A symphony in stone, the fire mountain and nights in Bali
July 11, 2002 | 12:00am
Click here to read Part I
JAKARTA – The UNESCO Jakarta regional office billeted us in the charming hotel called Gran Mahakam near the new shopping malls of Pasaraya Blok M and close to the old residential districts with old Dutch style residences.
A century after the Philippines was discovered by Spain, Dutch and British merchants peacefully established outposts along the Java Sea coast in the 17th century. This land of 13,600 tropical islands stretches under Malaysia, Philippines and over Australia.
A few years later in 1629, Sultan Agung of the Mataram dynasty in Yogyakarta attacked Dutch fortifications protecting the garrison they called Batavia. Dutch governor general Jan Pieterszoon Coen routed Agung, burned the city the Javanese called Jayakarta and established a system of colonial administration that endured for three centuries. He set out to build an "Amsterdam of the Tropics," a geometric matrix of streets and canals named after Dutch cities and provinces which grew into prosperous Batavia.
Between 1818 to 1850 major thoroughfares and buildings acquired Dutch names but were converted to Indonesian after the country became independent. Konigsplein is now Merdeka Square, while Waterlooplein is now Lapangan Banten Square opposite the Borobudur Hotel. The old Supreme Court is now the Ceramics Museum while the Dutch Governor’s residence today serves as the National Palace or Istana Negara.
By the early 20th century, al of the stolid white government buildings and museum along today’s Jalan Medan Merdeka Beret and Medan Merdeka Utara once housed departments of the Dutch East Indies Company. Old Batavia today is referred as Jakarta Kota. The homes are textbook examples of Dutch colonial architecture that now serve as diplomatic residences. One of the mansions houses the Philippine Embassy and the ambassador’s residence.
In August 2000, in front of the ambassador’s residence, a car loaded with 70 kg. TNT bomb was planted in an empty parked van and detonated automatically. The embassies to its left and right were also badly damaged. The bomb exploded as Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Leonides Caday of Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur was being driven through the gates in his Mercedes Benz. This vehicle is a major factor in the survival of both the ambassador and his driver. Ambassador Caday only suffered multiple leg fractures, needing metal implants. He was ably assisted by an Indonesian Chinese Orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Nico at the Medistra Hospital in Jakarta.
Tourists who frequent the UNESCO World Heritage site of Borobudur find it incredible that terror does exist in this land.
For over 1,000 years tourists have been entranced by 432 Buddhas in quiet meditational repose, sitting peacefully overhead in its relief galleries. On the top terrace are innumerable bell-shaped miniature stupas, 72 of them in all. This Buddhist reliquary, of such vast proportions, is more then a million cubic feet of stones piled into the monolithic pyramid on the Kedu Plain of Central Java. While Jakarta is in West Java, Borobudur is in Central Java and Bali s on the eastern side.
Retrace your steps to the bottom terraces of Borobudur to begin a second journey of discovery. These are lined with bas-relief with bas-relief that provide detailed depictions of life in Java a millennium ago. Pilgrims follow the relief in a clockwise direction from the east entrance, five kilometers long. It is a rich pageant of elephants, ships, dancing girls, princes, musicians and monks covering three miles – a Canterbury Tales in stone. There are about 2,700 narrative and decorative panels.
Like Angkor Wat, Borobudur is a symbolic representation of Mt. Mehru, the navel of the universe.
Gunung Api or "Fire Mountain" is what the Indonesians call volcanoes and there are no shortage of them in this mountainous archipelago. This should not put you off. Eruptions are rare, explosions even rarer and the opportunity to scramble up onto the lip of a smoking volcano and come face to face with one of nature’s most extraordinary phenomenons is not to be missed. All you need is a reasonable bill of health, some warn clothes (no matter how hot it is at sea-level, it will be cold at the summit) and a willingness to be up early – a sunrise view is obligatory.
Indonesia’s most famous volcano excursion is Mt. Bromo (7,848 ft.) in eastern Java. In Bali, Mt. Agung (9,500 ft.) is a stiff proposition taking two days up and down, much of it slipping and slithering in loose scree. Mt. Batur, Bali’s other active volcano, is an easy climb — 5,600 ft. above sea level – the ascent is a short one because it rises from within the crater of a much older and bigger volcano.
When Krakatoa, which lies between Java and Sumatra, self-destructed in 1883 it was the biggest bang in recorded history. It was heard 400 kms. away in Brisbane, Australia. A towering plume of ash hurtled 80 kms. into the upper atmosphere producing fantastic tropical sunsets as far away as Los Angeles and London for three years afterwards – similar to the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Huge tsunamis more than 133 feet high barreled relentlessly into the coast of west Java and south Sumatra destroying over 160 villages and accounting for about 36,000 deaths.
