Exploring Java and the Moluccas – 2025 – Paul Budde History, Philosophy, Culture

In October and November 2025 we travelled through Indonesia with a clear intention: not only to visit its landscapes and cities, but to engage with the layers of history that tie Indonesia and the Netherlands together in ways that are often unspoken, forgotten, or complicated. We did not want to travel as casual tourists. Instead, we moved slowly, visiting places where the colonial past is still visible in buildings, stories, memories and everyday life.

This journey took us from the old VOC centre of Batavia and its outlying garden city of Buitenzorg, through the colonial hill stations and military centres of Bandung and Cimahi, to the cultural heartlands of Yogyakarta and the capital of East Jave, Surabaya, and then further east to the Moluccas. We travelled to Ambon, Saparua, Nusalaut, Ternate and Tidore to trace the meanings and memories behind the so-called Spice Islands — places historically central to global trade, colonial expansion, missionary influence, conflict, trauma and identity. Standing in these places helped us connect archival history to lived experience.

These articles reflect our impressions. They are not academic analyses, nor travel writing in a conventional sense. They are personal reflections shaped by conversations, landscapes, museums, monuments, cemeteries, and stories shared by the people we met. They are attempts to understand what remains of the past, how it is remembered, and how it continues to shape identities today.

Index of Articles