Archive for September, 2007
Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Passersby. Cars. Motorcycles. The cacophony of vehicle horns. The regular chaotic Jakarta traffic seems to get worse during the holy month of Ramadhan.
Some try to beat the traffic so they can break the fast at home with their families, while others hit the streets to satisfy their taste buds after a day of fasting.
Lovers, friends, families and lone wanderers all flocked Sunday afternoon to Bendungan Hilir traditional market, Central Jakarta, where more than 83 stalls are participating in the month-long food fair that takes place every Ramadhan.
People bumped into each other in the small spaces between the rows of temporary stalls, while others had to walk alongside moving vehicles on edge of the street.
Some were in the search of, or just browsing for, snacks and drinks to break their fast, while others were hunting for a new taste sensation.
At the stalls you will find fruit cocktails, juices and traditional drinks like cendol — green glutinous rice flour pieces mixed with palm sugar syrup and coconut milk.
An array of main courses and traditional cakes are also available, like serabi — a thick green or white pancake covered with coconut milk and brown sugar sauce — and bubur sumsum — a dish made from rice flour, coconut milk, pandanus leaves and a sweet sauce.
A mother of two, Lala, who lives in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta, said she and her family visited the stalls for a new experience.
“We learned about the stalls from the TV news. So, here we are now,” she said.
“I’ve spent at least Rp 150,000 (US$15.96) already on snacks and drinks. I’m still looking for nasi Padang (Padang cuisine).”
Lala’s daughter, Imelda, said the family usually browsed the food stalls in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, “because it’s closer to our house. So, this is our first time here”.
Meanwhile, another buyer, who asked not to be named, said she had not heard about the food fair.
“I passed this street by coincidence. I saw many people and thought to stop by for a while,” she said.
“I bought a few things. I wanted to buy serabi but I was too late. So, I was only able to get sosis solo (minced meat inside a pastry roll).”
The food fair has apparently brought not only opportunities for food hunters and fasting Muslims, but also fortune for the vendors there.
Dede said she earned more than Rp 6 million a day by selling dishes such as bubur sumsum, tapai ketan hitam — sweet fermented black sticky rice — and ketan srikaya — sticky rice with brown sugar and coconut milk — on weekends and ketupat sayur — a rice cake snack with vegetables stirred in coconut milk — on weekdays.
“The business is good, although our goods usually run out by 4:30 p.m.,” said Dede, one of the employees at the stall, who has been selling dishes at the Ramadhan food fair for seven years.
“We usually open our stall at 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. and close by 4 p.m., and that’s enough time to collect more than Rp 6 million a day.”
The food fair seems to offer similar economic opportunities for both old and new traders.
One seller, Yuni, who usually sells dishes in Ekonid — the German chamber of commerce and industry in Indonesia, located in Central Jakarta — said she was blessed to have the opportunity to sell fruit cocktails during the food fair.
“We pay Rp 1.5 million to rent stall space during the food fair but Alhamdulillah (Thank God), I earn nearly 1 million rupiah a day,” said Yuni, who began participating in the food fair last year.
Around dusk, sellers began to close their stalls, as food and beverages started to run out at the end of another busy day.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com
September 20th, 2007
AMELIA VUNILEBA
MOST countries in the world have their own music which is unique to the people and country.
Indonesia is known for its bamboo instruments or arumba.
Bamboo is in abundance there and it is not a surprise to find instruments made of the wood. Bamboo is like a sacred tree to them and is also used for kitchen utensils, floors, walls, etc.
Earlier this year, three young people from Fiji went to Indonesia on a cultural scholarship program. One of them was 24-year-old music teacher Isimeli Vatuwaliwali of Kavula from Nakorotubu in Ra.
He was offered the scholarship two years ago while a student at Fiji College of Advanced Education but went in May this year. His Fiji companions were Alena Vesikula and Akisi Bolabola. They met up with 47 other scholarship recipients in Jakarta and were divided in four groups and parted ways.
Alena and Akisi went to Solo and Bali while Isimeli went to Bandung the heart of bamboo music, where they teach it at the Saung Angklung Udjo.
The Saung Angklung Udjo is a centre established in 1967 by founders, Mang Udjo and his wife Uum Sumiati.
On his first night there, Isimeli said his friend from Kiribati, Bauta’aki Beia, came and sat with him in his room because he could not sleep from the loud prayers coming from the mosque next door.