Forty-four years later, in 1927, a new steaming and rumbling volcanic cone was seen nudging its way out of the sea. Anak Krakatau or the Son of Krakatau now stands more than 490 feet above sea level.
One caveat: Always ask about how a volcano has been behaving recently before climbing it. They are "fire mountains" after all, and at times are best left to their own fiery moods.
In 1970, Max and I joined the Asian Press Foundation conference in Bali. While most of the country is in political turmoil, discouraging today the usual influx of visitors, the isles of Bali stands out still as the mecca of tourists, specially from Europe. (The more adventurous prefer to stay in losmen, similar to bed and breakfast stay with families in Britain and much cheaper. Awisma is a step higher in comfort).
The conference organized a heady nightly pageant of dance and drama mostly in the Balinese village of Ubud. There are several performances at different locations every night, which means that if you find yourself particularly entranced by a dance you can usually see it performed again (often by another troupe) on another night of the same week. The Balinese dance and life so mingle in a way that is difficult for none Balinese to understand. The dancers who perform rarely devote their lives to dance. It is simply something they do, that everyone does. The dances themselves are of course the product of hundreds of hours of diligent practice.
There is something magical about thewayang kulit shadow puppets, with its fantastic leather puppet characters acting out the age-old drama of the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, against a white backlit sheet.
Bali’s trance dancers are irresistible. On a clear moonlit night, we had dinner al fresco then treated to the Kecak. We watched spellbound, the shoulder-to-shoulder chorus of male singers sitting on the ground with their brown bodies glistening in the moonlight, a sarong wrapped around their waists with a red Gumamela flower (hibiscus) tucked behind their left ear. Swaying their bodies sideways, they chanted "Kecak-kecak," rhythmically symbolizing the monkey soldiers of the Monkey Prince in Ramayana. The rhythmic chanting induces a trance-like state as the performers act out a great battle between the forces of good and evil.
In the Barong dance, the barong, lion-like personification of the force of good, does fierce battle with a witch-like personification of evil, known as Rangda. Rangda puts the barong’s kris-bearing armies into a trance as the barong fanatically careens in their midst attempting with his own magic to dispel the trance. The papier mache or wooden barong mask with its bundle of string mane in a popular souvenir available in the Bali section of the Sarimah department store or in "Nayong Filipino" of Jakarta – Taman Mini.
The most beloved of Balinese dances is the Lagong, a breathtakingly graceful dance that traditionally is performed by girls from the age of eight into their early teens.
Nowadays, you will see adult dancers, too. The movements are still-frame staccato and performed in attitudes of beatific concentration. These little ladies, used to gold flower crowns, heavy make-up and tight lustrous lame which clings to their slim bodies, have been trained since they were in first grade. Every village has a stage where they perform.
The dancers move their heads, hands and hips like in a trance. Every movement has been choreographed. The child performer’s limbs are stretched and molded until they achieve the suppleness required in a formalized vernacular of Balinese dance. Their perfect poise and other worldly posturing, including a chaotic jumble of gamelan chimes, entranced warrior armies, shadows acting out epic, tales, after a week in the village of Ubud will be just one of the moments that linger in the tourists’ memory.
Compared to the Philippines with about 100 minority groups, as to the latest count of SIL (Summer Institute Linguistics), Indonesia has 250 ethnic minorities. From time immemorial, each of them have developed a craft that fills up the souvenir shops for tourists: woven fabrics, carved figures, wooden puppets from Ramayana heroes and villains, wayang kulit shadow puppets, Balinese masks, carved fruits and plants, and Balinese paintings. In between harvests, fathers and sons carve and paint.
The most famous center for woodcarving in Indonesia is Mas in Bali and it offers the unique opportunity to see people at work. Woodcarving is carried out the length and breadth of the archipelago while its scope reaches from exquisitely worked relief to simple but bold fertility symbols.
Originating in the Javanese word for "to dot", batik is Indonesia’s most famous textile product. It comes from Java, principally Yogyakarta, Solo and Cirebon. Designs are created by the application of wax and successive dips in dye result, particularly in the hands of a dedicated batik artist, can be stunning. The brightest and most colorful batik comes from Pekalongan on the northern coast of Java.
The allure of ikat, the archipelago’s other textile dyeing tradition, soon begins to eclipse batik. Ikat designs are produced by dyeing the thread with a prescribed pattern before they are woven into the fabric with an even more complex design. The gorgeousikat fabrics are from Flores, Sumba or Sawu, the so-called "Cotton Route."
