Anugrah Kebudayaan: Indonesian Cultural Award

Since about 1970 the Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia holds a ceremony of Anugrah Kebudayaan. Some 50-60 artists and scholars in the field of Indonesian culture, are decorated for their contribution. Since 2015 every year about four foreigners are also given these awards. Receivers vary from historians like Merle Ricklefs, Anthony Reid, and Anthony Johns to the San Egidio community for its inter-religious work.
For the 2019 edition of this award I was selected and on 10 October I received the prize and the decoration. In the argumentation of the committee this was motivated as follows (in my translation of the Indonesian text): "The Professor Emeritus of Intercultural Theology at Utrecht University has given a contribution to the intellectual development of the lecturers in the study of Islam. Has also given much attention to the interreligious relations and dialogue. Besides this has has written several important books on the history  of Indonesian Islam. Born in 1942, he has become a pioneer in the development of the Institutes of Islamic Education, especially the IAIN [State Academy of Islamic Studies] in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. He has been teaching at both places and opened possibilities for Indonesian students to continue their studies at a higher level in foreign countries. He was very helpful in the enhancement of the quality of the lecturers through the programme of cooperation with  Leiden University in the Netherlands, which resulted in a good number of Ph.D dissertations in the field of Islamology."
Besides my nomination there were three more 'foreigners' in Jakarta. Most remarkable was a Shaykh from Al-Azhar, Mahmoud Hamdi Zakzouk, decorated for his helpful assistance to Indonesian students in Cairo. In this way both the traditional Islamic and the modern orientalist centres were praised. This also shows the independent position of Indonesian Muslims. Roesman Darmohoetomo was decorated because he created a network of teachers of modern Indonesian and Javanese in his homeland of Suriname. Akiko Kamaguchi from Japan received the award for her work for the conservation and documentation of traditional West-Javanese music. Besides, there was a great variety of artists: from a traditional stry-teller of Papua to a copuist of classical Balinese texts on lontar sheets. There was a player of wayang, bsides a singer of kroncong music, besides a pantomime-player. A full list can be  by searching on the Dikbud Website under Anugrah Kebudayaan.

For the ceremony of the decorations we were on 10 October in the large badminton hall of Senayan: Istana Olahraga Bung Karno, where 8000 people can be seated. It was a ceremony with many art performances in a spectacular and festive style. I could not make good pictures and only include below one of the opening, taken with my mobile phone. I am still waiting for better pictures from the organizing ministry.

The initiative for the cooperation between Leiden University and the IAIN was of course not only my work. Instead, it was the original idea of Dr. Mukti Ali, minister of religions of Indonesia between 1970 and 1978. He contacted the Dutch Embassy of Jakarta and asked for this connection, supported by Dr. Harun Nasution, rector of the Jakarta IAIN. In the Netherlands quite many followed later in this programme. I mention here of course Martien van Bruinessen, who came as a KITLV researcher but in the early 1990s also was a  professor in Yogyakarta and supervior of many doctoral dissertations. Others were the late Johan Meuleman, Herman Beck and for a long time also Nico Kaptein.