As they stayed longer, they became used to the prayers and got to know the exact time of the prayers. Classes were from Monday to Friday from 9am to 3pm (with breaks) where they were introduced to bamboo instruments.
“It’s not hard to learn, it’s just like playing the keyboard,” Isimeli said.
Their teacher, Sam Udjo, was the son of the founder.
“Some of the old students were teaching as well. After two months of classes, we started performing at shows.”
The shows are normally held from 3.30pm to 5.30pm and only by reservation.
Indonesian people, like most other Asians, are physically small and finding outfits to fit Isimeli and his Kiribati and New Zealand friend was a challenge. But there is a solution to every problem and this was solved without a hitch.
There were 13 scholarship recipients at Bandung and they were divided into groups of four and each group had a house.
Isimeli said it took him about three weeks to adjust to the food and it got to a point where he and members of his group asked if they could cook their own food.
“They have rice with everything, even with ice cream and we were shocked to find rice served at McDonald’s and KFC restaurants as well.”
But for a Fijian, three months of eating rice on a daily basis can take its toll and he could not wait to get home so he could sink his teeth into some dalo.
That basically had him texting home to tell his relatives to prepare a lovo for him. However, he said any signs of homesickness disappeared after the first few days as he found Indonesian people to be very much like Fijians.
“They are good-hearted people and have the same sort of respect we have at home. Before I came, I heard all the stories about terrorism and natural disasters, especially earthquakes but I found it was normal.
“This scholarship has not only allowed me to learn about Indonesian people but to know them by interacting with them on a daily basis.
“It has been a good opportunity not only to learn about the culture but to learn about the people as well.”
One funny thing about the place where they stayed was that smoking was not allowed and even though there were mosquitoes, coils to repel them were not allowed. The reason the place is made of bamboo so all it needs is for a little flame and the whole place would be ablaze.
An interesting thing Isimeli found about the place was that there were festivals for food like picking strawberries, for example.
But he says he will never forget the place because of the people who were always willing to help even though most did not speak English.
Isimeli added that in the three months he was there, he was able to catch on quickly with the language because it was pretty similar to Fijian.
He is now back at Laucala Bay Secondary School where he will pass on the skills of playing bamboo instruments.
He encouraged all who would be given the chance to go on the same scholarship program.
For him, it was an opportunity that left him enriched and there is nothing about it that he would want to change.
He will never forget his first day in Jakarta where he did a sevusevu of yaqona at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and there was no bilo, so they had to use coffee cups to taki.
All who come away from Indonesia will never forget terima kasih thank you.
Source: http://www.fijitimes.com
September 18th, 2007
Tokyo (ANTARA News) - Indonesia again promoted Bali as the famous tourist destination with a good security in an international tourism expo organized by the Japan Association Travel Agency (JATA) in Tokyo, Japan.
To attract more foreign tourists to visit Indonesia, we really want to Bali as the most secured tourist object including a serious of handling of bird flu by local government,” Director General for Marketing Affairs of the Culture and Tourism Ministry Thamrin Bachri told Antara correspondent here on Sunday.
He also gave an emphasis on the importance of promoting Bali as a secured tourist object following the a myriad of sensitive issues on Bali bombs and bird flu affecting this region in the past few years.
Japan itself was one of the main indicators of the international tourism industry, he said.
“With a big number of Japanese tourists flowing to Bali, it will hopefully place Bali to be in the top rank in international tourism,” he said.
Based on Antara monitoring of the international tourism export, Indonesian stand was more dominated by Bali and Jakarta as could be seen from the brochures made available to the visitors. (*)
Source: ANTARA News
September 17th, 2007
Tim Hannigan, Contributor, Jakarta
The engine of my motorbike strained as I headed through the last hairpins toward the summit of Puncak Pass.
Behind me, yellow haze was creeping up from the direction of Jakarta; on either side wisps of mist were sliding over the tea gardens and ahead lay more than 1,000 kilometers of road.
The previous morning I had unloaded my 14-year-old Honda Astrea — a 100cc bike meant for pottering around town — from the train at Jakarta’s Kota station. A pedicab driver at the station gate had asked where I was going. He was surprised when I told him: “Surabaya”.
Indonesia’s largest and second-largest cities are like a pair of urban anchors at either end of the north coast of Java.
