The photographs of the Swiss geologist Wolfgang Leupold (1895–1986) represent valuable ethnographic sources, thanks to their temporal and geographical coherence. Precisely through their private character, they are exceptional testimony to a Swiss-Indonesian entangled history in the early 20th century and, simultaneously, are documents of great photo-historical interest and high aesthetic value.

Paola von Wyss-Giacosa

Andreas Isler

Memories from Borneo

1921–1927

Photographs by the Swiss geologist Wolfgang Leupold

Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich

2013

Traces of entangled Swiss-Indonesian histories of knowledge

by the Director of the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich

Colonialism and exploitation have brought about dramatic interruptions in the histories of societies all over the world. This has written entangled histories which leave scholars and the public in the West, but especially so in the ex-colonies and exploited territories, with many open questions. Western ethnographic museums, even in countries like Switzerland which did not directly engage in colonialism, hold innumerable testimonies of colonial and mercantile enterprises, of expeditions and travels, telling about local conditions and knowledge, about research interests or experiences abroad. Thus Western ethnographic collections preserve lost heritage of the most diverse kinds to be rediscovered.

Already in 1986 (revised in 2004) the International Commission of Museums ICOM finally issued a common goal: 

“Museums work in close collaboration with the communities from which their collections originate as well as those they serve.” (ICOM code of ethics for museums, Paris 2006, p. 9.)

Nowadays scholars from the countries of origin and incentive to our collections are our colleagues with whom we approach our entangled histories, our shared heritage. Our collections and archives stand ready for new kinds of joint research. It is our endeavor to make our collections of artifacts, our archives (paper, film, historical photographs, sound and music) accessible to international colleagues. In joint projects we do research on follow-up developments since the colonial era to broaden our knowledge and to ask new questions.

The exhibition “Aufschlussreiches Borneo” (“Many layered Borneo”), displayed at our museum from March 25th to November 27th 2011, was about the heritage of the Swiss geologist Wolfgang Leupold, who brought back from his work in Borneo rich documentation about local resources. The exhibition showed artifacts by and photographic documents about different ethnic groups in East Kalimantan, about landscape, but also about what it meant to live and work in Borneo as a Swiss foreigner with family. It left a deep impression on our visitors. While anthropologists of the time did research on autochthonous peoples, Wolfgang Leupold depended on the local population (Malay, Chinese, Dayak, Basap) as co-workers and as guides through the virgin forest, he worked with them. His photographs tell stories of esteem for the local peoples, the collection tells about his appreciation of the beauty and quality of their material heritage. Our craft-interested visitors were stunned by indigenous techniques of basket weaving, of working with materials like metal, woods, bark or bone in highly sophisticated ways.

We hope that the photographs and documents transferred to Indonesia through our cooperation project between anthropologists from Universitas Indonesia and our curators, Paola von Wyss-Giacosa and Andreas Isler, unfold their particular charisma and contribute to the appreciation of cultural heritage in Indonesia.

Prof. Dr. Mareile Flitsch

Zurich, November 2012

Foreword by the Ambassador of Switzerland

In 2012 Switzerland and Indonesia celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations. In the context of this notable anniversary, the Embassy of Switzerland is pleased to support the publishing of the book “Memories from Borneo” by the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich. The book recollects a part of the historical relationship between Switzerland and Indonesia, which has been in existence long before the opening of the Swiss diplomatic representation in Jakarta in 1952.

It started during the Dutch colonial period when many expatriates from Europe, including Switzerland, were recruited to support various activities of the Dutch East Indies government. Coinciding with the development of the steam engine, exploration of coal mining in the Dutch East Indies began in the middle of the 19th century requiring geological experts. The geological research continued on with the increasing demand for petroleum. A number of Swiss geologists came to the Dutch East Indies, among others Wolfgang Leupold, who lived with his small family in the remote areas of Borneo from 1921 to 1927. The first time visit to a foreign country far from the homeland is still an exciting experience today. However, at the time when transportation and information technologies were very limited, the undertaking of the Leupold family in the Dutch East Indies must have been a great and challenging adventure.

When returning to Switzerland, the family brought their memories to life in a well preserved collection of documentation and traditional objects from Borneo until it was donated to the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich. In the year 2011, the private collection of the family was exhibited in Zurich where it received a positive response from the public in Switzerland.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and great efforts of the team of the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich in compiling the book “Memories from Borneo”, the photo collection of Wolfgang Leupold can today be enjoyed by the wider public, including Indonesians, as it is written in Indonesian and English language. The book is an appreciation of the history and culture of Indonesia. May it contribute to the friendship between Switzerland and Indonesia as well as the cultural dialogue between both nations.

Heinz Walker-Nederkoorn

Jakarta, November 2012

Greetings on behalf of the Leupold family

To everybody in Indonesia, who is interested in the story of the Swiss geologist Wolfgang Leupold and the time he spent in Indonesia.

Wolfgang Leupold lived and worked in Indonesia from 1921 to 1927. During this time he took lots of photographs and collected Indonesian artefacts. These items have been in our family since then and have always been very precious to us. I am one of his eight grandchildren and I was asked to write this letter to you, because I have once been to Indonesia, but of course I write this greeting in the name of my whole family.

If he were still alive, this letter would have been written by my father, Urs Leupold, who was Wolfgang Leupold’s elder son and was born in Indonesia. It was his idea that the many beautiful things my grandfather had brought back from Indonesia should be given to a museum. He and his brother Rudolf Leupold donated the items to the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich. Together with the artful photographs my grandfather made, they give a very good impression of life in Indonesia in the early twentieth century.

It had been my grandfather’s wish to travel and live in this country since he was a boy. That is why he already learned the language while he was still in school. So when he got the opportunity to work in Indonesia, his dreams came true. I am sure that the time my grandfather spent in Indonesia was a very happy time in his life.

We all remember the stories about the time our grandparents spent in Indonesia. Many of them were passed on to me through my father, when we travelled there together after he got retired. Thanks to my grandfather’s very detailed descriptions, we found my father’s birthplace in Tarakan and two places where they had lived, one of them in Tanjung Selor and one on the island of Bunyu. This trip was a great experience. We got a very friendly welcome and we met many very nice people.

We are all glad that the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich made that wonderful exhibition about Wolfgang Leupold and we appreciate it that now a part of this will be shown in Indonesia.

Ursula Ohnewein-Leupold

Rüeggisberg, November 2012

1 Erika Leupold in Sabang, the island of We, Sumatra, December 1921.

Introduction

The present publication is dedicated to the photographs of the Swiss geologist Wolfgang Leupold (1895–1986), which stem from his stay in what is today Indonesia. As an employee of the Dutch East Indies colonial government, Leupold and his wife Erika (1897–1970) lived in Insulinde for six years (1921–1927). With his Contessa Nettel, then quite a modern camera, well suited to the tropics, he took an abundance of shots for personal use, which in retrospect appear significant for a number of reasons. For one thing, they demonstrate Leupold’s remarkable aesthetic sensibility; above all, however, they are a multifaceted pictorial documentation of great historical as well as ethnographic significance. They date mostly from between 1922 and 1924, situating them within the first period of his residence. Hardly any pictures from the later period seem to have survived. Whether some of Leupold’s delicate film, which was difficult to develop, went to ruin, whether he could not obtain more of it, or whether he was no longer able, for whatever reason, to continue capturing images is a question that can no longer be answered.

For the most part, the photos have manuscript notes by Leupold written on the back. Prints were produced on site at the time. Later, glass slides were made for purposes of projection. Nearly all of the original negatives are now lost. A journal entry from Erika Leupold records: “A small refrigerator would probably have been worth gold for us, but with our gas lighting we would not have come upon such a crazy idea. Because it was cooler, we could only work on developing and copying at night, but even so, the films were swollen.”

A large portion of the photos depicts regions and landscapes, some in Java and most in northeastern Borneo, that Leupold visited and examined, while another portion involves the drill towers and facilities created under his planning.

