Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder - Academic Career

Academic Career

After escaping the Baros internment in 1945, he began to teach at the Gadjah Mada University. Five years later he was made a Distinguished Permanent Professor of Pedagogic Literature at the same university, by a mandate from the Minister of Education and Culture. At this time he relinquished his former citizenship. His daily work was increased by his role as a representative of the Dean of the Literature Department Prof. Dr. R. M. Ng. Poerbatjaraka, who was spending most of his time in Jakarta. In addition, he was teaching Old Javanese in the Yogyakarta area.

When he first started lecturing, Zoetmulder used Javanese. However, he then came to realize that many students came from outside of Java and hence did not speak Javanese fluently. In order to make the study easier, he wanted to write a dictionary of old Javanese, starting his work in 1950. In the beginning he was convinced that he would be able to do it in 10 years, but in reality he would take longer to finish the dictionary. He also wrote a compendium entitled "Sekar Sumawur: Bunga rampai bahasa Djawa Kuno".

His book "Kalangwan" containing an account of old Javanese belles lettres and writers, was published in 1974, to be followed by the "Old Javanese-English Dictionary" in 1982. He admitted difficulty in writing due to his having to collect his material from microfilm located at the University of Leiden.