Royal inspection: Queen Máxima of the Netherlands (right) walks through the Asian Library, accompanied by KITLV head Geert Oostindie. (Leiden University/Monique Shaw)
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands inaugurated in Leiden last week the Asian Library, which houses the world’s largest collection on Indonesia, including two United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heritage documents.
Rain and biting cold could not stop thousands of peoplefrom royalty and diplomats to academics and students — from descending upon Leiden’s city center for the opening of Leiden University’s Asian Library.
“Leiden University has created one of the foremost Asian libraries and a major international center for the study of Asia,” said university head librarian Kurt De Belder at the opening ceremony.
While also housing a prominent Chinese, Japanese, South and Southeast Asian collection, its Indonesian section is the library’s crown jewel.
“The Asian Library has the largest Indonesian collection worldwide,” De Belder points out, with “hundreds of thousands of items such as of books, documents, maps, photos and even LPs of early Indonesian pop music.”
The Asian Library holds the largest collection on Indonesia worldwide, and some of the foremost collections on South and Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea.
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