Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter No. 50 / Dec 2018 SOUTHEAST ASIA LIBRARY GROUP NEWSLETTER No. 50, December 2018 ISSN 2055-317X 1968-2018 Fifty Years of SEALG 1 Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter No. 50 / Dec 2018 Contents SEALG Annual Meeting 2018, Leiden p. 3 SEALG: Fifty years in 2018 (Rahadi Karni) p. 11 Photographic memories from past Annual Meetings of SEALG p. 15 My first SEALG annual conference and annual meeting (Carina Enestarre) p. 21 Cremation volumes as a study of Thai society (Preedee Hongsaton) p. 23 Kammavaca: How collectors’ tastes and curators’ choices shaped manuscript collections from SEA (Jana Igunma and San San May) p. 34 The making of Shan manuscripts: Ritual, art, knowledge (Jotika Khur-Yearn) p. 60 An Inventory of the Javanese paper manuscripts (Donald E. Wetherbee, introduced by A. Gallop) p. 78 Book review p. 113 Editorial A warm welcome to this new issue of the SEALG Newsletter which is special to us in two ways: it is the 50th issue of the newsletter and it is the year of the 50th anniversary of our association! Founded in 1968, SEALG was one of the first organisations supporting and enhancing the study of Southeast Asia in Europe. We thought this was a good reason to celebrate at this year’s annual meeting which took place in Leiden with the generous support from the Asian Library. The report of the meeting provides all the details, and it is followed by memories of the early years of SEALG shared by Rahadi Karni. Some photo impressions from the past decade give insight how our activities have become more international and more diverse. After reminiscing about past decades, a new member, Carina Enestarre, describes her first experience with SEALG and what she is looking forward to in the future. As it has become a tradition, this newsletter includes a number of articles that reflect on our work and research: Preedee Hongsaton gives an update on his research about Thai funeral books and their social context, San San May and I are sharing our latest research on Kammavaca manuscripts in the British Library’s collections, and Jotika Khur-Yearn explores the ritual and artistic context of the making of Shan manuscripts. Annabel Gallop introduces Donald E. Wetherbee’s ‘An Inventory of Javanese paper manuscripts…” which was compiled in 1972 but never published in its full extent. On occasion of our 50th anniversary we decided to include an unusual book review in this newsletter – an “evergreen” monograph published by SEALG a little while ago… We are looking forward to many years of even more international and interdisciplinary cooperation of SEALG! With best wishes for 2019, Doris Jedamski (Chair of SEALG) and Jana Igunma (Newsletter Editor) 2 Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter No. 50 / Dec 2018 SEALG Annual Meeting 2018, Leiden Report by Holger Warnk (Frankfurt) and Doris Jedamski (Leiden) The Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asia Library Group 2018 took place on 5-7 July 2018 in the Vossius Conference Room at Leiden University Library (UBL) in Leiden, the Netherlands, and was organised by Doris Jedamski and Marije Plomp. Participants from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom attended the meeting this year. Participants: Christophe Caudron (Library of Aix-en-Provence/Marseille University, France) Carina Enestarre (Asia Library, Lund University, Sweden) Claudia Götze-Sam (Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany) Jana Igunma (British Library, London, UK) Doris Jedamski (University Library, Leiden, Netherlands) Rahadi Karni (formerly KITLV, Leiden, Netherlands) Jotika Khur-Yearn (SOAS, London, UK) Mia Nilsson (Asia Library, Lund University, Sweden) Marije Plomp (University Library, Leiden, Netherlands) Holger Warnk (Library of Southeast Asian Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany) Saskia van Bergen and Martijn Storms (both University Library, Leiden, Netherlands) joined the meeting as guests on Friday morning. Interior view of the Asian Library, Leiden University Library. 3 Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter No. 50 / Dec 2018 Early arrivals met up on Thursday evening, 5 July, for a nice welcome “borrel” and a bite to eat in one of the many lovely Leiden cafés. On Friday morning, 6 July, the SEALG meeting commenced with a welcome address by Doris Jedamski and Marije Plomp. During the first session the UBL specialist for the digital Special collections, Saskia van Bergen, introduced the “Leiden University Library New Digital Library” and exemplified the many digitization activities of the library which allows also “digitization on demand” services at very reasonable fees. The second speaker, Martijn Storms, curator of the map collection, presented in his paper “Maps in the Crowd” an overview on the impressive collections of more than 100,000 maps of UBL/KITLV/KIT, c. 40,000 of them related to Asia and 35,000 related to Southeast Asia (mainly Indonesia). Many maps are already accessible online but UBL is seeking ways to put all maps online, supplemented