Antonie Aris van de Loosdrecht (1 March 1885,
Veenendaal
Veenendaal () is a municipality and a town in central Netherlands, located in the province of Utrecht. Veenendaal is the only population centre within its administrative borders. The municipality had a population of 67.601 inhabitants on 1 january ...
– 26 July 1917,
Tana Toraja) was a Dutch
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
.
[Th. van den End. 1994. Sumber-sumber zending tentang Gereja Toraja. Jakarta: BPK Gunung Mulia. p. 11] He was sent by
Gereformeerde Zendingsbond, a Christian missionary agency which was established in the Netherlands.
[J. A. Sarira. 1975. Benih yang Tumbuh 6 – Gereja Toraja. Jakarta: LPS DGI dan BPS Gereja Toraja. p. 18-23.]
Antonie Aris van de Loosdrecht was sent by Gereformeerde Zendingsbond
[Terance W. Bigalke. 2005. Tana Toraja: A Social History of an Indonesian People. Singapore. p. 76-108] to work in the Dutch East Indies.
He was the first
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
who arrived in
Tana Toraja,
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...
,
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
, where he built many schools.
He also wrote books in the ethnic
Toraja language
The Torajans are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Chri ...
for the students.
[Yesaya Todingbua' Manampa'. 1983. Injil dan Kebudayaan.Jakarta.p.173-178] He also requested that fellow Dutch missionary