2 Wolfgang Leupold with his Contessa Nettel.

Consistently touching are the empathetic portraits of people associated with him. Leupold photographed the personnel he had recruited from the indigenous population to help with his expeditions. These included the Malayan and Chinese trainees, who learned the art of cartography from him, and the representatives of indigenous ethnicities, such as the Kenyah and Kayan, who lived in longhouses, as well as the nomadic Punan and Basap, who served as extremely qualified, indispensable guides for expeditions both on the waterways and in the rainforest. Also, his young family, Erika and their first son Urs, born in northeast Borneo in 1923, were photographic subjects dear to him. Leupold often conceived of his photos – slightly more than 200 of which survive – as series of images showing places and events from diverse distances and varying perspectives.

With their temporal and geographical coherence, Leupold’s photographs represent valuable ethnographic sources. Precisely through their private character, they are exceptional testimony to a Swiss-Indonesian entangled history and, simultaneously, are documents of great photo-historical interest.

Wolfgang Leupold belonged to the remarkably large contingent of Swiss people actively serving the Dutch East Indies colonial government in the Indonesian Archipelago. Many of them worked as administrators on the plantations of Java and Sumatra. Members of the Basle Mission were involved in Borneo, especially in the south of the island. For geology students as well, particularly those in petrology, it was commonplace in the early twentieth century to find work abroad at one of the large oil companies upon completion of one’s studies. In Wolfgang Leupold’s taped reminiscences one hears particulars about it:

“Mr. von Steiger […] told me he was an engineer in the service of the Mijnbouw in the Dutch East Indies. He showed me that at that very time the Dutch government was advertising positions for foreign geologists in the newspapers, because the Dutch had still not educated any. And this had a political background. Namely, that the Americans had drawn the Dutch government’s attention to the fact that Shell with its Dutch company Bataafsche Petroleum Company could work in America without problems, while all concessions in the Dutch East Indies were going to Shell. […] When the Americans complained about it, the Dutch government […] did not want to grant any exploration licenses, offering as an excuse that they wished to do the oil exploration on their own accord, then one would see, after something had been found, whether the two groups Shell and Standard could compete for it. This was a new policy and the Mijnbouw in the Dutch East Indies had no geologists who could carry out this task of finding oil for the government. Thus these ads, in which foreign geologists were sought for this purpose by the Dutch government.”

Under a five-year contract as geologist, Leupold and his wife Erika, near the end of 1921, traveled by order of the colonial government to Batavia, where the geological service had its main office. A few months later he received instructions to go to the northeast of Borneo; oil had already been produced in Tarakan for a number of years. The audiotapes end at the point where Leupold mentions his arrival in Tanjung Selor in 1922. Further places of residence can only be deduced in summary fashion, chiefly from the stock of photographs and the short comments written on their backs, also from some information on the geological-topographical maps that Leupold made, as well as from the few available pages of written reminiscences by Erika Leupold. It is difficult to determine a chronologically precise series of events. The following points nevertheless attempt a brief overview.

Wolfgang Leupold had to explore the small, uninhabited island of Bunyu northeast of Tarakan. He played an active role in its development and settlement. In 1926 he was named the director of the island’s excavation- and extraction-point Bukit Tengah. Expeditions frequently took him away from home for weeks at a time into inaccessible and often desolate areas: northward into the Tidung country, westward and southwestward into the areas of Bulungan and Berau, and southward to the half island of Mangkalihat. The family at times lived in Tanjung Selor on the Kayan River, from where explorations went deep into the bottomland of the river that branched out in the region. The explorations also led upstream toward Long Leju by the Bahau River, a tributary of the Kayan River, and even further as far as the Bem-Brem rapids. 

During this time, the Leupold family returned to Java on a regular basis for reporting and vacation. In 1926 they moved to Bandung in western Java, the new location of the headquarters of the geological service. Wolfgang Leupold was supposed to complete his final report here, and for that purpose his employment was prolonged by a few months. A further contract extension promising a desk job in the administration of the geological survey – commonly considered a sign of appreciation for having worked well in the field – was, however, declined by Leupold, who indicated the poor health of his family as the reason. After six years, early in the summer of 1927, the family moved back to Europe.

3 Erika and Wolfgang Leupold.

For both, for Erika and Wolfgang Leupold, the years in the Dutch East Indies had been a time of great intensity that decisively impacted their lives. Erika Leupold noted in her reminiscences: “I know that through the Indies I have outgrown the European life.”

Through the eloquently told stories of Leupold, who in 1943 received the position of Professor of Practical Geology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; through the slide shows for his relatives, colleagues, and circle of friends; and through the constant presence at home of objects brought back from the Dutch East Indies, this influential portion of the Swiss couple’s life over time became a piece of (sometimes intensively experienced) family history.

In an effort to preserve these stories and, at the same time, to make them accessible for research and the public, the descendants of Wolfgang and Erika Leupold decided in 2009 to hand over the ethnographica owned by them to the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich. Additionally, they offered access to various other sources, among which was the remarkable lot of photographs presented in this publication. 

For an ethnographic museum dedicated especially to the documentation and exploration of various forms of preservation, tradition, and transfer of knowledge, among others of personal and familial ones, such a large group of photographs represents extremely valuable material for viewing and studying. It deepens our understanding of the past and makes it available to the senses. This data is also of interest to researchers working in the area of Indonesian colonial history. 

For these reasons, the bulk of photographs are made accessible with the present volume, which is thematically organized and furnished with brief introductory texts. Where possible, the original commentary of the Leupolds has been used. All of Wolfgang Leupold’s handwritten notes on the photos are rendered in italics. The excerpts obtained from the diary of Erika Leupold are put in quotation marks. Since the material involves citations of historical documents, the Dutch-oriented style of writing place names has been retained with all of Leupold’s orthographic inconsistencies. Likewise, specific expressions used by Erika and Wolfgang Leupold have not been changed; terms like “kuli” and “primitive”, which now have strictly pejorative connotations, were simply part of the colonial speech of the time along with other, value-neutral expressions.

Acknowledgements

For their substantial involvement in this project, we express our sincere thanks to the following people:

Inge Ammering, Zurich; Wolfgang Behr, Zurich; Daniel Derzic, Jakarta; Esther Dillier, Hettlingen; Melinda Djohansjah, Jakarta; Djoko Susilo, Bern; Gaudenz Domenig, Zurich; Piet van Eeuwijk, Basel; J. Emmed M. Prijoharjono, Depok, Jakarta; Mareile Flitsch, Zurich; Inab dan Daniel Geiger, Zurich; Willemijn de Jong, Zurich; Thomas Kaiser, Zurich; Edgar Keller, Zurich; Thomas Laely, Zurich; Angelika Malinar, Zurich; Wolfgang Marschall, Zurich; Oktavia Maludin, Bern; Paramita B. Utami, Depok, Jakarta; Johanis Recky, Bunyu, Kaltim; Andrea Riemenschnitter, Zurich; Yoseph Agato Sareng, Koting, Flores; Jürg Schneider, Jakarta; Heinz Walker-Nederkoorn, Jakarta; Georg von Wyss, Zurich.

Our special thanks go to the family of Wolfgang and Erika Leupold:

Rita Leupold-Lavard, Amsoldingen; Regula Leupold, Amsoldingen; Elisabeth Müller-Leupold, Itingen; Ursula Ohnewein-Leupold, Oberbütschel; Rudolf und Ursula Leupold, Zollikon; Ueli Leupold, Baden; Barbara Schiltknecht-Leupold, Haslen; Christoph Leupold, Fällanden; Käthi Basler-Leupold, Winterthur; Sabine Brassel-Leupold, Zollikon.

Wolfgang Leupold’s personal file in the Hague’s Colonial Office.

Applying in the Dutch East Indies

At the beginning of the 20th century, Swiss students of geology like Wolfgang Leupold had the opportunity of taking a position abroad at one of the large oil companies after the completion of their studies. As Leupold narrated decades later on audiotape, he had been fascinated by the Malayan island world since his early schooldays. His application to the Colonial Secretary mentioned that he had achieved oral and written mastery of both Dutch and Malay. In the spring of 1921 he traveled to the Hague and carried on negotiations with both the Batavian Petroleum Company and the colonial government.

He was determined not to leave behind in Switzerland Erika Bleuler – his wife-to-be, whom he would marry early in the summer of 1921 –, so he chose the lower-paying government position. Unlike the Batavian Company’s regulations, this job allowed him to bring his wife with him for the entire duration of the five year contract.