by metadata and user-friendly accessibility modes. A crowd sourcing project led by Martin has been very successful. Both papers were discussed intensively regarding questions of copy rights, digitization problems of pictures, newspapers, music and the like. Qu’ran from Ambon [Or. 1945] from the island of Manipa near Ambon, dated 1694. It is partly provided with an interlinear translation in Malay. The most striking detail is the opening page with European-style decoration of scrolls and flowers. The scrollwork is reminiscent of Cape Dutch architecture, which was heavily influenced by Malay craftsmen. After the lunch break Doris Jedamski had prepared a small pop-up exhibition of selected items and manuscripts from the UBL/KITLV collections, among them the very first manuscript in the Leiden library originating from the Malay archipelago, a palm leaf manuscript from Java, dated 1597. 4 Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter No. 50 / Dec 2018 Marije Plomp opened the afternoon session with her presentation of “The Asian Library”, which had officially been opened by Queen Maxima on 14 September 2017. The Asian collections of UBL contain more than 1,000,000 books and journals on about 30 km shelves, more than 200,000 photos and print cards, 20,000 manuscripts and more than 16,000 maps. Marije also explained the UBL Fellowship Program which allows visits up to four months in the special collections of UBL. After her presentation Marije took us on an impressive tour through the new locations and reading rooms of the Asian Library of UBL. In the afternoon a guided tour through the world famous Hortus Botanicus of Leiden University followed. In the evening we were served an excellent conference dinner on the terrace of the restaurant Het Prentenkabinet. Guided tour of the Hortus Botanicus – Botanical Garden - in Leiden. The first paper on Saturday morning was presented by Christophe Caudron on the “The French Professional Network DocAsie” (http://docasie.cnrs.fr/). This network brings together 38 French libraries with Asian collections, among them 18 with important Southeast Asian holdings. The next speaker was Jotika Khur-Yearn who gave a talk on “Learning through Cataloguing: Notable Burmese and Shan Manuscripts”, conveying many relevant insights into the problems of cataloguing manuscripts, highlighted by examples of Burmese and Shan manuscripts from the British Library and Northern Illinois University Library. Then Holger Warnk spoke on “Rub Up the Table Till It Shines”: Household Management in a “Kitchen” Malay Phrasebook”. He explored the colonial female sphere of Malay communication in British Malaya through a small booklet entitled “Malay for Mems” by Maye Wood. 5 Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter No. 50 / Dec 2018 Finally Doris Jedamski showed us in her presentation “The Silent Witnesses of the Dutch-Indonesian War 1945-49 in the UB Leiden Collections” how the most varied materials, such as posters, diaries, letters, photos, propaganda flyers or minutes of top secret negotiations together form a collection that not only documents the Dutch- Indonesian war, but which makes it tangible for generations to come. South East Asia Library Group Meeting After a short lunch break, we continued with our annual business meeting in the early afternoon. After a short welcome the apologies of Sud Chonchirdsin, Annabel Teh Gallop, Per Hansen, Mikihiro Moriyama, Margaret Nicholson, Stella Schmidt, Virginia Shih, Laura Muldowney, Louise Pichard-Bertaux, San San May, Cao Thi Liêu, Prachark Wattananusit were announced. The minutes from our annual meeting 2017 in Oxford as well as the financial report that had been compiled by our treasurer Margaret Nicholson were presented and unanimously accepted by the present members. The election of the SEALG Committee came next. Doris Jedamski as chair and Holger Warnk as vice-chair were re-elected. Jotika Khur-Yearn had announced his resignation as SEALG secretary; Marije Plomp was elected as new SEALG secretary. Doris Jedamski reported on the book project of SEALG and the many problems emerging during this effort to combine papers from the SEALG panel at the EUROSEAS Conference in Oxford (2017) with papers from the ASEASUK Conference in 2016 in one book publication. The group then discussed the SEALG Newsletter for 2018. It was agreed that the 50th Anniversary of SEALG should be celebrated by a special newsletter. Doris Jedamski chairing the SEALG AGM on Saturday morning. 6 Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter No. 50 / Dec 2018 Due to the great work load (see below) it was agreed by everybody that Jana should receive as much assistance and help as possible. For the special newsletter it was agreed to contact former members of SEALG in search for personal notes, memories and other contributions. As to the SEALG blog, Jana sent out a very clear SOS: If she does not receive some contributions soon, the blog might appear ‘dead’ to the outside world! We are hence looking forward to interesting contributions, research notes, announcements etc.