sabtu kemarin saya dan mufti ali pergi ke anri (arsip nasional ri). di bundel laporan politik disebutkan juga kegiatan evangelisme di lebak. satu hal lain yang menarik adalah catatan harian pegawai belanda saat kunjungan ke kerajaan banten. tulisannya susah dibaca. yang pertama karena tulisan tangan, yang kedua bahasa belanda lama, yang ketiga karena bahasa belanda saya belum oke. het is moeilijk!
Salam hangat, Ibnu Adam Aviciena Serang, Banten --- On Sat, 1/17/09, halim hd <[email protected]> wrote: From: halim hd <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [WongBanten] misionaris kristen belanda di lebak To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, January 17, 2009, 4:29 AM waaah, heibaaat, euy, geus jiga doktor wae. ibnu, mungkin anda bisa melacak data tertulis lainnya ke sukabumi dan bogor. karena kalou gak salah, urusan pendidikan dan kesehatan misionaris belanda jaman baheula itu, untuk wilayah serang-banten dikontrol dari sukabumi. yayasan pusat sekolah mardi yuwana ada di sukabumi. saya inget, jaman bung karno, kami rombongan ke sana, kunjungan antar sekolah. dan dulu, rumkit misionaris di rangkasbitung itu kondang banget untuk wilayah banten selatan, dan bahkan ada banyak orang dari bogor juga ke rangkasbitung. hhd. --- On Fri, 1/16/09, Ibnu Adam Aviciena <ibnuaviciena@ yahoo.com> wrote: From: Ibnu Adam Aviciena <ibnuaviciena@ yahoo.com> Subject: [WongBanten] misionaris kristen belanda di lebak To: "wongbanten" <wongban...@yahoogro ups.com> Date: Friday, January 16, 2009, 5:44 AM salam, saya nulis tentang perjalanan saya ke leuwidamar untuk memfoto peninggalan misionaris kristen belanda di Lebak. Saya tulis dalam bahasa inggris (meskipun bahasa inggrisnya kurang oke). Mohon masukan bila ada yang punya data baru: SEEKING THE FOOTSTEPS OF DUTCH CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN LEBAK By Ibnu Adam Aviciena It was the determined day for Dr. Mufti Ali and his friend to discover the footsteps of Dutch Christian missionaries in Lebak, Banten. Mufti Ali is a PhD graduate from Leiden University , the Netherlands , and the co-ordinator of Bantenologi, a research centre for Bantenese Studies at the Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) Banten. Based on information in the book of Van den End, De Nederlandse Zendingsveriniging in West Java 1858-1963 and missionary archives at a missionary organisation in Utrecht , he is developing a research paper on Christian missionary activities in Lebak. And what they would do on that day is to photograph the footsteps and the memory of Lebak people for the Dutch Christian missionary activities in their region in the past, if it was possible. Furthermore, which is meant with Lebak in this feature is not Kabupaten Lebak in the present days. It refers to Lebak district in the colonial period. It is located in Leuwidamar nowadays. Because of the help of a 72 year old man they found what they wanted to photograph: two tombs of the Dutch Christian missionaries and a plain land on which a church is assumed to exist. >From the Netherlands to Lebak This research was started in the Netherlands seven months ago. After finishing his dissertation, Mufti Ali began working on the research. He asked his friends to collect sources on this subject. One of his friends succeeded in finding a very important book. It was the book of Van den End: De Nederlandse Zendingsveriniging in West Java 1858-1963. Afterwards, Mufti Ali obtained the phone number and e-mail address of the author. Van den End assisted in informing him the archives of missionaries at a missionary organisation in Utrecht in which Van den End is in charge. By bringing the archives from the Netherlands , the mission to seek the footsteps and remains of the missionaries in Lebak is developed. From Pandeglang on that day Mufti Ali and his friend left for Rangkasbitung, Lebak. The journey was continued from Aweh Terminal to Leuwidamar. In the minibus going to the destination he talked with the passengers. He explained his aim to go to Leuwidamar. Two people responded. One said that he knew the place and mentioned a jungle which is called by people as Leuweung Gareja or the jungle of church. He also said that there were tombs of Dutch people in the jungle even though he never saw the tombs. Mufti Ali was sure that they were the tombs of the Dutch Christian missionaries he looked for. After getting off in Leuwidamar, he said he would look