School Atlas of the Dutch East Indies, 1924; plate 1: overview map of the Dutch East Indies, scale 1:10.000.000 (detail).

John Noble, Notes sur Bornéo, 1921 (map detail). Since 1921, Wolfgang Leupold owned a copy of this work.

4 Travel impression.

The Journey

The departure to the Dutch East Indies was delayed on several occasions. All passenger ships were fully booked, since numerous Europeans were returning to the colonies after lengthier war-related home leave. In Antwerp, the Leupolds in 1921 could board the freighter Djokia. The young passengers seemed to enjoy the voyage in an uncomplicated atmosphere. Turning down the offer to transfer on to a regular passenger ship in the Egyptian Port Said, they continued traveling in the freighter through the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean, past Ceylon and to the island We on the northwest tip of Sumatra. On December 24, 1921, the Djokia reached Java on the quay of Batavia (presently Jakarta). A few hundred meters from the main office of the geological service, where Wolfgang Leupold had his first desk, the Leupolds checked into a simple hotel at Molenvliet, the connecting channel between the docking area and the administration center of the Dutch East Indies capital at that time.

5 Island of We, Sumatra, December 1921.

6 Travel impression.

7 Travel impression.

8 On the port of Sumenap, eastern Madura. The vehicle on the left is a so-called Sado (from dos-à-dos), the standard vehicle for doing errands in the cities. They are readily available everywhere, replacing the tram and costing 1 guilder per hour to rent. There is just enough room for two people. On the right is a “Grobak”, a heavy, two-wheeled cart that transports goods (e.g. luggage to the train station, etc.). I am the “Orang blanda” (corrupted from “Bolanda”, Dutch, and then Europeans in general) standing in front of it.

At Java

After the Leupold couple’s arrival in Batavia in December 1921, they stayed in Java on multiple occasions. Among the photographs, there are impressions of market scenes in Java’s eastern cities Surabaya and Malang as well as in the Chinese quarters of Batavia, which lies in the island’s west. A lengthy holiday from January to March of 1924 led first to Madura and onward into the heights of eastern Java. In western Java as well, the couple sought to escape the warm and humid climate by traveling to higher elevations toward Bandung and Pengalengan, a quiet place to the south. Wolfgang Leupold became acquainted with this region early in 1922 on his first exploration tour. In order to demonstrate his qualifications and independence in the tropics and foreign surroundings, he had to reconnoiter a path in southwestern Java that led southwards around the Papandayan Volcano. Decades later, when Wolfgang Leupold was more than 80 years old and recorded his memories on audiotape, this easily accomplished adventure received considerable attention. The richly detailed description exemplarily shows Leupold’s ability and desire to embrace the unfamiliar, along with his persistence in the fulfillment of his responsibilities and his readiness to handle himself unconventionally when necessary.

Judging by the photographs, Leupold could not resist the temptation to pursue his geological interests even while on vacation, exploring and describing the high volcanoes. He logged information about the Tengger Mountains with the volcanoes Bromo and Semeru, the island’s highest mountain. He also made detailed observations on the Kelut, a volcano notorious for its devastating eruptions, describing the crater walls’ features and layers. The Swiss geologist obviously enjoyed himself in the colonial realm of Insulinde.

9 At Pengalengan, western Java, 1924.

10 After sunset at a fish pond behind our boardinghouse in Pengalengan, overlooking Gunung Tilu.

11 View from Theeonderneming Wanagiri (height 1,260 meters) over towards the south coast. Morning mood. In the foreground my kulis, in the background Tertiary hill country, to the right the ocean was visible. On the bottom left are small, matt-covered huts, below which is a place for cultivating cinchona saplings with protection from the downpour.

12 A typical Sundanese “farm” at Pengalengan, surrounded by bamboo hedges, banana gardens, corn plantations, and fish ponds. To the right in the foreground tree ferns, typical mountain vegetation for Java.

13 Lake Tjilentja at Pengalengan. In the distance, the volcanic peaks Wajang and Windu, 2200 and 2100 meters above sea level.

14 At Pengalengan, western Java, 1924.

15 Erika Leupold, probably at Pengalengan.

16 In the middle, my four reliable looking porters on the return trip across Bandoeng from the “restaurant” where they ate lunch for ten cents. While taking photos, there was a large crowd.

17 A typical old street in Old Batavia’s Chinatown.

18 Old Chinese houses in the Chinese quarter of Batavia’s lower city; February 1924.

19 Market scene in Passar Pabean. Old Surabaya.

20 Street scene.

21 Crater and eastern slope of Bromo peak, behind it the shallow floor of the old, enormous Tengger crater, over which the 400 meter high south wall of this crater protrudes.

22 View from the edge of the enormous craters of the Tengger Mountains (8 kilometers in diameter), their northern edge (left), the wide crater floor filled flush with ash and sand and the rising, secondary Batok peak, which extends approximately 300 meters above the crater floor.

23 On the sharp and barely three step wide rim of the Bromo crater, between the steep outer slope and the dizzying plunge toward the bottom. My companion, chemist Nettel from Vienna. March 1924.

24 From a steep angle, a view into the crater of the small, active Bromo peak in the middle of the Tengger Mountains. Smoke and sulfur fumes rise from the ca. 150 meters deep chasm. Weak eruptions occur periodically, mostly producing ashes. March 1924.

25 View from the highest edge of the Smeru crater (Djongkring Selaka), 3,676 meters, facing over both the crater and the low southern crater rim and toward the lowlands. Photo taken from a steep angle downwards. From a bird’s-eye view, morning clouds hover over the low hills of the sedimentary southern mountains. At the top of the clouds the sinuate southern coast and beyond it the blue wall of the ocean.

26 In the jungle as the daily thunderstorm begins at about two o’clock in the afternoon. The first clouds are sweeping through the treetops and it is becoming very chilly. To the left is a tree fern. The trees in the background are all twice as tall as a normal European beech. – Tjiherang gorge between Wanagiri and Karangtamaritis, height 1,170 meters.

27 Tarakan.

Tarakan and Bunyu

Beginning in 1906, oil was produced in the region of Tarakan island. Further oil reserves were suspected in the area. Wolfgang and Erika Leupold made their way toward Surabaya, traveling by mail steamer to the Madura island and into the south of Borneo. From there, they went up the Barito River toward Banjarmasin and then further along the coast toward Tanjung Selor, the capital of the sultanate of Bulungan. The couple initially lived on the island of Tarakan. They declined living in the government office complex, instead renting a simple hut.

Geographic surveys were being done on the island of Bunyu, which is approximately twenty kilometers long and located to the northeast of Tarakan. The first stationary camp was established in November 1922 on the southeastern point of Bunyu, and the Leupold family relocated there the same year. At a raised point on the steep slope, a house complete with a veranda was built using timbers and leaf-panels. On the beach, several huts for the kulis, the local porters, were put up.

28 Tarakan, the wireless city (the three white masts). To the left, at the level of the white trunks, is the grave of Mr. von Steiger [Leupold’s first superior]. To the right and toward the back is the Europeans’ camp.

29 The street from Linkas, the [port of] Tarakan, after the […], situated [in]land about ¾ of an hour. The white line = […] pipes. In the background the drilling terrain.
Handwriting of Erika Leupold: The street from Linkas to Tarakan; a hot walk when you must go to Tarakan, approximately 50 minutes.

30 First Bunyu camp.

31 First Bunyu camp.

32 First Bunyu camp.

33 “Still during the first year, we traveled to the small, uninhabited island of Boenjoe which means ‘turtle’. There the kulis built a nice and quite primitive house, the walls made from palm leaves (no shutters), the floor from round timber, i.e. small tree trunks. I took along a cockatoo, a cat, and a dog.”

34 “For the journey we purchased a bird cage that we only had to carry to the KPM ship. On the ship, my bird flew around freely and, at the destinations, the natives marveled at the ship, because a little bird was flying there freely. For many weeks, it was my dear companion through the intense loneliness. It flew in the open air and would come immediately when I whistled. While sewing, I had merry, dear company: all shimmering objects were pecked, the thimble was bumped again and again until it lay on the floor, and when I had a dress with push-buttons, on the back or in the front, it was tugged until the buttons opened. That made for lovely company during the first lonely month.”

35 In the bush with engineer Vis as well as Sikai and Saki from my old kuli guard. Under a fan palm. Northern Boenjoe, February 14, 1923.

