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Earlier this month, one of Indonesia’s greatest writers celebrated his 85th birthday. Sitor Situmorang, poet, essayist, writer of short stories, journalist, translator and dramatist. The list of accomplishments is long. Born in 1924 in the village of Harianboho in North Sumatra, Sitor’s life story gives an insight into Indonesian contemporary history, as he experienced some of his country’s most challenging and turbulent times.

After growing up under the Dutch colonial regime and receiving his formal education in Jakarta, Sitor witnessed the growth of Indonesian nationalism and the country’s fight for independence after the Japanese occupation during World War II.

He became a strong supporter of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, and was chairman for the Nationalist Party’s Art Council from 1959 to 1965, in addition to teaching at the National Theater Academy and working as the editor of a local newspaper.

Things changed dramatically under the Suharto regime, when Sitor was imprisoned for eight years. Following his release in 1975, he was awarded the Jakarta Arts Council Prize for poetry the same year and he has continued to work as a writer since.

To honor Sitor’s life, Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis in South Jakarta held a one-day event last week with film screenings, panel discussions, opera performances, a poetry reading and the launch of a book of essays by Sitor.

Paul Peters, director of Erasmus Huis, said the event was also organized to focus on an aspect of Sitor’s life that may have been overshadowed by his other accomplishments.

Addressing the guest of honor in his welcome speech, Peters said, “Today we will highlight other sides of your many faceted talents and experiences.

“Everyone knows you foremost as a poet and nationalist or Sukarnoist. But you are also a self-made anthropologist, based on your roots in Batak culture and your lived-through experience of that culture in its authentic form during your childhood in the village of Harianboho, on the shore of your beloved Danau Toba.”

Sitor’s work has greatly influenced the study of Batak culture and society in the academic world both domestically and abroad, especially his book “Toba Na Sae.”

First published in 1993, “Toba Na Sae” examines the sociocultural history of the Batak Toba ethnic group from the 13th through the 20th centuries, and the struggle of Guru Somalaing, a shaman, against the Dutch colonial rulers. The book’s third edition was also launched during the Erasmus Huis event.

Bungaran Antonius Simanjuntak, a professor of anthropology at the University of Medan, said he had been expecting an ordinary book about the Batak when he first picked up “Toba Na Sae,” but found Sitor’s work to be exceptional.

“Sitor addresses all the different aspects of the life of the Batak Toba,” Bungaran said. “From their social lives, their customs and traditions, to their struggle with the Dutch. He has written a full and detailed history of the Batak and has described their culture from the anthropologic perspective.”

Johann Angeler, a researcher at the School of Science at the University of Leiden, Netherlands, has studied Sumatran cultures for more than 20 years. He said that Sitor had a lasting influence in the academic world concerning the study of Batak culture, and that the writer’s works were a standard reference for students.

“We [at the university of Leiden] are mainly concerned with researching so-called ‘indigenous’ or ‘local knowledge systems,’ ” Angeler said. “We believe that insights from studying locally acquired knowledge and wisdom might be of use for the whole of humanity.”

“In this era of globalization, the issue of cultural diversity concerns us all,” Peters said. “The past, the present and the future of the cultures of the people in Indonesia, in which they grew up when they were young, is a place to come home to, a spiritual home from where you can grow and be Indonesian at the same time. Cultural diversity is an asset that surpasses the benefit of the individuals in that culture — it is the basis of the Indonesian approach of unity in diversity.”

Any event honoring Sitor would be incomplete without a discussion of his poetry. Afrizal Malna, a dramatist, curator and poet himself, said that reading Sitor’s poems was like visiting a gallery.

“This gallery of poetry goes from season to season, from one epoch to the next, from one encounter to another,” he said. “It is like a river that is eventually split in branches, with different currents.”

The river, he added, is a symbol for Sitor’s long journey, in search of his identity as a poet and a politician.

“This is the canon of his poetry that cannot be found with other Indonesian poets,” Afrizal said. “And that is why, I think, Sitor’s work is not only important for Indonesia, but for the literary world in general.”