'THE HOMO BATAVIENSIS'
Spotlight on Dutch-Indonesian History (IV)
In the preceding article on this subject
(TATT No. 8) we pointed out how three
groups of Dutch-Indonesians grew out of
"Eur-asiatic" marriage and: 1. got absorbed
entirely by the Dutch community. 2. ab
sorbed entirely by the Indonesian com
munity, and 3. formed an own community;
and that this process existed all centuries
of Dutch government in the Indies.
Turning back to the 17th Century and
studying these three groups in the very
beginning of "the birth of the Dutch-Indo
nesian community", we first must observe
two matters more precisely.
1. The "Dutch Community" in Indonesia
was not a Dutch community as existed in
the beginning of this century: some sort of
temporarily emigrated Dutch, returning to
their homeland after a period of work. No,
practically 99% of the Dutch community
in the Indies belonged to the so-called
"blijvers" (people who stayed on and never
returned to Holland). As only a very small
part of the Dutch, who came to Indonesia,
brought their wives with them, by far the
greatest part was married to Indonesian
women. Though marriage with a "heathen"
was considered a sin in Holland, this atti
tude could not be accepted in Asia. In the
first place because it was necessary to build
up a strong colony in the Indies, and in
the second place because the Dutch in
those days (at least outside Holland) were
very tolerant people, who did not look down
on people of other race and creed. So
intermarriage was the commonest thing in
old Batavia. In the chronicles we can find
for instance the example that Jan Pietersz.
Coen ordered a candidate for the ministry
of church to proceed to Bali and choose a
wife amon gthe girls of that island. Many
things those days were about as romantic
as in the adventurous days of the "Bounty"!
2. We used the word "Eur-asiatic". We
already pointed out in one of the former
articles, that the best name for the Dutch-
Indonesians is in fact the name "Indo-
Europeans", as we do not descend only
from the Dutch, but (like the Americans)
from literally all European peoples. The
same can be said from our asian forefathers
(or better: "fore-mothers"). Batavia in its
first days was a wonderful city with a won
derful community, existing of groups of all
parts from Asia: Malayans, Chinese, Japan
ese. Balinese. Gujerati. Amboinese. Banda-
nese, etc., etc. There was very much inter
marriage from Dutchmen with women of
all these peoples, and the famous historian
De Haan couldn't do better than coin a
typical name for the "Indian Hollanders" of
these days: Homo Bataviensis.
All these people lived so much together,
that many asian customs and manners were
taken over. Even the white Dutch women
took over the habit of chewing sirih (the
betelnut) and went to church with slavegirls,
taking along a complete set of sirih-require-
ments, including a big silver spittoon! As the
Dutch built their homes as a precise replica
of the houses in Holland, there were no
bathrooms in it, and the women (far more
fond of bathing regularly than the men)
had to take their baths in the river, quite
like the kampong-Indonesians do up to these
days: in a little bath-house, built over the
river, from where they plunged into the
brown water!
All these people were in need of a com
mon language of course. This language
existed indeed: Portuguese, "filled up" with
many Dutch, Malay, Chinese, etc., etc.,
words.
With all these groups where were the
Javanese? There were indeed no Javanese
in the City of Batavia. They were not
allowed to, unless by special permit. In those
declining years of the Javanese kingdoms,
Batavia was practically in constant war with
the Javanese. That is also why the Dutch
encouraged so many other peoples to settle
in Batavia: to form fighting units against
the Javanese. In that century there were
continuous wars, practically throughout
Indonesia, and many fugitives found a safe
refuge in Batavia. Also many slaves lived
in Batavia, because the Dutch were very
tolerant to them and they lived practically
free. The settling of Chinese was encouraged
because they were the best craftsmen in
Asia, and the settlement of the Japanese,
because they were the best soldiers (Coen:
"wandt de Japansche soldaeten soo goet
alsde onsen sijn").
There were many Balinese, Bandanese,
and Amboinese citizens in Batavia. Up to
now kampongs in Djakarta have names as
Kampong Bali, Kampong Banda. Kampong
Ambon. We must not think tha tthese people
were considered inferior. One of the great
est generals of Governor General Speelman
was Captain Jonker (an Indo or full-
blooded Amboinese - who knows for sure?),
famed for his daring and masterful exploits
in many wars. A well known and respected
Bandanese "parson" was Meester Cornelis
Senen (the village Meester Cornelis now
Djatinegara - was called after him). Still
another prominent figure was Pieter Erber-
felt, an Indo of German-Siamese descent,
who was executed later-on as the supposed
leader of a conspiracy. This has never been
proved though. In those years and with
all these groups of citizens with their own
traditions, good and bad the community
often fostered unjustified fears, got panicky
and ran amok. This a.o. caused the Great
Chineses Massacre, a horrible mass-murder
of the Chinese in Batavia, regretted by the
Dutch ever since.
The "conspiracy" of Pieter Erberfelt has
also never been proven. He was executed
nevertheless and "punished" in a rather
barbaric and repulsive way: his house was
burned down and a wall erected around
this lot. On this wall his head was put with
a pike through it and the inscription that
into eternity this wall never should be
pulled down or the ground used for other
purposes. Though of course later on this
punishment was considered a sin of past
days and nobody was serious about it any
more, wall and skull and peak were kept
intact as a historic monument.
A strange and hidden superstition around
this monument however stayed alive through
all these centuries amongst naive Indo's and
Indonesians: "Once there will come a day
that this injustice against Pieter Erberfelt
will be corrected; the monument will be
pulled down and that will be a sign for the
punishment of the Dutch: they will be
driven out of Indonesia." Superstition is no
element of historiography and we only state
this as a surprising coincidenceduring the
Japanese occupation the monument was
pulled down for unknown reasons and
within ten years the Dutch were indeed
"driven out of Indonesia" We can say
with Ripley: "Believe it or Not", but it
belongs somehow to Dutch-Indonesian
"history".
Otherwise the life of the Homo Bataviensis
was very pleasant. About the more pleasant
things in life those days we will write in a
next article. {To be continued
This photograph was made in 1897 in Batavia. It was reproduced in the book "Tempo
Doeloe" by E. Breton de Nijs and depicts pre-eminently "the birth of the Indo-European
throughout 3/a centuries". In the center of the picture is the "pater familias", a former
Dutch Army officer and later on superintendent of the great "Billiton Maatschappij", a
"colonial gentleman" of high standing. Out of his first marriage (with a Dutch girl) came
the daughter second from left in the picture. After the death of his wife he lived with a
Madurese woman (Madura is an island east of Java), out of which alliance came a son (on
the picture sitting at the far right), whereafter he married a Chinese woman, (sitting on
the right in sarong and "kebaja") and won two daughters, one standing on the far left, one
sitting on the right of her father with a baby on her lap.
These children are respectively: Dutch-Dutch (but colonial Dutch!), Dutch-Madurese
and Dutch-Ghinese. They married with Dutch. Dutch-Indonesian, Indonesian-Chinese, and
so on. All spoke Dutch, went to Dutch schools, were members of the upper-class and held
in high esteem. Such marriages "happened" through three centuries in alle social ranks.
Typical is the Dutch-Indonesian son, out of a non-legal marriage but acknowledged anyway,
bearing the name of his father and accepted as such in all circles.
{Photo: Tempo Doeloeby E. Breton de Nijs, PublishersQueridoAmsterdam. Phis
book can be ordered by us for you at the price of $9.
