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Indonesian Studies: Indonesian Special Collection

A comprehensive guide for researchers and students of all aspects of the Indonesian collection

Merle Ricklefs Collection

This consists of over 2000 books and serials about Indonesia from the Dutch East Indies era. The collection covers the 19th and early 20th centuries (to 1950). This collection is named after Emeritus Professor Merle Calvin Ricklefs, AM, 1943-2019, one of the most acclaimed international scholars of Indonesia.

Details of all items can be found through the Merle Ricklefs Collection Finding Aid.

They are on closed access and can only be used in the Special Collections Reading Room.

Charles Coppel Collection

This comprises books, pamphlets, newspapers and microforms relating to Charles Coppel’s research on ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. Particular strengths include literature in colloquial or low Malay used by the Chinese and others in the urban centres of Indonesia. Religions covered include Confucianism (Khong Kauw Hwee), Buddhism, Taoism, Tridharma (Sam Kauw), Theosophy and Javanese mysticism.  Other subjects include the assimilationist movement from the 1960s, government policy on “The Chinese Problem”, and anti-Chinese violence in the late 1990s.

The majority of the Coppel collection are copies he made from collections owned by other researchers or held at various libraries, including John Kwee, Claudine Salmon, Myra Sidharta, the Perpustakaan Negara Indonesia, the H.B.Jassin Literature Documentation Centre, the Library of University Kebangsaan Malaysia (Bangi), the KITLV/Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies Library (The Netherlands), the Hendrik Kraemer Institute Library (Oegstgeest), and the library of the MAKIN (Confucian) Lithang.

Details of all items can be found through the Charles Coppel research collection on the Chinese in the 20th century Indonesia.

They are on closed access and can only be used in the Special Collections Reading Room.