Ceremony

A coming-of-age story, a tapestry of erotic and tragic liaisons, a dreamscape of nightmares and wonders. But Ceremony is, above all, a tribute to the ceremony-rich life of the Benuaq Dayak, one of the many “upriver people” of Kalimantan. This post-modern (and first) novel by Korrie Layun Rampan took Indonesian literary scene by storm when it won the Jakarta Arts Council’s novel writing competition award in 1977. After winning the award, Korrie continued to establish himself as one of Indonesia’s major literary figures, but four decades later, Ceremony still has the power to thrill, awe, and mystify readers. This edition is graced by an informative introduction by noted French scholar, Bernard Sellato, on the rituals of the Benuaq Dayak people. It also contains a critique of the original edition by Indonesian poet and translator Dodong Djiwapradja.

Korrie Layun Rampan is best known for the 357 books he’s written in the fields of science, literature, biography, culture, anthropology, sociology, and children’s interest. His novels, Ceremony and Fire Cloud Smoke, won the novel-writing completion held by the Jakarta Arts Council in 1976 and 1998, respectively. In 2006, he won the Arts Prize for Literature from the Government of Indonesia. He has also translated around 100 children’s stories. In 2013, he received 16 literary and journalistic awards from numerous organizations. His books have been translated into English, French, and Swedish, among other languages. The French magazine la Banian proclaimed him the number one literary critic in Indonesia. He is chairman of the Short Story Community of Indonesia, also the general manager and editor in chief of Suara Borneo magazine.