A team of ANRI archivists, with Haris Budiawan and Yovi Purwono, in cooperation with two young researchers from Leiden University, Maarten Manse and Simon Kemper, completed a detailed entry of 4,423 records of the diplomatic letters in the Daily Journals of Batavia Castle between 1683 and 1744. These records give direct online access to the scans of the letters in the archive at ANRI, Jakarta. For the first time also, an overview of Indonesian rulers and their locations has been created, including the names as they appear in the sources, and their modern names.
In the Netherlands, IT specialist Marco Roling cooperated with several software engineers to select software for geographical mapping and social visualization. The young company LAB1100 in The Hague has been selected to install their Nodegoat data visualization tool. In an new way data on Indonesian history is presented with the use of these innovative software applications.
Click here to go to the visualization page on the Sejarah Nusantara website for more interactive display.
Several prominent historians, including Prof. M.C. Ricklefs, Prof. Leonard Y. Andaya, Dr. Dhiravat na Pombejra, Dr. Bhawan Ruangsilp and Dr. Ruurdje Laarhoven, contributed to the publication of a selection of eight of such diplomatic letters in the Harta Karun section of this website. These introductions and translations may be helpful for students and lecturers in early modern Asian history. The coming months, several presentations will be organized at Indonesian universities.
The completion of this first Diplomatic Letters Project was made possible with the academic support of Professor Jos J.L. Gommans from Leiden University and grants from Dutch Culture and the Royal Embassy of the Netherlands in Jakarta.
The Diplomatic Letters project will continue in 2015, extending the index with letters prior to 1683 and also later than 1744.
Please explore the Diplomatic Letters on the website of Sejarah Nusantara and read the Harta Karun section with special articles on a few selected letters of interest.