WHAT is Indonesia today for someone born a hundred years ago? What is this country now for Sitor Situmorang or A.A. Navis, who were both born in 1924?

They may be long gone, but their works are still with us. A hundred years ago, in a North Sumatran valley—at the foot of Mount Pusuk Buhit, west of Lake Toba—that is like a creation myth of the world, he was born. At that time, his father was an elderly local leader who still wors