Austrian musician and author Werner Schulze’s experiences in Indonesia really were the stuff of fairy tales.

Schulze was so inspired by his visits here that he decided to turn his own adventures and stories into a fairy-tale collection titled Burung Cendrawasih dan Cerita-cerita Memukau Lainnya (Birds of Paradise and Other Wondrous Stories), which was officially launched in Jakarta on Feb. 12.

“It is partly based on my life, which is not to say my life is always a fairy tale,” Werner said.

“But the inspiration for the stories are all based on things that happened to me in Indonesia.

“They’re stories about the people I met and the culture and the wonderful nature of the country,” he said.

Schulze, a Vienna-based classical musician and university professor, first came to Indonesia in 1988.

“My first trip was in 1988 as a tourist, visiting different kinds of architecture and seeing different music and other things,” he said.

“After that time I came back as a guest professor in Yogyakarta and I’ve since come here 12 or 13 times,” he said.

He said each trip he’s made to Indonesia has given him further appreciation of the people and the culture, as well as inspiring his creative and artistic endeavors.

“It’s really inspired me, listening to the music here and hosting performance workshops, but I never knew it would lead me to begin writing fairy tales,” he said.

The idea of writing a collection of fairy tales was conceived during a chance meeting at a restaurant in 2008.

“It started in a restaurant when I met with a very young lady and we were talking about her life and then about my life and we were both very interested in each other’s stories,” Werner said.

“I went home and wrote about it in the form of a fairy tale. The first story was written very quickly, then over the next two months I had finished writing the book,” he said.

Its publication has been almost three years in the making since mid 2008 when Schulze finished writing the manuscript.

He first wrote it in his native German language but it wasn’t until it was translated into Indonesian that it was picked up by a publisher and distributed.

Schulze said the book was his tribute to Indonesia.

“It’s very important for me to write about Indonesia and to have it published here first because I am very thankful to Indonesia,” he said.

“This book is my present to Indonesia, to the culture and the people.”

Schulze has written books before for in his academic career but never a collection of fairy tales.

“I’ve never done this writing before but I really enjoyed writing the fairy-tale stories,” he said.

“I’ve written four other books about mathematics and philosophy, but this is the first non-scientific book I’ve written.

“Although one of the fairy-tale stories is about mathematics,” he said.

Schulze insists that fairy tales are not just kid’s stories, and his book is written for people of all ages.

“It is not just for young children. I say it is for children from the age of three to the age of 100,” he said.

“I think it is necessary to be children during our whole lives.

“In German I call my stories Weisheitsmärchen, which means something like ‘Wisdom Fairy Tales’. They contain life lessons I think,” he said.

Schulze said through his life he’s gone through phases of being interested in fairy tales and then picking them up and reading them again after a few years and discovering new things.

“Whenever I read a fairy tale, after a few years I feel I am becoming more wise,” he said.

“There are themes in fairy tales that are important lessons for adults.

“It is to do with philosophy of our life, what is important in our lives, what becomes important and the events going on,” he said.

Most of the stories in Schulze’s book don’t meet the usual tradition of Indonesian fairy tales. “They’re completely different to what is traditional writing. I’ve written them from my own perspective, which I hope is interesting for Indonesian people.

“But the stories are all set in different places in Indonesia, each story is from a different island,” he said.

At the book’s official launch at Gramedia bookstore in Matraman, Central Jakarta, Schulze was joined on stage for a unique performance from music-theater-performance group Teater Tetas.

Last year, one of the members of Teater Tetas was in Vienna, where Schulze saw a video of their performances and was intrigued.

Since then he and the group have worked together and met up to do five-day workshops each time Schulze has been in Jakarta.

Teater Tetas founder Arya Dipayana was at the book launch to support his friend and said it was a good occasion for someone from overseas embracing and adding to Indonesian culture.

“I think it’s great to see a Schulze person doing a fairy-tale book inspired by Indonesian stories,” Arya said.

“I’d like to support his work and whenever Werner Schulze is in town we like to help him and support him,” he said.

Teater Tetas is planning to meet up with Schulze in Europe next year for a tour of performances and workshops.

Popular

Indonesian workers in Japan face growing stigma after viral incidents

Political motivations behind rising cyberattacks in mid-2025, report says

High rice prices, education costs push up inflation to 2.37 percent in July