For example, the story of Nyai Dasima, the mistress from Kahuripan at of the turn of the 19th century:
In those days, as the story goes, girls from the neighboring kampungs, or villages, just south of Batavia (Jakarta) were sent to the city to work as maids for Dutch families or the families of the Batavian upper class.

Dasima, a girl from kampung Kahuripan was one such girl, but it was not certain who sent her there — whether it was her parents or other relatives. She became a servant in the household of a certain Mr. Williams, a rich businessman of British origin. Williams lived on his own because his wife preferred to stay in England.

Dasima was a very industrious servant and her British master fell in love with the beautiful girl and made her his mistress. Dasima enjoyed the life of a well-to-do mistress and bore Williams a daughter.

Although Dasima had a very pleasant life, she felt lonely because nobody would engage in conversations with her. The other servants did not like her for being a concubine while the upper Dutch people, among which Williams had his friends, considered “the girl from the kampung” far beneath their standing.

They never took any notice of her, for she was only a mistress to Williams.

Dasima longed to go back to the kampung in southern Batavia where her favorite food items were plenty — cooked or fried pete beans, for example, eaten with hot sambal and salted fish and the well known dish from the region, banana leaf-wrapped, sweet-water fish, which were abundant near Kahuripan.

Those dishes were certainly not to her husband’s tastes and neither to those of his predominantly Dutch foreign friends. Dasima’s daughter was also close to her father. He truly loved her and gave her all the things a European girl would have liked to play with, such as a fair-skinned,
blond-haired doll.

Courtesy of By Suryatini N. Ganie

Dasima became more and more lonely, day by day, because the fact was she had no friends at all. Even her own kampung people did not want to visit her because they were not familiar with the environment in which Dasima spent her days.

One day a respectable person of the region, a carriage owner in Central Jakarta, where Dasima lived with her master, fell in love with her. He requested a mediator to ask Dasima to consider leaving Williams and living with him instead, as his second wife — for Samiun the carriage owner was already married to a woman from central Batavia.

At first Dasima was upset by the request of the marriage mediator because she had never before even considered leaving her master, but after periods of distress, she fled from the large house and went to live with Samiun in his house in the kampung as his second wife.

However, after a while Samiun’s house in the central region did not satisfy Dasima because she was had grown accustomed to the wealthy environment that William’s had provided. According to the story of the people of southern Jakarta, Williams was very insulted by Dasima, to whom he has already given so much, and so he ordered some of his people to kill her.

But, the story of Nyai Dasima is told in many versions. There is a version in which Samiun murdered his wife, and another version says Samiun’s first wife assassinated her rival. Of course there other versions came along as well as the story of Nyai Dasima evolved into a folktale.

The fact is that the life of the beautiful kampung girl from Kuripan ended tragically. While attending a wayang performance with Samiun one evening, Dasima was murdered by a criminal and her body was thrown into a nearby river.

Nyai Dasima’s story is now one of the most famous stories performed on stage by local entertainers who go from village to village, staging shows when there are wedding celebrations or festive family events.

Nyai Dasima’s story is believed to have taken place around 1820, but it is a story which still rings true today. Many kampung girls are still badly treated by people who consider them to be of a lower standard than themselves, and who therefore deserve the kind of treatment that befits them, for example not being given any money after having worked for months.

Today, kampung Kahuripan does not exist anymore.

Instead very charming real estate has been built for those who like to live in a more rural environment.

But Nyai Dasima was also an excellent cook and one of her most delicious dishes is pepes ikan mas (banana leaf-wrapped, sweet-water fish).

This was Nyai Dasima’s favorite dish.

• Clean a 400 g goldfish, discard gills and intestines, leave whole.
• Pound 4 shallots, 3 cloves of garlic, 3 red chilies and 10 g ginger.
• Mix with 10 tiny chilies, 50 g grated coconut and season with 1 tsp salt,
• Coat fish.
• Put the fish with the spices, 3 purut lime leaves, 6 kemangi leaves in a 20 cm x 20 cm banana leaf and wrap neatly, secure with toothpicks.
• Grill until done.
• Makes three servings.

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