Ahmad Tohari

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Ahmad Tohari is an Indonesian author born in the village of Tinggarjaya, Jatilawang, Banyumas on the June 13, 1948. He is married with five children, and continues to live in the Banyumas area. His formal education was only until high school in Purwokerto. He explored several faculties of economics, social and political studies and medicine, but did not graduate from any of them. Until now, his experience of growing up in a small village still color his literary works.

He has published seven novels, three anthologies of political and religious essays, two collection of short stories, and numerous individual short stories and essays. The following three novels made out a trilogy (later published as one book, Ronngeng Dukuh Paruk), describing the dynamics of a ronggeng - a dancer/prostitute in an isolated village in Central Java: Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk [A Dancing Girl of Paruk Village], Lintang Kemukus Dini Hari [A Shooting Star at Dawn], and Jantera Bianglala [The Rainbow's Arc]. He is one of only a few Indonesian writers who have written stories set against the background of the 1965 Communist uprising and resultant mass killings.

His books have been published in Japanese, Chinese, Dutch and German. An English edition of Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk is being prepared for publishing with the University of Hawaii and the Lontar Foundation in Jakarta.

He has received several national and international awards for his work, including the Southeast Asian Writers Award and a Fellowship through the International Writers Program in Iowa City. He has often written for the national newspaper Suara Merdeka, and the famous weekly Tempo. He was staff editor for the Jakarta newspaper, Merdeka from 1979 until 1981, and General Editor for Amanah, a political and religious magazine, from 1986 to 1993. With his family, he runs an Islamic school (pesantren). Finally, he is a well-known export of Javanese folk arts, and a consultant for the regional office of the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Education.