I I A S N E W S L E T T E R # 4 7 S p r i n g 0 0 8
R E S E A R C H
building with a much larger building and a meeting house, where 100 mountain people could overnight.
Furthermore, he claimed, the mountain people were more satisfied with the new buildings. However,
when the Resident said that the Raja must officiate in making sacrifices in the heathen manner – which to
the dismay of the priests his predecessors willingly did – Lorenzo refused (Laan 1962-1968: 780).
De Villeneuve retired and his successor W. C. Hoogkamer smoothed things over. The Raja was permitted
to continue to levy fines for failing to attend mass and for marriage outside the church, and he did not
have to erect a temple (the building Lorenzo claimed he had erected actually might not have counted in
local eyes as a temple). Nevertheless, Hoogkamer also told the priests that Lorenzo should think more
about his obligations to the Dutch and less about his rights. ‘He is not an independent ruler’ (Laan 1962-
1968: 813-818).
Lorenzo’s fall
Lorenzo began to show traits not just of independence, but waywardness. Complaints were made in 1894
that his agents were attempting to extract taxes in territory belonging to the Raja of Sikka (Laan 1962-1968:
969-971). In that year, too, Lorenzo led an army of 500 to Maumere (Steenbrink 2003: 146-147). The same
charges were then repeated four years later (Laan 1962-1968: 1033). He executed a relative whose support-
ers had attacked him, further displeasing the government (Barnes 2005: 9, Laan 1962-1968: 1036-1041).
Father Frencken charged that Lorenzo had repeatedly committed adultery, brought false charges against
his subjects, exiled some and imposed exorbitant fines on others who moreover were innocent. Many
fled to safety with the priests. The people and then the priests began to think that Lorenzo had gone crazy
(Laan 1962-1968: 1065-1071, Steenbrink 2003: 93). Next he tried to get some of the heads of mountain
villages to take the refugees from the priests by force, where they were formally on government land. Resi-
dent J. Vijzelaar asked Frencken to submit a report of the charges against Lorenzo, which Frencken did. It
soon caused Lorenzo much damage (Laan 1962-1968: 1079-1087, Verbaal 21 April 1906. No. 55).
Disputes in Sikka continued, and in September 1902 Lorenzo intervened with 1,000 troops (Koloniaal
Verslag 1903: 103-104, Laan 1962-1968: 1123-1130). Meanwhile, difficulties were developing on Adonara,
in particular a war in east Adonara in which the civil authorities thought Lorenzo was deeply implicated
(Barnes 2005). They responded by deposing and exiling him to Java in 1904, where he died November
1910.
Historically, Lorenzo’s reign was the last time a raja of Larantuka could try to claim any degree of inde-
pendent sovereignty. His fall marked the beginning of a move toward a 20th century form of bureaucratic
administration shaped by a militarily and financially much more powerful Dutch East Indies in which
those local rajas who remained in office increasingly served only as figureheads. In the Flores region, the
process was completed in 1960, when the national authorities eliminated the last remnants of the ‘feudal’
power structure that the Republic inherited from the Dutch, by abolishing the office of raja. Summing up
the consequences of the fall of Lorenzo II, Steenbrink writes, ‘With the deposition of Lorenzo II in 1904
the dream of a Catholic kingdom came to an end’ (Steenbrink 2003: 99). In contrast to the kingdom,
however, Catholicism flourished in the 20th century, and its leaders frequently found it easier to cooperate
with civil authorities than their predecessors had in the 19th century (Steenbrink 2007: 81). Many of the
underlying cultural and religious issues remain current, however, in the 21st century.
R. H. Barnes
is Professor of Social Anthropology at
the University of Oxford and Faculty Fellow of St. Antony’s College.
robert.barnes@anthro.ox.ac.uk
References
Barnes, R. H. 2005. ‘Hongi Hinga and its Implications: A War of Colonial Consolidation in the Timor Residency in 1904’.
Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 161-1: 1-39.
Dietrich, Stefan. 1989. Kolonialismus und Mission auf Flores (ca. 1900-1942). Hohenschäftlarn: Klaus Renner Ver-
lag.
Dietrich, Stefan. 1995. ‘Tjeritera Patigolo Arkian: Struktur und Variation in der Gründungsmythe des Fürsten hauses
von Larantuka (Ostindonesiën)’.
Tribus: Jahrbuch des Linden-Museums 44: 112-148.
Ecoma Verstege, Ch. M. G. A. M. 1877a. Kort verslag omtrent den stand van zaken en het personeel in de residentie
Timor over de maand Maart 1877 (Mailrapporten Openbaar 1877, no. 282, Fonds Code 2.10.10 Microfiche Number
D7c, Nationaal Archief, The Hague).
Ecoma Verstege, Ch. M. G. A. M. 1877b. Kort verslag omtrent den stand van zaken en het personeel in de residentie
Timor over de maand Junij 1877 (Mailrapporten Openbaar 1877, no. 534, Fonds Code 2.10.10 Microfiche Number
D7c, Nationaal Archief, The Hague).
Heynen, F. C. 1876a. Het Christendom op het Eiland Flores in Nederlandsch Indië (Studiën op Godsdienstig, Weten-
schappelijk en Letterkundig Gebied 8: 8). The Hague: van Gulick.
Heynen, F. C. 1876b. Schetsen uit de Nederlandsch-Indische Missie: De Kerkelijke Staten op Flores. ‘s-Hertogenbosch:
Bogaerts.
Humme, H. C. 1874. Verslag eeneer inspectie reis van den Resident van Timor naar Atapoepoe/Noordkust Midden
Timor/Larentoeka en Glitting/Eil. Floris/ (Mailrapporten Openbaar 1874, no. 333, Fonds Code 2.10.10 Microfiche
Number D7c, Nationaal Archief, The Hague).
Koloniaal Verslag van 1903.
Laan, Petrus. 1962-1968. Larantuka 1860-1918, 9 vols. (deposited in the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en
Volkenkunde, Leiden, The Netherlands).
Roos, Samuel. 1882. Telegram 2 junij 1882 (Mailrapporten Openbaar 1882, no. 585, Fonds Code 2.10.10 Microfiche
Number D7c, Nationaal Archief, The Hague).
Steenbrink, Karel. 2003. Catholics in Indonesia 1808-1942: A Documented History, Volume 1: A Modest Recovery 1808-
1903 (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 196). Leiden: KITLV Press.
Steenbrink, Karel. 2007. Catholics in Indonesia 1808-1942: A Documented History, Volume 2: The Spectacular Growth
of a Self-confident Minority, 1903-1942 (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
232). Leiden: KITLV Press.
—. Verbaal. 21 April 1906, no. 55. Nationaal Archief, The Hague, Ministerie van Koloniën, 1900-1963, Openbaar
verbaal, 1900-1952.
Figure 1: Crown Prince
Lorenzo aged 12, drawing
from a photograph taken in
Surabaya, ca. 1871 (Heynen
1876b: 64-65).
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