LABELS: INDO & TEMPO DOELOE

I have added two new labels to the blog:
INDO and TAMARAO & TEMPO DULO.


An explanation of what these terms mean is perhaps necessary.


INDO refers to expatriates of either Indonesian or Dutch ancestry whose past is connected to the former Dutch East-Indies, and by extension their descendants - usually people now living in the Netherlands or the English-speaking world, who identify themselves as Dutch. Politically they are (were) indeed Dutch. But their home-culture, language, and social norms are partly influenced by something other. Often among themselves they speak Dutch or English with a number of Indonesian words mixed in, sometimes also words from some of the Southern Chinese languages that were common in commercial centres of the Indies, and sometimes terms peculiar to the colonial environment which their parents or grandparents experienced. Many of them also speak at least some Indonesian or Malay, or other Indies regional languages such as Sundanese, Djowo, Ambon-Malay, etcetera.

In the Netherlands, Indos range from glow-in-the-dark Caucasian to golden Indonesian and Chinese types. All are Dutch. But yet, not.
Their foods are more exciting, their social life is more vibrant, and their sense of humour is more playful than that of the 'Dutch' Dutch.


TAMARAO & TEMPO DULO; Tempo doeloe ("time before", pronounced 'tempoh doo-loo') means the olden days, the gilded past. In Dutch the term almost always refers to the East-Indies when the Dutch were still there, which is a more limited definition than the term really has. Obviously, for Indos it must mean that time, that place. That is what they remember. But their children and grandchildren never saw pre-war Indonesia. For them Tempo Doeloe is a distant and half-imaginary golden age, the stuff that old people talk about.

I use it here to label not only posts that in some way refer to the Indonesia my friends' parents knew, but also to the pleasant company of Indos in the Netherlands when I lived there (1962 - 1978), and especially to the Indos I knew in Valkenswaard - my own tempo doeloe.

Tamarao refers to a language once spoken in Eastern Indonesia, up near the sea-lanes that connect to Mindanao and Sangihe. It may still be spoken there. It was a private language for some of us, and as such a good way to reformulate the world. As many private languages are.

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Some other significant labels in this blog are DUTCH, FOOD, RECIPES, and STUFFED ARMADILLO. These are all self-explanatory. Have fun clicking.