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What Life Was Like in the Dutch East Indies..

What Life was like in the Dutch east Indies (and what it's like in Indonesia today)? Well, first of all, it was and is tropical, thus: hot and wet. For the Dutch, being used to an Atlantic Ocean sea climate, at first this was an almost intolerable ordeal. But they stayed, because the East Indies were so rich in woods, spices and all the other things, that the United East Indian Company (De Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or V.O.C.) just had to make it work, despite of all the climatological hardship, the bugs and snakes and all the thingies that spoiled the water and gave people dysentry and other horrible diseases.
The Dutch came in the 17th century and they stayed until 1948, period.
Although the life of the Orang Belanda (the White Man or European) was quite segregated from that of the indigenous people, the Dutch never felt really comfortable with segregation as individuals.
Although the Dutch of the V.O.C. and later of Her Royal Majesty's Indian Government had a strict trading and tax policy with the natives, individual residents (local distric rulers who were called "resident" or in bahasa "tuan residèn") sometimes tried to maintain justice and honesty within governmental policies. Evidences of that have been laid down in a book, written by a former Dutch "resident" and novellist Eduard Douwes Dekker, who took on the artistic name "Multatuli" (Latin for: "I had a lot to tolerate"): he wrote a novel "Max Havelaar", a character, based on Dekker's own person, who works himself up to become an "assistant resident" and discovers a lot of injustice with the white and native rulers of his region and striking poverty among the local farmers. Trying to put an end to the bad rule and corruption, he is threatened and almost poisoned. The Governor of the East Indies realizes that his cause is a just one and that more persons like Havelaar would bring better conditions for the poor natives of the vast island of the east Indies, but also that Havelaar is but a drop of water on a glowing hot plate.

In Indonesia you will find enormous cities with millions of inhabitants. Jakarta on Java, the capital of Indonesia, is a city like Tokio, Taipeh and Beijing. But, of course, it has its own specific features, like the remnants of the Dutch period, when the city was called Batavia.
Most western travellers arrive in Jakarta and start walking about the city. In this vast city with all its dust and tropical heat, Indonesians laugh at you when you walk about a big city like this, like a poor beggar! The easiest and cheapest (but fun to do!) form of transportation is the "becak", a bicycle taxi, driven by one local sitting on his bike with a seat on two wheels with a simple roof or umbrella attached to it. You tell the guy where you want to go, give him a few rupiah (the local currency, comparable to a few Eurocents) and the man takes you there as fast as the wind blows, despite of the heat, the crowded city and traffic jams.

Indonesians, when reffering to eachother as "Mr. So and So" or "Mrs. So and So" , call eachother "Pak" (Mr.; lit. "father") and "Ibu/Bu"(Mrs.; lit. "mother"). To Europeans or other white folk they refer to as "Tuan" (Mr.) and "Nyonya" (Mrs.).
In spite of the fact that the colonial times have long gone after 1948, the natives are far less formal and thus easier when they call eachother "Sir" and "Ma'am" as they are when they do so to white people. "Tuan" and "Nyonya" is very formal; these terms are used for white/western people and princes and noble regents within the own population. I pesronally like to be called "Ibu" by the locals, but they wouldn't do that; they thought it unseemingly to call a European "Ibu". The respect and hence the distance are still there.

In learning the language of the natives, or at least Malayan (Bahasa Indonesia), the Dutch colonists and rulers were able to negociate and trade with the local rulers, sultans, princes and noble regents. The Dutch learned how to deal with the local cultural hierarchy and studied the ways of the natives to benefit from what they learned. Hence, the formal distance was one thing, but the Europeans had to work close beside the native rulers and work with them as a team, to put up their trading empire, which gave them so many riches. So there was distance and closeness. But, many stories, especially the novels by another Dutch novellist, Louis Couperus, have proved that the Dutch never really came to understand the ways and cultures (and mysteries) of the East Indies, the region they ruled for such a long time. Couperus' novel (maybe his most popular one) "The Silent Force" is about a man, a "resident" once again being threatened and consumed by a hidden force in Indonesian nature and culture, called "gunah gunah" (the hidden mystery force).

After 1948, the Duth had to leave the newly created republic of Indonesia and lots of half European half indigenous half casts people with them. Lots of them came to Holland and tried to set up a new life in the chilly non-tropical Atlantic Ocean climate. They, called the Indos, both by themselves as by the native Dutch, huddled together and created their own clubs, societies and 'hoods. They threw their own parties, like the ones they had had in the East Indies, called "kumpulan" (i.e. home party) or "pasar pasar" (i.e. markets). The biggest Eurasian Event in the world today is the Pasar Malam Besar (The major Evening Market) held every year in The Hague NL on a large field just next to The Hague Central Railway Station. I live in The Hague and go there every year. The event is held in June and lasts for 11 days. It takes place in a series of circuslike tents, attached together into one big area of tropical delight. The climate in Holland is often still bad in that time of year, so it's kind of an indoor happening, but underneath the tent veils, tropical temperatures, sounds, smells and colors prevail! At the Pasar Malam you can enjoy and encounter every aspect of the Indonesian culture, of the past and present...

What Life Was Like in the Dutch East Indies..