Exploration of Bunyu Island

Wolfgang Leupold soon embarked on explorations along the southeastern beach of Bunyu island toward the north, where, on the slope toward the sea, layers of coal emerged. On the beach lapped by the tide, interesting fossils were discovered, larger foraminifera and nummulites indicating the geologic era of the surfacing deposit layers. Some of these layers were known for their oil prospects.

In northeastern Borneo, the task of the Swiss geologist was, in association with an international staff of engineers and other specialists, to do an extensive survey of the region’s geology and to record the findings in top-view and profile maps. Beside hired porters, various local trainees, Malayans and Chinese, accompanied Wolfgang Leupold on these expeditions, learning the art of cartography from him.

36 On the move! A transport of my luggage from the camp at the “Long Cape” of the eastern Boenjoe coast toward the “Bamboes River” on the inner island. The third person from the left is my boy, leaning on the heaviest load, the mattress for the camp bed. On the right, with the pickaxe, is Kassim, “the pretty one”. In the middle sits Sikai, the “chief” of my koelis, an elderly father of a family. Resting on the coast in the shade of a wall of lignite. February 19, 1923.

37 The camp on the “Long Cape” at the mouth of the “Great River,” eastern coast of Boenjoe. The camp is located on a sandbar between river and sea, close to the estuary. To the right under the Tjemaras [Casuarina trees] are my huts; to the left, the koelis’ houses. February 6–19, 1923.

38 Bunyu, first camp.

39 My kulis and Opnemer trainees on the final journey in northern Boenjoe, at Sungai Oetara and the ending [?], from April 15 until May 13, 1923. From left to right: the kulis Semat and Amir; standing, my Opnemer trainee from Banjarmasin, Arsad, a very nice boy; then the kulis Adam and Salim (in the background with a brigand hat, and accordingly a real rascal); my boy Dewah with the “canteen”; standing, the Chinese Opnemer trainee Tjia Jong Bi; sitting, the kuli Akang. On the return journey to the coast, resting on the highest “peak” of Boenjoe at about 140 meters over sea level. Opnemer trainees are young Malayans, who have finished primary school and now receive a practical education to become Mantris, i.e. independent domestic topographers.

Detail of a map of Bulungan-Berau drawn by Wolfgang Leupold, 1:500.000. Netherlands Center for Biodiversity Naturalis, Leiden.

40 My camp on the “Bambus River” in northern Boenjoe. In the foreground my hut with cot, mosquito net, and numbered (by Erika!) transport tins. To the left the table with an afternoon snack, to the right the koelis’ hut. Below is the creek. February 20–25, 1923 (photographed 5 o’clock in the evening).

Expeditions along the Rivers of Bunyu

At Tanjung Panjang, the “Long Cape”, at the eastern coast of south Bunyu with its characteristic lignite deposits, Wolfgang Leupold established a camp on a sandbar between river and sea, close to the estuary of the “Great River”. He conducted operations here as well as embarked on explorations to the north, into the jungle in the interior of the island. The rivers and streams were highly convenient access points into the dense vegetation of the rain forest.

In February 1923 – as attested by an entire series of photographs – the “Bamboo River” was traversed as well as, in the same month, the Sungai Minyak, the “Oil River”, in the vicinity of which drilling had already occurred. Natural gas escaped at the bottom of the ravine nearby. In April and May 1923, Leupold and his co-workers set off on a concluding expedition for the time being, to explore the largest watercourse of the island, the “Northern River”, Sungai Utara.

41 At a watercourse in Bunyu’s interior.

42 A resting place.

43 Expedition in Bunyu. A resting place.

44 The camp on the “Bamboes River” in northern Boenjoe: the kulis’ hut. In the canvas chair Sarbandi, my Javanese topographer. In the background tree ferns. February 20, 1923, 4 o’clock in the evening.

45 The kitchen in my camp at Sungai Utara, May 4, 1923. The photo is taken from my breakfast table. My boy Dewah is making coffee!

46 The camp on the “Bambus River” in northern Boenjoe, February 20, 1923, 5 p.m. To the left is the hut of the domestic topographer and of his koelis. In the middle my koelis’ hut and to the right my hut with the flag and the very promising kitchen smoke. Real evening atmosphere.

47 A beam of morning sunlight falls on the bamboo thicket. At the “Bambu River,” a bit beneath my camp. February 21, 1923, 8 o’clock in the morning. To the left, as an old friend, my ice pick.

48 An approximately four-meter-thick lignite stratum of the Boenjoe deposits (Late Pliocene) at Sungai Alo, a creek in the southern Sadjan region (coastal strip Boeloengan-Berouw).

“Geological Description of Northeastern Borneo”

Wolfgang Leupold used various means for the geological study of the area apportioned to him: expeditions into the country, topographical surveys, and very often digs as well as section borings at locations that seemed suitable. The geological strata were dated according to the newly emerging methods of micropaleontology. The developmental processes were recorded and the locations calculated at which test drilling might provide further information.

In the final year of his stay in Borneo, Leupold was promoted to second class geographer and conducted the exploratory operations at Bunyu. He struggled while drafting his anxiously awaited final memorandum, “Geological Description of Northeastern Borneo, Landscapes of Bulungan and Berau”. What he had investigated with unparalleled zeal and earnestness in this area, turned out to be almost too much to find an adequately detailed mention in his report.

At the beginning of 1927, he was called to return to Bandung at Java. He had received a six months extension for his position, the point of which was to allow more time for drafting the manuscript. But the family moved back to Europe early in the summer of 1927, with Leupold unable to present his findings. Health problems were the stated reason.

What ensued was a lengthy struggle over the completion of his study, which was not only geologically but also economically valuable. Factoring into the struggle were the Dutch emissaries and embassy in Bern as well as Isaäk Martinus van der Vlerk, Leupold’s academic friend and companion from the Dutch East Indies. Eventually, and in multiple stages, he delivered a meticulously written report of over 600 pages. The report was a pioneering feat methodologically in this field at that time, distinguishing itself as a work of the highest quality and precision. However, it was never published as hoped and promised.

Geological sketch of the southeastern coast of Bunyu by Wolfgang Leupold for: Isaäk Martinus van der Vlerk, Groote Foraminiferen van N. O. Borneo, in: Wetenschappelijke Mededeelingen, Nº 9, Bandung 1929, p. 49.

49 The southern Boenjoe coral fringing reef, directly in front of our old camp on the east coast. Roughly 400–500 meters from the coast, the coral begins in the water that, at the lowest tide, is about knee-deep. This picture is during the lowest tide (a spring ebb, at full moon). Between the coral colonies everything is full of sea cucumbers, urchins, tiger slugs, etc.

50 A nice exposure of the oil anticline of southern Boenjoe where it crops out on the southeast coast. In the middle of the image, a flat bend [sketch] is clearly visible in the thick layers of lignite. At the corner, where the large tufts of pandanus go down over the walls of lignite, strong gas wells escape exactly on the axis of the anticline.

51 A cape built from a layer of lignite on the east coast of Boenjoe (with Tandjong Bunder, the “Round Cape”). A fatiguing walk home along the coast during high tide. We were restricted to the narrow strips of land between an ocean of water and an ocean of vegetation. February 11, 1923.

52 A lignite cliff with a protruding abrasion plane on the southeast coast of Boenjoe, photographed at low ebb.

53 A magnificent and, for tropical geology, unbelievably beautiful outcrop. The peak of the oil anticline of southern Boenjoe, visible in a three-meter thick lignite layer. Upper reaches of the “Oil River,” Songei Minjak. There is currently drilling in this area. February 25, 1923. Here, natural gas is escaping from natural wells in the depth of the ravine.

54 A view from above into the geological exploratory trench, the whole of which is visible in another picture. This is the spot where the sought-after, substantial fault crosses into the trench. The bank of coal on the left comes to an end toward the right with a steeply declining slickenside that somewhat wavily extends from top to bottom across the picture. In order to produce this exposure, about three weeks of continual groundwork were necessary. Doing detailed geological exploration here is an expensive endeavor. Secure results are only attainable with the help of exploratory drilling and shafts.