Indonesian food is a regional, rather than national, cuisine. West Java’s specialty is Sundanese food. Central Java is gudeg and West Sumatra is Padang cuisine. Sundanese specializes in grilled freshwater fish, accompanied by an assortment of raw vegetables and sambal, chili relish. Gudeg is comparatively sweet and Padang, somewhat like the Dutch rijstafel, is served in a series of side dishes from which you can choose and be charged on the basis of only what and how much you eat. The term rijstafel dates back centuries and translates literally as "rice table."
Originally, Indonesian food was eaten off a banana leaf with the right hand. Today, Warung (sidewalk food stalls), rumah makan (small cafes) and restoran (restaurants) serve it on a plate with a spoon and fork. Anything with the word nasi means it is served with rice. Nasi goring is fried rice, while nasi putih is plain boiled or steamed rice. Nasi campur is an inexpensive and filling sampler of vegetables, soup and meat with rice. Other standard dishes are mie goring (fried noodles) and gado gado, the ubiquitous side dish served alongside satay, vegetable salad with peanut sauce.
Our Administrative Officer Marivi Sosa Dimaculangan, in the Philippine Embassy in Indonesia, accompanied me to complete Max’s philatelic collection to the unique stamp museum of Indonesia’s "Nayong Filipino" – Taman Mini. The splendor of the country is dramatically exhibited in the numerous sections of the cultural park measuring hundreds of hectares. It portrays the huge islands of Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas islands and West Irian (next to Papua, New Guinea). While I admired the ethnic houses and temples, I felt sad with Marivi how politics and greed has setback the Indonesians. Otherwise, they could have advanced in literacy and economy.
(Reference: Traveler’s Indonesia Companion by David De Voss and Chris Taylor)
(For more information please e-mail at [email protected])
A century after the Philippines was discovered by Spain, Dutch and British merchants peacefully established outposts along the Java Sea coast in the 17th century. This land of 13,600 tropical islands stretches under Malaysia, Philippines and over Australia.
A few years later in 1629, Sultan Agung of the Mataram dynasty in Yogyakarta attacked Dutch fortifications protecting the garrison they called Batavia. Dutch governor general Jan Pieterszoon Coen routed Agung, burned the city the Javanese called Jayakarta and established a system of colonial administration that endured for three centuries. He set out to build an "Amsterdam of the Tropics," a geometric matrix of streets and canals named after Dutch cities and provinces which grew into prosperous Batavia.
By the early 20th century, al of the stolid white government buildings and museum along today’s Jalan Medan Merdeka Beret and Medan Merdeka Utara once housed departments of the Dutch East Indies Company. Old Batavia today is referred as Jakarta Kota. The homes are textbook examples of Dutch colonial architecture that now serve as diplomatic residences. One of the mansions houses the Philippine Embassy and the ambassador’s residence.
In August 2000, in front of the ambassador’s residence, a car loaded with 70 kg. TNT bomb was planted in an empty parked van and detonated automatically. The embassies to its left and right were also badly damaged. The bomb exploded as Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Leonides Caday of Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur was being driven through the gates in his Mercedes Benz. This vehicle is a major factor in the survival of both the ambassador and his driver. Ambassador Caday only suffered multiple leg fractures, needing metal implants. He was ably assisted by an Indonesian Chinese Orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Nico at the Medistra Hospital in Jakarta.
For over 1,000 years tourists have been entranced by 432 Buddhas in quiet meditational repose, sitting peacefully overhead in its relief galleries. On the top terrace are innumerable bell-shaped miniature stupas, 72 of them in all. This Buddhist reliquary, of such vast proportions, is more then a million cubic feet of stones piled into the monolithic pyramid on the Kedu Plain of Central Java. While Jakarta is in West Java, Borobudur is in Central Java and Bali s on the eastern side.
Retrace your steps to the bottom terraces of Borobudur to begin a second journey of discovery. These are lined with bas-relief with bas-relief that provide detailed depictions of life in Java a millennium ago. Pilgrims follow the relief in a clockwise direction from the east entrance, five kilometers long. It is a rich pageant of elephants, ships, dancing girls, princes, musicians and monks covering three miles – a Canterbury Tales in stone. There are about 2,700 narrative and decorative panels.
Like Angkor Wat, Borobudur is a symbolic representation of Mt. Mehru, the navel of the universe.
