In memoriam: Tenas Effendy (1936–2015) March 20, 2015 – Posted in: In The News

Tenas Effendy (b. 1936) passed away in Pekanbaru, Riau province, Indonesia on 28 February 2015 at the age of 79. Tenas Effendy is the non-de-plume of Tengku Nasaruddin Said Effendy; teacher, writer, poet, culturalist, linguist, and highly-revered advocate and connoisseur of Riau Malay arts, language and culture. He is credited to have recorded oral tradition in 1,500 tape recordings, collected over 20,000 idioms, 10,000 pantun, and written 66 titles on varied aspects of Malay culture. He is a member of the Jakarta Academy with Indonesian national literary luminaries such as Sutan Takdir Alisyahbana, Mochtar Lubis, and others. He was awarded Honorary Doctor of Letters (Hon. D. Litt) from the National University of Malaysia in 2005. Tenas Effendy was the author of the poem that was translated and illustrated in Rumah: An Ode to the Malay house (Areca Books, 2014).