55 This is not a military trench but rather an exploratory one, an artificial exposure. In the jungle of Boenjoe, where outcrops are scarce, this is often the only method to obtain certainty about a tectonic question. Here it concerned a significant fault, whose exposure at the surface was searched for and eventually found through an exploratory trench at a right angle to the approximate direction of the break. In the back area of the dig, a carbon bank comes into view and suddenly ends toward the front. That is where the plane of the fault runs. It is rather costly to carry out geology this way!!!

First page of the Table of Contents in Wolfgang Leupold’s report of geologically-relevant results. Netherlands Center for Biodiversity Naturalis, Leiden.

56 Port at Sungai Buaya, Bunyu.

The Development of Bunyu

The island of Bunyu, where Wolfgang Leupold early in 1922 carried out his first surveys, was uninhabited at the time. In the course of a few years, the island developed into a production site. Following the discovery of gas and oil, the oil-mining village Bukit Tengah (“Center Hill”) emerged in the southern part of Bunyu. By the Buaya River, a path was hacked into the woods with its beginning point at a small port facility, which was supposed to supply material and provisions. Multiple shots document the progressive settlement: the mooring for boats and the street leading to the “Oil City”, the employees’ residences, the office, the warehouses and workshops.

Daily occurrences were also photographed and received comment, such as the solemn farewell bid to the engineer Ploem. He was the apparently unpopular superintendent at Bunyu from January to August of 1923, whose position Leupold would receive in 1926 until his recall to the Geological Service’s head office in Java.

57 August 1923. The pier that I began one year ago by the Sungai Boeaja, now a point of much traffic. Here, the street begins that leads toward Boekit Tengah, our “Oil City.” In this image, there are four Chinese junks that arrived with vegetables, fish, and other similar products from the English territory near Tavao; additionally, there are two indigenous fishing boats. Eerie mangrove swamp forest surroundings. On the pier toward the right a tank-like motor tractor just arrived that will haul the transports from S. Boeaja to Boekit Tengah. That will be a great relief, since until now things had to be carried up 2.5 kilometers.

58 The pier for boats and the beginning of the street toward our camp and drilling area in Boenjoe.

59 Departure of engineer Ploem, who was unfortunately the leader at Boenjoe from January to August of 1923. Great celebration accompanied his departure – note the smoke from fireworks rising in the background. The koelis themselves were the escorts. The joy was undivided. At the front from left to right: Mrs. Veldkamp, the wife of the new boss; engineer Harting; Mrs. Vis; engineer Vis; engineer Ploem (wearing a khaki shirt), behind them Mrs. Dr. Afanasieff and her husband.

60 A section of the street from the coast toward Boekit Tengah, our oil city on Boenjoe. Looks like a forest landscape painted by [Robert] Zünd, doesn’t it?

61 A road way between the port at Sungai Buaya and Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

62 The camp Boekit Tengah, drilling location Boenjoe from the northwest. Our house is not visible. The entire cleared area is about 250 meters squared. This is “our world,” all around enclosed by the jungle walls. With much regret one remembers the old camp with its open view of the sea.

63 Mechanical well Nº 2, now at 340 meters depth.

Drill Rigs on Bunyu

Step by step, test wells were sunk on Bunyu. Initially, this happened with an unsophisticated method, which involved hanging the drill rods on the high trunks of still living trees. The simple equipment enabled holes up to several hundred meters deep at a rate of thirty meters per day.

As Leupold writes, the rods used for geological drillings were hollow. During the drilling, a small pump pressed water through a hose and the rods into the well. This water sprayed out from under the drill bit, rose up in the well, and brought the drilling dust to the surface.

The purpose of these wells was the pursuit of a marker from which the profile of the local anticline, a bulge of stratified rock generated by folding, could be calculated and recorded. Subsequently, high towers were specially timbered, enabling even deeper, mechanical drilling.

64 On the left, a small oil tank, which is still waiting for future content. Behind it is the tower from manual well Nº 1. Above, on the hill is the tower from manual well Nº 5. To the upper right are the generator house and the boiler house of well 2.

65 An appropriate drill bit is slowly being screwed in by kulis. This well is being drilled 240 meters deep in this way. The drill rig […] secured on two still living trees […] pumped with a pump […] drill.

66 Two living trees, joined by beams, serve as drill tower. This structure is strong enough to drill about 400 meters depth. This well serves to explore an oil horizon found at 300 meters depth in well 1, but there produced almost nothing but natural gas. In the background is the mechanical well Nº 2.

67 The first drill tower on Boenjoe, in operation since the beginning of February. In mid-February 1923, the well struck a strong gas layer, whereby stones the size of fists, were spit above the tower, which is thirty meters high.

68 Mechanical well Nº 3, southern Boenjoe. This is the newest well; it is just being started! It stands in the middle of a thick forest approximately one kilometer south of the central camp.

69 In front of the first drill tower on Boenjoe: the inside of our repair shop at Boenjoe. On the left, the new boss, engineer Ploem; in the middle, engineer Vis, and operator Bosch. February 25, 1923.

Natural Gas

The explorations and test pits on Bunyu led to diverse results. Wells drilled during 1923 and 1924 struck mostly natural gas, which blasted up with tremendous force and initially proved difficult to bring under control. Later on, the high pressure of this gas was used to generate electricity to supply all the houses of the oil colony and run all the machines in the huge hall of the repair shop.

Crude oil, the main thing being sought, was also discovered on the small island, but for now not in the large amounts in which it was being produced on Tarakan. The island of Bunyu’s extensive coal deposits, which Leupold frequently photographed and recorded, were at the time not yet sufficiently interesting to be mined commercially.

70 The inside of our workshop on Boenjoe. Lathes and a generator for electric lighting – all of it is powered by this steam machine, which is in turn powered by natural gas from well Nº 1. This well, which since November 1924 has been in a nearly constant state of gas eruption, delivers an enormous amount of natural gas (with a small amount of oil) under very high pressure. This gas is easily let into the steam machine in place of steam, powering the machine through its pressure. We thus receive power and electricity absolutely free.

71 The inside of our repair shop on Boenjoe.

72 Gas eruption at well Nº 1, Boenjoe, at 490 meters depth, November 29, 1924. A crosspiece with two open discharge points is attached to the pipe protruding out of the well, above the main slide gate valve. Attaching this equipment with the gas already shooting upward from the well pipe was no easy task. The gas bursts out of the two horizontal discharge points, visible as a white-blue beam and emitting an indescribable, unimaginable roar. The pressure is 60 atmospheres! We could only approach it with heads thickly bandaged with cotton wool. The kulis endured it better, but were a bit deaf afterward. Daily production is 150,000 m³ gas.

73 Payment for the staff at the drilling area on Bunyu. Wolfgang Leupold sits at the table in the middle.

Bukit Tengah, the “Oil City” of Bunyu

In the middle of the island of Bunyu at the location of the first natural gas and crude oil finds, not far from the drilling area, a small colony quickly emerged, consisting of people active in the production business. They were mainly European engineers and technical workers.

All of these people – among whom were Leupold and his family as well as the indigenous workforce of handymen, kulis, and assistants – lived permanently in the settlement. This “Oil City” was characterized by huts, houses, and utility rooms, having been built on a rain forest clearing of 250 square meters. Bukit Tengah also had a guest house intended for short-term visitors, usually business people or inspectors from the colonial government.

The Dutch queen’s birthday, August 31, was a holiday in the colonial empire, and even images of the indigenous staff’s elaborately staged festivities were captured by Wolfgang Leupold with his camera.

74 The camp Boekit Tengah in its first period (beginning in 1923). To the left, the house where we lived in 1923 after the birth of little Urs. In the middle is the so-called Passan grahan (a residence for people traveling through). To the right, the first warehouse.

75 The camp Bukit Tengah, drilling area in southern Boenjoe, viewed from the northwest. At the far right, the house of engineer Veldkamp, in the middle toward the right, the house of operator Domzalsky. In the middle toward the left, consecutively in a row: the office (with open window), the warehouse, and the workshop. At the far left, the house of a drill master. On the right arrives the street up from Soengei Boeaja, the “port.” Transport of tubes with an american tractor.

76 In front of our house: the tram of Boenjoe, a tank-like motor with caterpillar-treads and a sled attached for people. Sitting in it are engineer Veldkamp and his wife and engineer Oppenvort, our old boss from 1922, briefly here for an inspection. Behind is Erika with Urs, who particularly admires the tank vehicle. As soon as he hears the motor from a distance, he runs into the garden.

