Ngaju Religion: The Conception of God among a South Borneo People (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde)

Hans Scharer was born at Wadenswil (near Zurich), Switzerland, in 1904. After his school years, he was trained for (Protestant) mis sionary work at the Missionshaus in BiHe. For seven years, 1932-1939, he lived among the Ngaju in southern Borneo; first with the Ngaju speaking people of the Katingan river area, later, for a shorter period. with those living along the Barito. He was granted European leave in 1939, and spent the years 1939-1944 studying Ethnology (as it then was called) under Professor J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong at Leiden University. He went home to Switzerland in 1944, but returned to Leiden in 1946 to complete his studies and defend his Ph. D. thesis on Die Gottesidee der N gadju Dajak in Sud-Borneo. It is this thesis which. published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, in 1946, is now being re-issued in English translation. Soon after, he left once more for the Ngaju territory, as Praeses of the Baseler Mission in south Borneo. He died there suddenly on December 10th, 1947, of blood-poisoning. These few biographical data are not merely of some slight historical interest: they help us to understand the man and his work. The present book is Scharer's only major work to have been published, and for Scharer himself it was, in a way, an experiment." Front Matter....Pages N2-XV Introduction....Pages 1-7 Sources for the Knowledge of the Ngaju Conception of God....Pages 8-11 Names of the Supreme Deities....Pages 12-15 The Dwelling Places of the Supreme Deities....Pages 16-17 Natures and Manifestations of the Supreme Deities....Pages 18-26 The Act of Divine Creation....Pages 27-38 The Divine Order....Pages 39-97 Divine Justice....Pages 98-119 Divine Gifts....Pages 120-130 The Sacred Service....Pages 131-141 The Sacred Dead....Pages 142-154 The Essence of Dayak Religion....Pages 155-162 Back Matter....Pages 163-258