for his friend to help the mission. On the way they met a man riding a motorcycle. He was the owner of Leuweng Gareja. That man said that his land was now managed by a Baduy man. Therefore, he recommended Mufti Ali and his friend to come to the house of Indra bin Regang (72). He was, he explained, the man who looked after tombs in the region. Afterwards, Indra bin Rageng and two motorcycle drivers accompanied Mufti Ali and his friends to see the tombs in the jungle. The jungle is on the top of a heuvel, a Dutch word for ‘hill’, as a Dutch archive describes. Indra bin Rageng, the oldest man there, as most of people, does not know much the history of his region. He said he was eight years old when Japan invaded Indonesia . He himself never sees the church. That is why he does not know why the jungle is called as the jungle of church. Nevertheless, he knows some remains from the colonial period including the tombs. He said, about tens years ago there was a house of the tombs. It was now disappeared. Even, the tombs have ever been excavated by local people because, the owner of the jungle said, they believed that there were valuables in the tombs. He also does not know who were buried in the tombs. In Lebak Gedong, a neighbouring village, he pointed a square of land which is named as Tanah Ki Padri or the land of Ki Padri . He also does not know what ‘Padri’ means. Padri is the Indonesian noun for ‘a Catholic pastor’. On the Dutch archive which was brought by Mufti Ali there is a picture of a pastor’s house; and the place was exactly on the land of Ki Padri . Dutch Christian Missionary in Lebak Ki Padri is a local name of Anthonie Adriaan Pennings, a Dutch Christian missionary. He, as Mufti Ali explains in his research paper, was born in Niuwer Amstel, Amsterdam on 6 November 1870. His father was a protestant pastor in the Dutch East Indies . Pennings graduated from a missionary school in the Netherlands on 11 May 1893 and was sent by the NZV (Nederlands Zending Veriniging) on 14 October 1893 to be a missionary in Banten from 1894 to 1902. On 11 December 1893 he went to Rangkasbitung, Banten, to perform his duties as a missionary. He informed that Europeans in Lebak at that time were not more than 13 people. And he found that the obedience of Muslim Lebak people to Islam was very strong. He concluded that it was not easy to spread Christianity there. During his duties in Lebak, Leuwidamar, he built a church on the top of a hill what is now called by local people as Leuweung Gareja or the jungle of church, and a church in Rangkasbitung in 1900. He also constructed a polyclinic and a school in Leuwidamar. Assisted by his friends he spread Christianity in Lebak. He sold and gave Sundanese Arabic scripted Bible to the people. Based on the Dutch archive, Pennings died in 1902 because he was poisoned by the people of Leuwidamar. His wife, A. Dijkman, herself who had accompanied him in Leuwidamar since 1894, died in Utrecht in 1924. Further, Mufti Ali explains that after Pennings died the Christian community dispersed. Four of five indigenous members of the community re-converted into Islam. The assistant of Penings, Laban Jalimun, and his wife and children, moved to Pangharepan and Jengkol. Layar Kasim, one of the five, eventually moved to Rangkasbitung. Orientalism and the Memory of People The people of Leuwidamar, Lebak, like most of Indonesians, do not know much their culture and history. The owner of the jungle, Indra bin Regang, and others are the fact of this condition. Understanding Dutch is indispensable for a researcher to understand Indonesia and its dynamics in the colonial era. In general, it happened because literary tradition did not grow well. Literary tradition, in fact, is closely related to education. In the context of Banten, records on Banten, such as Herrinering van Pangeran Aria Achmad Djajadiningrat of Aria Achmad Djajadiningrat, Critische Beschouwing van de Sedjarah Banten of Hoesein Djajadiningrat, and From Illiteracy to University of Loekman Djajadiningrat , were written by educated people. They had obtained western education since they were very young. To certain extent, without accepting the validity of colonization, we have to thank orientalists who had studied Indonesia , since it is complicated for a researcher to have data from local people’s records and memory. Ibnu Adam Aviciena lives in Banten. Salam hangat, Ibnu Adam Aviciena Serang, Banten