77 re

77 vs Small manual boring for geological purposes at the camp area. The flush-percussion drilling system of our big wells is duplicated in miniature. In the background our former house from 1924. To the rear left the wide roof of our current house.

78 Holiday in celebration of the queen’s birthday on Bunyu.

79 Holiday in celebration of the queen’s birthday on Bunyu.

80 Holiday in celebration of the queen’s birthday on Bunyu.

81 The Leupold family in front of its house in Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

The Leupold Family on Bunyu and in Tanjung Selor

Many of Wolfgang Leupold’s photos portray everyday life of his loved ones on the island of Bunyu and, around 1923 or 1924, in Tanjung Selor on the Kayan River. In contrast to the pictures of geological expeditions, these photos hardly ever bear notes on the back. Nevertheless, they can be situated with local and chronological precision and, on occasion, can be brought into connection with the reminiscences of Erika Leupold. Among the noteworthy events, for instance, were the fairly regularly occurring floods.

Leupold photographed the changing moods of the forest and river landscapes as well as the garden and the little son, Urs. But he also portrayed the other side of his everyday life: Dayak people, presumably from among his co-workers, who visited the family’s house before or after an expedition.

The images are also of documentary value, because objects that the Leupolds acquired during their years in the Dutch East Indies are recognizable in them: two wooden elephants, an inheritance from Mr. von Steiger, the superior who died early, were beloved mementos. They were always part of the furnishing of the living rooms along with Chinese ceramics, cans and bowls from a hammered brass casting, textiles from Java and Sumba as well as Dayak artifacts. Together with images from their Swiss homeland, these items decorated and enlivened the changing residences of the family.

82 Our current house in Pulau Boenjoe. It still consists of palm leaf panels, though it is quite well done, so that the rooms look quite comfortable. We also have electric light, as the promising conductors indicate. Following our return from Tarakan. August 1923.
Handwriting of Erika Leupold: This was shortly before it had to be burned down, because the walls were full of cockroaches, the small kind.

83 Erika and Urs Leupold in front of the house in Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

84 In the garden, Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

85 Erika Leupold with Urs, Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

86 Urs Leupold in the garden, Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

87 Interior of the last residence in Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

88 Erika and Urs Leupold, Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

89 Last residence of the Leupold family in Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

90 Last residence of the Leupold family in Bukit Tengah, Bunyu.

91 The “Tanjong” (i.e. “the Point,” “the Cape”) of Tanjong Seilor. As is commonly known, this village lies at the innermost point of the large delta of the Kajan, where the first two delta branches of the river divide. Here, a view upstream from the outermost point between the arm farthest to the south (left) and the 500 meters wide main arm (right). Looking upstream, one sees the Kajan suddenly break out into the delta plains, curving significantly from the first hills (Eocene limes) of the backcountry. Our house is fifty meters downstream from the Point.

92 An evening view from the residence in Tandjong Seilor on the 800 meters wide Kajan River. On the opposite bank is the sultan’s village with his palace. Behind it the approximately 150 meters thick wall of Early Oligocene nummulite limes with Nummulites Fichteli, through which the Kajan breaks out directly above Tandjong Seilor from the interior and immediately forks into its delta branches. Tandjong Seilor (i.e. a Cape) lies on the point of a delta island between this wide delta branch and a narrower one about 200 meters wide.

93 Erika Leupold with her dog in Tanjung Selor.

94 Adam, Idris, and “Babu,” attendants in the Leupolds’ house.

95 Floodwaters in Tanjung Selor on the Kayan River.

96 Floodwaters in Tanjung Selor on the Kayan River.

97 Floodwaters in Tanjung Selor on the Kayan River.
“I was not able to plant vegetables in Boelongan, because the ebb and flow regularly caused us flooding. The rowboat was always ready beneath the house. The first time I found it so funny that I let a native row me into the village. He in turn thought it was funny to overturn the boat and was probably astonished that I simply swam to our still quite distant little house with the keys in my hand. There, I took my swimsuit from the suitcase and, since I was already wet, I used the opportunity to swim around our little house. At any rate, afterward I took a big swig of a schnapps that we had in our luggage but that I did not and still do not enjoy. But since the bandjer-water is very dirty and dangerous, this was a necessary precaution.”

98 View from the veranda in Tanjung Selor.

99 Promenade on the Kayan River in Tanjung Selor.
“Papa never held out for long in hot Boelongan, since he hated writing up reports in the hot little village. Altogether, someone could walk for ten minutes, on the one side lies the river delta, on the other the jungle starts. I always enjoyed sitting by the river when the glowing sun went down swiftly.”

100 In the garden in Tanjung Selor.

101 Urs on the veranda in Tanjung Selor.

102 Erika Leupold with Urs in front of the house in Tanjung Selor.

103 Urs in the garden at the house in Tanjung Selor.

104 Dayak people on the steps of the Leupolds’ house in Tanjung Selor.

105 Dayak man on the stairs of the Leupolds’ house in Tanjung Selor.

106 Living room of the Leupold family in Tanjung Selor.

107 Living room of the Leupold family in Tanjung Selor.

108 Living room of the Leupold family in Tanjung Selor.

109 The Leupolds’ dining room, probably at Java (Bandung?).

110 Wolfgang Leupold (left) with engineer Harting in a bivouac in the rain forest, northeastern Borneo.

The Basap of the Bulungan District

In October of 1923, Wolfgang Leupold, together with engineer Harting, traveled in the Sajan region south of Tanjung Selor. The primary focus of exploration was the area of the Binai River, a tributary of the Sajan. Here, Leupold encountered nomadic Basap groups. Further south, on the Makam River in the Berau district, he came across the Punan, also a nomadic ethnic group.

Up to this day, very few studies on the Basap people of eastern Kalimantan exist. For this reason, Leupold’s preserved photographs and notes represent historical source material of substantial ethnographic import. This material describes the Basap’s social organization in small family groups in addition to the way of life of the forest-dwelling people as hunters and gatherers armed with spears and blowpipes. Yet Wolfgang Leupold also comments on their practice of bartering with desirable products from the rain forest as well as their sense of direction, which made them outstanding scouts.

111 The leaf canopy of a Bassap group in the central section of the Binai River in the Sadjan region, southern Boeloengan. October 1923.

112 Leaf canopy of a Bassap family on the Binai River in the Sadjan region, southern Boeloengan. The Bassap organize themselves in small family groups of only a few people in the forest and are nomadic Dayaks of a most primitive culture. They are still in the gathering phase of culture and live off forest fruits and game hunted with spears and blowpipes. Under this recently erected canopy lives the largest group in the Binai River region: 1 great-grandfather + great-grandmother; 1 grandfather + grandmother; 1 married man with wife and 2 children; 2 unmarried men. October 1923.

113 On the Binai River in the Sadjan region, southern Boeloengan. Bassaps under their leaf canopies. Bassaps are Dajak of outmost primitive culture, hunters and gatherers roving in the forest. They build primitive leaf canopies – which, by the way, served as the model for my forest bivouacs – and have a single roof surface made from palm leaves. Here is an elderly man, who traded (probably gutta-percha) with Malayan dealers and received a headscarf that does not suit him at all. 2 young unmarried men; the one in the middle, named Manjan, was my guide for a long time – an amazing scout. October 1923.

114 The Basap Manjan, for a long time Wolfgang Leupold’s guide.

115 Bassaps from the Sadjan coastal strip between Boeloengan and Berouw. This is the group from the upper reaches of the Sungai Binai, a small river on which three such groups live. These three families control an area of approximately 200 square kilometers, which they divided among themselves into three hunting areas in which they incessantly move about and hunt, going from one brook to another, however always keeping within the established boundaries. All in all, these three groups probably amount to not more than twenty-five people on 200 square kilometers. The clothes in which they currently dress themselves come from trading resin and similar forest products with the people from Boeloengan.

116 Punan women at Kampung Long Sling [?] on the Makam River, Berouw. Still genuine Punans: pure hunters and gatherers without cultivated areas. Most of them suffer from the “Dajak scabies” (Tinea imbricata, ringworm), a skin disease where the skin constantly flakes, which leads to map-like patterns on the skin.

