Jakarta

Settling in Batavia in 1938, epigraphist Louis-Charles Damais established the EFEO’s first representative office in Jakarta in 1952; Denys Lombard, historian of the Indonesian archipelago, succeeded him in 1966. Since then, the Jakarta Center has continued to develop its activities, guaranteed since 1976 by a cooperation agreement with the Indonesian National Center for Archaeological Research and Development (Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Arkeologi Nasional, Puslit). As Puslit was absorbed in 2021 into the National Agency for Research and Innovation (Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, BRIN), the EFEO has been operating under an agreement with BRIN since 2023.

Its location in Jakarta, which offers logistical and documentary facilities, has enabled successive generations of researchers from the EFEO and other institutions to carry out long-term fieldwork in the Indonesian archipelago.

Archeology has played a major role in the EFEO’s programs in Indonesia, from its decisive collaboration with UNESCO in the Borobudur restoration program to more recent excavations in Java and Sumatra at sites from the Hindu-Buddhist era. However, major projects in philology and literature, epigraphy, history (ancient and contemporary), and ethnology have also been or are still being conducted in collaboration with various institutes, notably BRIN, the National Museum, and the National Library.

Current areas of research include:

• Archeology of sites from the Hindu-Buddhist period in Java and Sumatra
• Online inventory of ancient inscriptions from the Indonesian archipelago
• Corpus of inscriptions from ancient Indonesia
• Javanese, Malay, and Indonesian philology and literature
• History of art from the early Islamic period in Java

The Jakarta library brings together acquisitions made at the Bandung branch between 1969 and 1990, as well as acquisitions made by the Jakarta branch since 1978. It has around 15,000 volumes in Indonesian, French, Dutch, and English, with around 20 local and foreign periodicals. The subjects covered are mainly archaeology, ethnography, languages, literature, and religions.

Since 2005, the library’s books have been cataloged in SUDOC.

In Jakarta, the EFEO center in the south of the city is easily accessible by various means of public transportation, including the MRT, the KRL Commuter Line, TransJakarta, and the Jaklingko network.

It is a research center for the humanities and social sciences. Through the research carried out by the center with its partners, the EFEO contributes to the development of knowledge about Indonesian cultures and societies, in the context of exchanges with other Asian countries, especially from a historical perspective.

The center houses a library that is open to the public Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Readers are allowed to consult and use the collections on site, but no loans are possible.

By providing an environment conducive to research, access to academic literature, and scientific exchange, the EFEO center in Jakarta is an important reference point for researchers, students, and anyone interested in the humanities and cultural studies.

• Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional
• Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia
• Museum Cagar Budaya (Museum natsonal)

Archeology, epigraphy, philology, history, and art history of premodern Indonesia, from the “classical” period to the early establishment of Islam in Java (5th to 16th centuries).

• International Intensive Courses in Old Javanese
• Thematic conferences (Bincang Arkeologi, etc.)

Since 1980, the EFEO has maintained an ambitious program of publishing works in Indonesian, developed in various collections.

1. Naskah dan Dokumen Nusantara, “Texts and Documents from the Nusantara”: devoted to the critical edition of unpublished manuscripts in various languages (Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Bugis, and also Arabic), chosen for their philological and historical interest, and more recently to the publication of theses written by Indonesian students.
2. Pustaka Hikmah Disertasi: dedicated to the publication of doctoral theses written by Indonesian students, in Indonesian, on Indonesia.
3. Terjemahan Arkeologi, “Archaeological Translations”: dedicated to the publication of translations of French archaeological works into Indonesian.

Translated with DeepL.com