to be subsumed under the category of sentimental 'Tempo Doeloe' publications. This collection of photographs (from the late 1850 onwards) not only documents the beginnings of a modern city, it also documents the very beginnings of topographical photography in the Netherlands East Indies.

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By DORIS JEDAMSKI
Having been taken long before the era of highly sophisticated lenses and digital cameras, these photographs do not meet the expectations and viewing habits of the twenty-first-century observer. At first sight, they appear fascinatingly still and sometimes scarcely filled. It is, not least, thanks to the well-chosen, skillfully reproduced photo material and the balanced ratio of word and picture that the reader is drawn into the book.

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The Australian Merrillees succeeds in resurrecting tenth-century Batavia in the eye of the beholder. However, inviting us on this journey into the past, the author, at the same time, builds bridges between the colonial town on the western tip of the island of Java and the giant capital city of the Republic of Indonesia that it has grown to become: present-day Jakarta of more than twelve million inhabitants.

The impressive collection of photographs, based on the author's vast private collection supplemented by material mostly from Dutch archives and private collections, is in itself already a jewel. The author, however, takes it further. He spent years probing into the background of 'the specific places, buildings, churches, infrastructure, monuments, landmarks, organizations and commercial firms', in order to get 'a feel for the economic, political and social factors which influenced Batavia's development' (p.8).

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The result of this detective work is a well-researched commentary added to the photographs, putting each of the objects portrayed in its historical context. Some of the commentary are interspersed with descriptions taken from contemporary sources, often travel guides or travel accounts. The added index and bibliography facilitate the systematic approach to the material. In three appendices, the author provides some background information on the Nederlands Indies Topographic Bureau and topographical photography in colonial Indonesia and also pays tribute to the photographers who actually took the pictures presented in this impressive volume.
Starting off with a general introduction and an overview map of Batavia and its outskirts, the author then focuses on four parts of the city, each dealt with in a separate part of the book. The first part (76 pp.) presents 'Downtown Batavia, the Old City of the North'. In a shorter second part (28 pp.) the 'Molenvliet' is depicted. 'Uptown Batavia' or 'The New City of the South' is described in the third part (128 pp.), and the fourth and last part allows but a glance at the harbour area Tanjung Priok (6 pp.). ***

A coloured reprint of a contemporary street map of the region introduces each of these four parts. Both of the two longer sections, Part One and Part Three, are subdivided into five chapters, each one of them again introduced by a reprint of a street map of the area. These prints, some of them enlargements of selected parts, help the reader map out the terrain in question and give additional orientation and guidance throughout the chapter.

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In every single photograph, the author zooms in on the 'veins', 'bones', 'limbs', and 'organs' of the town: canals and bridges, streets, squares, churches, hotels, markets, shops, companies, and all other kinds of public and private buildings. There is Batavia's old port (pp.18-35), Batavia's Gas Works (p.102), 'The Tiffany of the East'(p.138), the post and telegraph building (pp.210-211), and China Town (pp.76-91).

The combination of visual material and text takes the reader further and beyond the surface of the picture. In his commentaries, the author gives well portioned information regarding history, function, and fate of these locations and buildings which all summed up to form Batavia. This is how we learn, for instance, about the last execution in the stadthuis in 1896 (p.44), or the demolition of the Amsterdam Poort in 1950, because it had become an obstacle to modern traffic (p.40).

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Again and again, the author smoothly bridges the past and the present. He has thoroughly investigated the current function of places or buildings that were not destroyed at some point in history but still exist in Jakarta today. One such example is the eighteenth-century residence of the Khouw family; the 'main buildings of this fine old Chinese house can still be seen in the dark and unfinished concrete shell' of an ill-fated new development. The latter was never completed because of its developer's bankruptcy in 1997 (p.90). Whenever the sites had not survived, the author points out where, for instance, street names still refer back to the past captured in the photographs.

People, however, do not take a prominent place in topographic photography. There are, in fact, only two portraits found in the collection: one of the famous Javanese painter, Raden Saleh, and the other of his second wife. Thus, if appearing in the picture, people blend in as small figures in the background, sometimes ghostly blurred shadows because of the still fairly primitive photographic technique. In a way, the author even fills this 'gap' by providing valuable information on the inhabitants of Batavia, in general, and a number of individuals in particular. For instance, there is information about the Freemasons (p.206) or Alfred Thiebault, who, among other roles, was the innkeeper of the Concordia Military Society (p.134).

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Even an overall positive book review usually comes up with at least one negative remark. I did do my best to find something I could possibly criticize regarding this publication; I did not succeed. This book is as beautiful as it is informative and it is to be recommended warmly. *
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1421 The Year China Discovered America

Purchased : 28 Oktober 2003 -Price : Rp. 365.000- Penulis : Gavin Menzies-Book Shop : QB World Pondok Indah