Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder S.J. (January 29, 1906 – July 8, 1995) was an Indonesian expert in the Old Javanese language. He came from Utrecht and was associated with the Society of Jesus by 1925. He worked at Leiden University in the 1930s. His first work appeared in 1930 and he continued to write into the 1990s. He lived in Yogyakarta and was interred in the Jesuit necropolis at Muntilan, Java. His work was important in the understanding of linguistic studies of Java. He also did works on Monism and Muhammad. Merle Ricklefs translated his thesis in the 1990s.
Childhood Zoetmulder was born in Utrecht, Netherlands. From his early childhood, "Piet"—as he was called—was able to read and write even before entering school. His mother Catharina née Noelege was a professional pianist and had been a patient teacher to Piet such that he was able to be admitted to primary school without having to attend kindergarten due to his reading and writing skills. At school, he was known to be a conscientious, talented, and smart student. His father was an engineer. Piet was raised in a Roman Catholic family, and while attending the Canisius College Mater Dei gymnasium he became interested in becoming a priest, specifically as a member of the Society of Jesus. Two of his uncles were priests, and an aunt had been a nun in Africa and Suriname. His father had to move to the town of Heerlen for his work as a public health engineer, so Piet attended a gymnasium at Rolduc instead, which was also his father's alma mater. He graduated in the A and B academic tracks. In 1925 he was admitted to the Society of Jesus Novitiate School to begin his training as a priest.
Departure to Java Father J. Willekens, S.J., his mentor at the novitiate, advised Zoetmulder to consider working for the mission on the island of Java. Following his mentor's advice, Zoetmulder departed for the Dutch East Indies as a 19-year novice. He was placed at the Intermediate Seminary in Yogyakarta, Central Java. Surprisingly, three years later his former mentor Willekens himself joined him in Java as a Visiting Apostolic. Upon meeting his former student, Willekens commented "In addition to studying philosophy, you must also learn old Javanese." He was introduced to Prof. C. C. Berg, who was an instructor in Surakarta, to help him study the language. In 1931 Zoetmulder graduated cum laude and was made a candidate priest in Girisonta, Ungaran, near Semarang.
Continuing education Upon his graduation from his study with Berg, Zoetmulder went to the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He graduated with an associate degree in one year, contrary to the usual three years. He earned his bachelor's degree also in one year, contrary again to the usual three years customarily taken, with a degree in the history of Java and archeology. In October 1935 he successfully defended his doctoral thesis "Pantheïsme en Monisme in de Javaansche Soeloek Literatuur," with the help of Berg. He graduated cum laude. Father Zoet, as he is affectionately called, had to finish his studies in theology before he returned to Java. For four years he studied in Maastricht. Before returning to the East Indies, he had to undergo an intermediate study of religion for a year in Belgium. Unfortunately for him, the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of Belgium by Nazi forces forced him to seek refuge in France in June 1940. He was finally able to obtain passage on a ship to the Dutch East Indies but had to make a stop in Britain to avoid German sea mines blocking the sea routes. After a month's wait, he was finally able to arrive in Java via Hong Kong. One of his colleagues had died when the ship that he boarded was torpedoed by the German Navy. Upon arrival in Java, Zoet exclaimed "God had wished for me to be happy on Javanese soil."
Japanese Occupation and Post-World War II
After he arrived in Jakarta, Zoetmulder was offered a post in the linguistics department of the University of Indonesia. However, his strong desire to further his study of Javanese drove him to choose to reside in Yogyakarta. He then taught at the AMS and counted among his students Prof. Dr. Koentjaraningrat, Dr. Sukmono, and Dr. S. Supomo. When Japanese forces entered Indonesia in 1942, Zoetmulder was interned as a citizen of the Netherlands. He was fortunate to be allowed to bring his books and pens as a prisoner. When he was transferred to the Cimahi prison he was able to smuggle the Adiparwa edited by Dr. H. H. Juynboll (Âdiparwa; Hendrik Herman Juynboll, ed., 1906 Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, M. Nijhoff) and a Javanese dictionary written by Johann Friedrich Carl Gericke-Taco Roorda. Zoetmulder attempted to study the linguistics of old Javanese through this book. His study of old Javanese grammar was eventually published in Dutch in 1954 ("De Taal van het Adiparwa") and in Indonesian in 1950 ("Bahasa Parwa") with the help of I. R. Pedjawijatna. This book eventually was adopted as the basic textbook for the study of old Javanese. During the Indonesian National Revolution, he was nearly killed by a freedom fighter due to his Dutch complexion while he was at the Kemetiran Residence, in Yogyakarta. Fortunately, a Javanese man defended him and claimed that he was a "holy man."
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