117 Punan from Kelei in the upper reaches of a Makam tributary, Berouw. He carries a bush knife on his left; on the right a bamboo quiver for poisoned arrows and, in his hand, a blowpipe, which functions as a spear as well. The Punans are the most primitive nomadic Dajaks of Boeloengan and Berouw, organized in small groups and living permanently in the forest. They roam across the river basins of the wild, small tributaries and upper reaches where no ordinary village-Dajaks live.

118 A beautiful outcrop in the Sungai Long Tani, a tributary creek of Sungai Birang, Berouw: Globigerina marl from Sadjan (Aquitanian, Early Miocene). The creek flows exactly in the striking direction of the stratified slabs that fall isoclinally to the right. In the background two Bassaps (nomadic forest Dajaks from Boeloengan-Berouw).

119 Sape player on the Kayan.

On the Kayan River: Tanjung Selor

Situated on the Kayan River or (as it was called in Leupold’s time) the Bulungan River, the capital of the Bulungan district, Tanjung Selor, formed the starting point for journeys into the interior of the country. From here, the Swiss geologist explored in December 1923 the branches of the enormous river toward the north, in the area of Salimbatu, the Sungai Ancam and the marshy river arms of the Linuang Kayam east of the island of Mandul. Leupold also traveled up the mighty Kayan River to the Dayak settlements.

In Tanjung Selor, Wolfgang Leupold documented preparations for a military transport on the Kayan River banks, capturing them in a series of photographs. Leupold himself supposedly did not go as far as Dr. Kalthofen who, as mentioned in a note, embarked in 1923 on a journey lasting two to three months, going from Tanjung Selor to Long Nawang in central Borneo’s Apo-Kayan’s region.

120 On the village street in Boeloengan, Dajaks of a military transport from Long Nawang. In the middle, a well-known chief from the upper course of the Bulungan River (cf. Nº 121 [see 130]).

121 A community of Dajak people from the inner region of Borneo.
Handwriting of Erika Leupold: 2 domestic soldiers and the well-known Dajak people, who are wild but pose no threat to us. On religious occasions, beheading and impaling still occur among them, though less and less frequently.

122 Malayans at the port in Tanjung Selor.

123 Dajaks loading their praus. Prior to the departure of the transport, with which Dr. Kalthofen went to Long Nawang. Boeloengan, March 1923. For two to three months, the good man had to sit day after day in such a flatboat until he arrived in Long Nawang.

124 A military provisions transport departing from Boeloengan to the outpost Long Nawang, located 350 kilometers upstream. The Dajak rowers load their flatboats under the supervision of a soldier. In each of the numerous boxes there is a portable load of rice or other food soldered into petroleum cans. The transport will be on the river for thirty to ninety days. Photographed on the riverside in Tanjong Seilor; view over the 500 meters wide Kajan River. March 1923.

125 Preparation for the departure of the Dajaks.

126 Tanjung Selor.

127 Dayak in Tanjung Selor.

128 On the Kayan river side in Tanjung Selor.

129 March 1923 Military transport with Dajak rowers coming from Long Nawang, 350 kilometers further inland, down the Kajan River toward Boeloengan. View from Tandjong Seilor over the river and toward Tandjong Pelas, the sultan’s village. Here, the river is 500 meters wide!

130 March 1923 (121) Military transport from Long Nawang, 350 kilometers inland, with Dajak praus and rowers arrives on the river in Boeloengan. View from Tandjong Selor upward the Kajan River.

131 Longhouse on the Kayan River.

The Village Long Leju and the Bem-Brem Rapids

Approximately fifty kilometers upstream of Tanjung Selor lies Long Leju, the village of the Makulit tribe, who are part of the Kenyah people. The place is strategically well positioned on one of the important water routes, thus making it an important spot. Leupold visited the chief Amban Klisan here, who apparently worked regularly with Europeans in colonial service, for instance on the occasion of the well documented expedition in 1909/1910 that explored the snowy mountains in western New Guinea under the leadership of H. A. Lorenz.

Much further upstream, above the mouth of the Bahau River, Leupold photographed scenes that document the “marvelous Dayak rapid rafting technique” for overcoming the Bem-Brem segment of the Kayan River. His geological survey map contains marked entries up to this point.

132 River scenery.

133 In Long Ledju, one of the largest Dajak villages on the Sungai Kajan (Boeloengan River) about 50 kilometers upstream from Tdg. Seilor. The village belongs to the Makúlit tribe, which in turn is part of the powerful Keniá people ruling the entire catchment area of the Kajan. The village consists of a single, 200 meters long house. In front of it stands, second from right, the chief Amban Klisan, a capital fellow who appears quite capable of enforcing his royal decrees by the strength of his arm. But the two Punans (nomadic Dajaks from the forest) standing to his right and left have even better physiques than he does. The king has brought them into his village as special hunters. At the far left is an ordinary […] Makúlit.

134 In the Dajak village Long Ledju, one of the largest villages on the Sungai Kajan (Boeloengan River) about 50 kilometers upstream from Tdg. Seilor. The chief of the Makulit tribe from Long Ledju, Amban Klisan, in his family circle. This king is a king by nature, really outdoing his village companions in power and energetic appearance alike. The women wear huge bundles of brass rings in their stretched-out earlobes. The more noble and wealthy, the more they wear.

135 Kiam Lepoön, a rapid of the Sungai Kajan slightly downstream from the large Bem-Brem rapids section. Pulling up a flatboat on the journey upstream.

136 Overcoming a rapid on the Kayan River.

137 Overcoming a rapid on the Kayan River.

138 Boat construction.

139 A […] boat of the natives under construction. The boat is a log-boat, chiseled from a large tree-trunk. One sees the large tree still lying where it fell and the natives have created the boat from the innermost part of the trunk with the help of small hatchets. The entire job lasts about one month. The full measure of the tree trunk is 1.5 meters in width and 35 meters in height to the first branch; the entire tree was more than 50 meters high.

140

Cultivating Dry Rice

In a series of photographs, Wolfgang Leupold documented the landscape characterized by dry rice cultivation in the inland of northeastern Borneo. The undergrowth, first cut and then burned, provided good fertilizer for rice seed. Some trees and stumps were left, either to give shade or, no less importantly, because their root systems stabilized the ground and prevented a washing away of the thin layer of topsoil during heavy rain. For the same reason, some of the tree trunks lying in the fields were left behind.

In addition to distance shots, Leupold also captured images of the local peoples and their various tasks. His wife provided this short commentary on the back of a photo of three little girls: “Growing young women. Inlanders stomping rice.” Unfortunately, though, there are no further notations in this interesting series of images, whose details of location cannot be more specifically determined.

140–149 no commentaries.

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150 River landscape.

Expeditions in the Steamboat Elly

Early in December of 1923, Wolfgang Leupold was traveling by canoe in the swamplands of the Linuang Kayam River. The purpose was to investigate the coal deposits in the area, which were targeted as potential fuel sources for the government’s small steam boats. These were frequently used to reach the interior using the inland watercourses. Specifically, Leupold traveled along water often with the government steam boat Leonora, which he affectionately called Elly.

His assignments as a petroleum prospector led him into the northeastern districts in the Dutch part of the island – namely, into the Tidung country, to Bulungan, Berau, and the Mangkalihat peninsula – and thus especially into areas that were of great geological interest but, in large parts, sparsely populated. Accordingly, in the captions on the back of Wolfgang Leupold’s photographs, there is commentary, such as, for instance, about the “Nipa-nipa vegetation wasteland” on the Taballar River.

151 Steam boats of the colonial government.

152 Early December 1923. Our small steam boat Elly picks me up in the middle of the swamplands of the Linuang Kajan River, where I am occupied for several days with a study of coals (intended for heating our small steam boats). The steamer appeared just before sunset, after I had already resigned myself to spending the night in the canoe in the middle of the mud. Above the monotonous wall of swamp palms is a gorgeously illuminated evening cloud.

153 River landscape.

154 Steam boat of the colonial government.

155 The lower course of the Taballar River, which flows into the sea slightly south of the Berouw River delta. Typical nipa vegetation of the coastal swamp, almost purely stands of nipa palms. This nipa vegetation takes up huge areas in the Indian river deltas and coastal swamps (provided that the water is brackish at high tide!). With the exception of crocodiles, pigs-and mosquitos, absolutely nothing exists and grows in this place. The Nipa-nipa is an impassible, uninhabited, vegetative wasteland, where a human being abandoned without any supplies would quickly perish. Because everything is under water during flooding, he could not escape and must die of thirst.