I had lived in Surabaya for almost a year, and I had visited the capital a number of times, but I wanted to explore the space between, the heartland of the world’s most densely populated island.
For me there was only one way to make the trip: by the ubiquitous little motorbike known in Indonesia as a bebek or-Easy Rider, Java-style.
It was a week-long journey that would take me through startlingly beautiful landscapes of forest, rice terraces and volcanoes and along remote rural lanes and congested highways.
Hot water, remote coastline
After crossing the 1,500-meter Puncak Pass I traveled on past Bandung and arrived, a little saddle-sore, at dusk in Cipanas, a village at the foot of Mount Guntur near the town of Garut.
The place name means “Hot Water”, and as darkness fell and an unseasonable downpour pattered over the roofs I washed away my aches courtesy of the village’s principal attraction.
Geothermal activity in the looming volcano ensures that every hotel bathroom in the place is blessed with a constant supply of steaming hot water, and a chest-deep sunken bath tub instead of the usual chilly mandi tank.
Next morning I headed south along back roads through endless green hills and villages among the trees. At midday I reached the coast where an empty sweep of gray sand ran away into the haze in both directions.
There was no traffic on the potholed road as I traveled on eastwards. The coastline here was too wild and storm-lashed for fishing, and the soil was too poor and thin for much agriculture, but it was beautiful country to drive through.
The sun was already sinking low when I drove into Pangandaran. Strung out along a narrow isthmus with sandy beaches on each side the resort is West Java’s answer to Kuta.
But in July 2006 a powerful offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami that devastated the western side of Pangandaran, killing hundreds of people. Many hotels have reopened, but the damage was still plain to see, and the place felt rather forlorn and abandoned. I checked into an empty hotel and went to bed early.
Engine troubles at high altitude
Twenty-four hours later I was colder than I had imagined was possible in Indonesia, shivering over a bowl of soup in a guesthouse in the little village of Dieng, 2,000 meters up in the clouds of Central Java.
Not far from Pangandaran I had crossed the invisible border between West and Central Java. This boundary is not just an administrative one: it marks the division between the Sundanese-speaking western part of the island, and the Javanese-speaking east.
Under cloudy skies I had traveled east and north, and up through the cabbage and potato fields north of Wonosobo into the cold air of the mountains.
Java is an island of volcanoes. Great conical peaks had loitered on the edge of my journey since Jakarta; now I was deep among them.
The Dieng Plateau is a perfectly flat table of marshy ground in a collapsed crater surrounded by pine-covered ridges. It was a strange place of shifting mist, and was bitterly cold.
Perhaps it was the sudden departure from the tropics, or perhaps it was the severity of the inclines on the way up, but after hundreds of trouble-free kilometers, the bike had suddenly developed a problem.
It had spluttered and shuddered into Dieng and I made my way straight to a grimy mechanic’s workshop. One of the upsides of Java’s famously high population density, and its love affair with motorbikes, is that you are almost always within walking distance of some roadside shed where a man in oil-stained overalls can patch a tire, clean a carburetor, or fix a fuel pump in a matter of minutes.
While my bike was being repaired I wandered around the plateau on foot. Dieng means “Abode of the Gods”. Scattered across the plateau are the last handful of the hundreds of Hindu temples that once stood here.
Built in the 7th and 8th centuries, before the rise of the great Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, they are the oldest temples in Central Java. The temples are small, but in the running mist and stinging cold, an air of mystery hung around them.
Fresh from its high-altitude service, the bike ran smoothly back downhill the next day, all the way to the huge 9th-Century Buddhist temple at Borobudur.
With its nine tiers of intricately carved limestone, Borobudur is the apex of the Javanese architectural tradition, and the most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia.
From Borobudur it was not far to Yogyakarta with its royal palace, warren of narrow alleyways, and easy-going atmosphere. That night as I sipped a glass of cold beer and pored over my map in a busy little cafe full of European backpackers I realized that I was over halfway through my journey.
*****
The next day I traveled along remote roads. Java is the world’s most densely populated island, and this overcrowding is apparently at its most intense in the fertile countryside of Central Java, but as I paused to take in the views across the fading ranks of hills I wondered exactly where all the people were.
Sometime in the early afternoon I crossed into East Java, and passed the town of Pacitan on its perfect horseshoe bay. The road was narrow, winding through forested hills with long views down to perfect, deserted bays. There was almost no traffic, and few villages.
