— Zakir, to Michel, on the beach at Teluk Bakau
Essays, interviews, press coverage, and the book — the story of the Jong School, told in words.
The finished manuscript follows the founding of the Jong School with Zakir on the beach at Teluk Bakau, the philosophy and craft behind a boat whose lineage runs deeper than living memory, and the races and seasons that turned a friendship into a community. Fourteen chapters carry the story from “The Beach at Teluk Bakau” to the epilogue, “The Wind Will Come Again,” with two interludes and a glossary along the way. Zakir, to whom the book is dedicated, is a presence throughout.
A Jong Sails from the Heart is complete and free to read online.
Read the full book (PDF) →
Michel’s own recap of the most recent Selatan race — the dancing, the logistics, and a tradition that keeps quietly growing.
Fourteen villages, 197 jongs, and a downpour that almost took the whole day down before the wind turned it back around.
How it started: meeting Zakir, buying two jongs and naming them Bule Kampong and Planet, and organizing the first race in Teluk Bakau.
A long-form Q&A on the Kolek sauh hull, the Orang Suku Laut, the Sufi Naqshbandiyya connection, and what it actually takes to build and sail one.
Titles above are the original Indonesian headlines as published. Each links to the original scanned clipping.
Jong School
Planet Samudra