156 Wolfgang Leupold traveling in a prau.

157 Seboekoe journey 1924: At Seboekoe by the village Sapiol. For three weeks, I sat in my flatboat from morning until evening with a notebook in my lap. In the second boat sat the surveying assistant, who sketched the river, and my attendant, Adam, who was in charge of cooking. Four Dajaks rowed, but only from one village to another, each time the crew changed.

Sebuku Expedition

In 1924, Wolfgang Leupold traveled in the Sembakung and Sebuku River basins, situated in the far north part of Dutch Borneo, in the Tidung country, going from village to village up as far as the mountain range bordering British northern Borneo. The sometimes arduous and time consuming journey up the Sebuku River is documented with several images.

In Salang, in the upper river section north of Pembeliangan, Leupold visited the family of his long-time co-worker Adam. From here he at first investigated the side river Sebuluk and then at Tinampak the River Mesaloi-Apat, where the expeditions reached the “uppermost and final Dayak nest” by the name of Kejaja.

Because of the rough terrain and dense vegetation, Wolfgang Leupold described many of the remote areas as accessible only with exceptional bodily effort, as sparsely populated or altogether uninhabited.

158 Seboekoe journey 1924: Adam reunited with his family; village Salang on the Seboekoe. The little brother, at the right front, has already put on one of Adam’s jackets. The little, shy sister almost hides herself behind the brother she has never met before.

159 Seboekoe journey 1924: Cooking lunch at the village Sapiol on the Seboekoe.

160 Sembakoeng-Seboekoe journey 1924: On the Sungai Seboeloek, a creek on the left of the Seboekoe just above Pembeliangan. Here, the limit of navigability with the canoes was reached and we had to change over to land transport, the boats were left behind. After travelling up the creek up to its source, we came back to the boats. Here, the Dajaks are reloading the boat with my luggage. It was already 4 o’clock in the afternoon; around 8 o’clock in the pitch-black night, we arrived in Pembeliangan.

161 Sembakoeng-Seboekoe journey 1924: The uppermost and final Dajak nest on the Sungai Masaloi-Apat (left side river of the Sungai Seboekoe at Tinampak). The man wearing a white shirt standing in the boat is the chief. Above, the other man with the women is Arsad, my young surveying assistant. The name of the village is Kedjadja.

162 Ravine of the Sungai Masaloi’s upper reaches (river on the left side of the Sungai Seboekoe). This is the riverbed at the bottom of the steep-walled ravine, a nearly impassible slope structure of massive, house-sized sandstone blocks that have fallen from the ravine walls. The stretch of 200 meters visible in this image requires about an hour of climbing. It was even worse up above in the woods, where the blocks of stone combine with growth; therefore, it is preferable to clamber over the smooth stones of the riverbed.

163 Seboekoe journey 1924: Beginning of the ravine of the Sungai Mesaloi’s upper reaches (creek on the left side of the Sungai Seboekoe at Tinampak). On the very steep slopes there is heavy mountain forest; the palms are sago palms. The Dajaks from Tinampak and Kedjadja come about as far as here in order to obtain sago. Apart from that, the place is completely uninhabited.

164 Sebuku expedition 1924.

165 Seboekoe journey 1924: The return trip on the Sungai Seboeloek toward the Seboekoe. We had travelled up this stream using the two big flatboats in flood waters (after much rain) without particular difficulty. However, on the return trip, the water level was very low, and only with great effort could we haul the heavy boats over the innumerable tree trunks fallen in the stream that were now blocking our way everywhere, over which we had simply paddled when flood water levels were 2–3 meters higher. We were almost trapped in this creek with all of the luggage.

166 Seboekoe journey 1924: Overlooking the ravine of the upper reaches of the Sungai Mesaloi towards the Gunung Bamboeding, one of the highest points in the roughly 800 meters high Dutch-British border ridge of northern Borneo.

167 Settlement on the water, possibly a village of Buginese (Kalimantan Timur or Sulawesi?).

Biography of Wolfgang Leupold

1895 Born in Bern on December 20

1914 Qualifies to pursue higher education

1914–1920 Studies the natural sciences at the University of Bern

1919–1921 Employment at the Swiss Geological Commission

1920 Receives Ph.D. in geology, mineralogy, petrography, and geography, submitting the dissertation Der Gebirgsbau des unteren Landwassertales in Mittelbünden

1921 Marries Erika Bleuler

1922–1927 Works as a geologist for the Dutch colonial government in the Dutch East Indies; stays in northeastern Borneo and Java

1927 Receives adjunct position Geological Institute of the University of Bern

1927–1932 Works on the Bulungan report: Geological Description of Northeastern Borneo: Landscapes of Bulungan and Berau (orig. in Dutch; unpublished)

1939 Receives the Schläfli prize from the Swiss Academy of Sciences for his study Nummuliten-Stratigraphie des alpinen und westeuropäischen Alttertiärs (published in 2003). Takes adjunct position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Works as a private lecturer at the ETH and the University of Zurich

1942 Adjunct professorship

1943 Associate professor of micropaleontology and practical geology at the ETH. Conducts study of the flysch of the Helvetic nappes. Expert’s reports for power plant construction in Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal.

1948 Divorce from Erika Leupold

1950 Marries Margrit Gamper

1964 Retirement and relocation to Amsoldingen near Thun

1986 Dies in Amsoldingen on December 9

Timeline of Erika Leupold-Bleuler’s Life

1897 Born in Bern on January 14

Training to become a housekeeper

1921 Marries Wolfgang Leupold

1922–1927 Residence in northeastern Borneo and Java

1923 Birth of her son Urs in Tarakan, northeastern Borneo

1928 Birth of her son Rudolf in Bern

1939 Relocation to Zurich

1948 Divorce from Wolfgang Leupold

1970 Dies in Zurich on December 13

Sources

Leupold, Wolfgang, Correspondence with the Ministerie van Koloniën te ´s Gravenhage 1921, and personal file, Nationaal Archief in Den Haag.

Leupold Wolfgang, Verslag Boeloengan-Beraoe (“Bulungan report”), Arch. 55 30031, Archive of the Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit (NCB) Naturalis, Leiden.

Leupold, Wolfgang, Application for habilitation and Curriculum vitae 1939; Curriculum vitae 1943, Archive of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, SR 3 1943/221.0.

Leupold, Wolfgang, Tape recordings of oral reminiscences from 1986 and their handwritten transcription by Urs Leupold.

Leupold-Bleuler, Erika, Meine schönen indischen Erlebnisse (My nice indian experiences), undated manuscript.

Copies of cited sources and of the available photographs from Leupold’s time in Indonesia are accessible in the archive of the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich.

Literature

Isler, Andreas and von Wyss-Giacosa, Paola, Aufschlussreiches Borneo. Objekte, Fotografien und Dokumente des Schweizer Geologen Wolfgang Leupold in Niederländisch-Indien 1921–1927, Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich 2011.

von Wyss-Giacosa, Paola and Isler, Andreas, Swiss Objets de Mémoire from Borneo: A Biographical Reading of Indonesian Artifacts Owned by a Swiss Family in the 1920s, in: Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques LXVII, 4, 2013, p. 1265–1299.

Imprint

Financial support for the printed publication was provided by:
Swiss Embassy, Jakarta
University of Zurich: University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

Translation:
Paola von Wyss-Giacosa, Phillip Lasater

Proof reading:
Georg von Wyss

Maps by courtesy of:
School Atlas of the Dutch East Indies, 1924: Zentralbibliothek Zurich
Map of Bulungan-Berau drawn by Wolfgang Leupold: NCB Naturalis, Leiden

Cover and design:
Andreas Isler, Paola von Wyss-Giacosa

© 2013 Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich

© Photographs by Wolfgang Leupold: Leupold family

E-book production:
Andreas Isler

ISBN 978-3-909105-58-8

[Printed version: Memori dari Kalimantan / Memories from Borneo 1921–1927, Bahasa Indonesia / English, ISBN 978-3-909105-56-4]