Mosquitoes began to bite at my ankles, and behind me the sun slipped down into the milky cloud. Darkness was falling and it was still many kilometers to the nearest town.
I had started late from Yogyakarta and I realized I should have stopped the night in Pacitan, but it was too late to go back. I pressed on into the dusk.
And then I got a puncture. A moment of panic rose; it seemed that it couldn’t have happened in a worse place. But luck was on my side, and just around the next corner was a roadside shack and a crudely painted sign: tambal ban (tire repairs).
A boy in a red t-shirt patched the tire as the heavy darkness came down and expressed astonishment at my journey. When he was done I drove on into the night. Occasional lights marked lonely hamlets, but this was wild countryside, and it would have been a bad place to break down.
I was glad when I reached the top of a high hill and saw a broad plain far below, scattered with lights. Half an hour later I drove into the town of Trenggalek.
The home straight
I did not have far to go now, and the next day I took a leisurely pace through the rice fields to Malang, 450 meters above sea level.
Malang was a retreat from the heat of the plains for the Dutch colonists; a few fragments of their architecture remain and the air is still fresh.
The bike was coated in dust and mud by now, and my arms were burnt from long days driving in the hot equatorial sun, so I was glad to rest for the afternoon.
The following morning I took the high road past the hill resorts of Batu and Selekta, through a patchwork of small fields full of all the vegetables that will only grow in the cooler air of the mountains: carrots, cabbages, onions and potatoes.
A brisk breeze was sweeping the smoke from the distant peak of Gunung Arjuna into the running cloud. I crossed a low pass and dropped into dense forest and thick mist, returning to sunlight at the village of Pacet from where I descended again to the heat of the plains — and to the chaotic traffic of Java’s main roads.
On the edge of the town of Sidoarjo the road rose to cross a canal, and I caught a distant glimpse of the swelling dome and Ottoman-style minaret of the al-Akbar mosque.
The building, a distinctive landmark, marks the southern edge of Surabaya, and five minutes later as it slipped by to the left, the afternoon light reflecting from the blue-green tiles, I knew I was home.
Source: The Jakarta Post
September 17th, 2007
Solo (Indonesia), Sep 13 (DPA) The ancient Central Java city of Solo is a quaint city that remains famous for Javanese batik and other fabrics, despite being considered a hotbed for regional terrorism.
The former capital of the powerful Surakarta principality under the Dutch, who during the 18th century controlled a significant part of Java, has recently been associated with radical Islam and the Indonesian terrorist network known as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has killed hundreds of Westerners in hotel and nightclub bombings.
But Solo is actually a stronghold of peaceful, time-honoured Javanese beliefs and a site where foreign influences and eclectic local elements have become one.
In the city centre lies the traditional batik production district of Laweyan, where during the early 1970s, up to 90 percent of its 2,500 residents were batik makers.
‘Laweyan at once became a ‘batik master’, and achieved its glorious era in early 1970s,’ said Achmad Sulaiman, a leading batik maker.
In Javanese, batik means ‘to dot’. It is a traditional textile working process involving the use of wax to cover fabric in patterns, thus controlling the areas affected by dying. The multi-coloured textiles are used to make traditional clothing including shirts and dresses, artwork and drapery.
Traditionally, hand-painted batik is made by women, using wax that is a combination of paraffin, beeswax and resins. During the process, locally known as ‘batik tulis’, hot wax is applied with incredible patience and skill with ‘canting’, a wooden pen fitted with a small reservoir.
Gunawan Muhammad Nizar, another traditional batik maker, claims the art of handmade batik all but died after the emergence of mass production machine manufacturing in the mid-1970s.
‘We cannot compete with the print batik industry,’ Gunawan said, explaining that the industry produces quicker and cheaper products, and sells them cheaper than traditional hand-painted batik.
‘To make the best quality hand-painted batik, it may take weeks and even two months,’ Gunawan explains.
At his batik workshop, circles of women sit working on cloth draped over frames, periodically replenishing their supply of wax by dipping their canting into a central vat. Several middle-aged men use a metal stamp to apply wax patterns to cloth to produce ‘batik cap,’ or batik stamp - a faster and easier process.
Unlike ordinary markets and street-front shops, Laweyan’s batik makers are unique in that they use their living rooms or verandas as batik showrooms.