Indonesia’s most famous volcano excursion is Mt. Bromo (7,848 ft.) in eastern Java. In Bali, Mt. Agung (9,500 ft.) is a stiff proposition taking two days up and down, much of it slipping and slithering in loose scree. Mt. Batur, Bali’s other active volcano, is an easy climb — 5,600 ft. above sea level – the ascent is a short one because it rises from within the crater of a much older and bigger volcano.
When Krakatoa, which lies between Java and Sumatra, self-destructed in 1883 it was the biggest bang in recorded history. It was heard 400 kms. away in Brisbane, Australia. A towering plume of ash hurtled 80 kms. into the upper atmosphere producing fantastic tropical sunsets as far away as Los Angeles and London for three years afterwards – similar to the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Huge tsunamis more than 133 feet high barreled relentlessly into the coast of west Java and south Sumatra destroying over 160 villages and accounting for about 36,000 deaths.
Forty-four years later, in 1927, a new steaming and rumbling volcanic cone was seen nudging its way out of the sea. Anak Krakatau or the Son of Krakatau now stands more than 490 feet above sea level.
One caveat: Always ask about how a volcano has been behaving recently before climbing it. They are "fire mountains" after all, and at times are best left to their own fiery moods.
The conference organized a heady nightly pageant of dance and drama mostly in the Balinese village of Ubud. There are several performances at different locations every night, which means that if you find yourself particularly entranced by a dance you can usually see it performed again (often by another troupe) on another night of the same week. The Balinese dance and life so mingle in a way that is difficult for none Balinese to understand. The dancers who perform rarely devote their lives to dance. It is simply something they do, that everyone does. The dances themselves are of course the product of hundreds of hours of diligent practice.
There is something magical about thewayang kulit shadow puppets, with its fantastic leather puppet characters acting out the age-old drama of the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, against a white backlit sheet.
In the Barong dance, the barong, lion-like personification of the force of good, does fierce battle with a witch-like personification of evil, known as Rangda. Rangda puts the barong’s kris-bearing armies into a trance as the barong fanatically careens in their midst attempting with his own magic to dispel the trance. The papier mache or wooden barong mask with its bundle of string mane in a popular souvenir available in the Bali section of the Sarimah department store or in "Nayong Filipino" of Jakarta – Taman Mini.
The most beloved of Balinese dances is the Lagong, a breathtakingly graceful dance that traditionally is performed by girls from the age of eight into their early teens.
Nowadays, you will see adult dancers, too. The movements are still-frame staccato and performed in attitudes of beatific concentration. These little ladies, used to gold flower crowns, heavy make-up and tight lustrous lame which clings to their slim bodies, have been trained since they were in first grade. Every village has a stage where they perform.
The dancers move their heads, hands and hips like in a trance. Every movement has been choreographed. The child performer’s limbs are stretched and molded until they achieve the suppleness required in a formalized vernacular of Balinese dance. Their perfect poise and other worldly posturing, including a chaotic jumble of gamelan chimes, entranced warrior armies, shadows acting out epic, tales, after a week in the village of Ubud will be just one of the moments that linger in the tourists’ memory.
The most famous center for woodcarving in Indonesia is Mas in Bali and it offers the unique opportunity to see people at work. Woodcarving is carried out the length and breadth of the archipelago while its scope reaches from exquisitely worked relief to simple but bold fertility symbols.
Originating in the Javanese word for "to dot", batik is Indonesia’s most famous textile product. It comes from Java, principally Yogyakarta, Solo and Cirebon. Designs are created by the application of wax and successive dips in dye result, particularly in the hands of a dedicated batik artist, can be stunning. The brightest and most colorful batik comes from Pekalongan on the northern coast of Java.
The allure of ikat, the archipelago’s other textile dyeing tradition, soon begins to eclipse batik. Ikat designs are produced by dyeing the thread with a prescribed pattern before they are woven into the fabric with an even more complex design. The gorgeousikat fabrics are from Flores, Sumba or Sawu, the so-called "Cotton Route."
Originally, Indonesian food was eaten off a banana leaf with the right hand. Today, Warung (sidewalk food stalls), rumah makan (small cafes) and restoran (restaurants) serve it on a plate with a spoon and fork. Anything with the word nasi means it is served with rice. Nasi goring is fried rice, while nasi putih is plain boiled or steamed rice. Nasi campur is an inexpensive and filling sampler of vegetables, soup and meat with rice. Other standard dishes are mie goring (fried noodles) and gado gado, the ubiquitous side dish served alongside satay, vegetable salad with peanut sauce.
(Reference: Traveler’s Indonesia Companion by David De Voss and Chris Taylor)
(For more information please e-mail at [email protected])
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