My main field of research is the culture of today's Indonesia and Malaysia, with emphasis on religious life and art history. Here I examine religion and art from the very early times until today. I am particularly interested in religious syncretism, to the mixture of animist, hindu, buddhist and muslim belief systems. I make researches about the religious organisations in the area, about their history and significance among the population. In the field of arts I am mostly interested in traditional dances, music and wayang performances, about their role in everyday life, and th history of their developement. On the other hand I have interests in traditional sacral architecture too. Because in this part of the world arts are intervined with religion these two can be researched very well together.

For my researches I have to know the rules of Islamic law, more precisely the shafiite lawschool and the modern fundamentalist ideas. From the enormous written corpus of the muslim law I mainly read the Arabic and Malay books, but becasue of the popularity of the modernist ideas, I also examine the hadith litterature and the modern fatwas. I am particularly interested in the dialogue between the supporters of the more traditional popular religion and the modern salafi muslims.

The history of Southeast-Asia is an integral part of my researches. I research all of the periods from the earliest times until today, but my focus is on the age of the arrival of Islam and the periods after it. From the appereance of Islam in the 9-10th century throught the conversion of Aceh in the 13th, the great changes of Java in the 15-16th, the religious life through colonial times and the situation of today are all parts of my interests. I also take attention the changes in cultural and social life becasue of the religious conversions.