Due to sluggish business, however, only about 20 percent of the traditional batik makers from the 1980s still run shops, while most others have tried other businesses to survive.
‘Also, our business activity was seriously damaged when the country was hit by the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997,’ Gunawan said.
Like the capital Jakarta, Solo witnessed violence and chaos during political, social and economic unrest that triggered the downfall of authoritarian President Suharto in 1998. Dozens of buildings and shops in Solo were torched during days of rioting.
Nevertheless, the business climate has slightly improved since 2003, when the city’s administration inaugurated Laweyan sub-district as a culture heritage site and new tourist destination, Gunawan said.
‘In the past few years, there have been very frequent visits by foreign tourists to our showrooms. There are now around 40 households that have resumed as batik makers throughout Laweyan,’ he said.
Solo, with a population of 550,000, is the hometown of hard-line Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, who Western countries claim is the spiritual leader of the JI terrorist network and approved the attack on Bali’s nightclubs in 2002.
Ba’asyir runs an Islamic boarding school or pesantren, in Ngruki, just outside Solo’s city centre. Some of its graduates have been involved in a string of terrorist attacks against foreign targets in Indonesia, with up to 250 killed.
Also known as Surakarta, Solo was once the heart of an ancient kingdom in Java. Solo’s cultural history includes mythological beginnings, tumultuous early centuries when the empire of Mataram lorded over the land of Java, and years of Dutch colonial rule in the 17th century.
‘We have a plenty of attractions to offer,’ said Solo’s tourism marketing director, who identified herself only as Eni. ‘We have something very different and unique to offer our guests.’
DPA
Source: http://www.keralanext.com
September 14th, 2007
In the article “Indonesia needs more than pretty pictures to promote tourism” (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 30), Dewi Anggraeni wonders why Australians might be more wary visiting Indonesia than the U.S. and the UK.
Her answer is that Australians find the U.S. and UK familiar, while they find Indonesia exotic.
She ignores the most plausible explanation.
Terrorist attacks in Indonesia, such as the Sari Club bomb and Australian Embassy bomb, have specifically targeted Australians. Terrorist attacks in other countries have not specifically targeted Australians.
By nature, people feel uneasy going to places where they fear being picked out as targets. They prefer places where they incur the same risk as everybody else.
I hope writers will avoid attributing negative perceptions of Indonesia to prejudice, even when the perceptions are accurate.
JOHN HARGREAVES
Jakarta
Source: The Jakarta Post
September 14th, 2007
JAKARTA (AFP) — Draped in a demure brown headscarf, Martini, 70, prays at her parents’ graveside like thousands of other Indonesian Muslims ahead of the holy fasting month, lending a festive air to cemeteries here.
Muslims in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Islamic-majority nation, are set to begin Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month of the Muslim calendar, on Thursday.
“Before the fasting month, I always come here to visit my late parents to pray for them,” Martini explains, standing by their graves at one of the main cemeteries in the congested Indonesian capital Jakarta.
The sprightly woman has travelled more than two hours by public transport on her annual pilgrimage.
Hundreds of similarly tradition-bound Muslims have converged here, making the traffic jams worse than usual, while dozens of shrewd vendors eyeing a spike in sales have set up stalls among the graves.
Some come like Martini to simply say a prayer for their ancestors.
Others ask for their forgiveness, just as they ask their living relatives, friends and colleagues to forgive them any wrongdoings of the past year so they can enter Ramadan absolved and cleansed.
Priyanto, 36, sits by his father’s grave quietly smoking. His mother’s grave is a little further away, despite them both dying of cancer within a month of each other three years ago.
“When they were still alive, I always visited them before Ramadan to ask their forgiveness before starting the fasting days. But now as they have already passed away, I’ve come here to ask their forgiveness,” he says.
Ria, a 48-year-old mother of two, has paid 20,000 rupiah (about two dollars) to a roaming “prayerman” to softly recite a passage from the Koran at her son’s grave, which she is visiting with her daughters.
“It’s a family ritual before starting the fasting month. It’s an old belief that the spirits of the dead people are around us before and at the end of Ramadan. So it’s time to visit the graves,” she explains.
Like many, she will return during Idul Fitri, or Lebaran, the three-day festival marking the end of the month.
The start of Ramadan is a boon not just for the umbrella-toting prayermen, but the vendors selling everything from flowers to animal-shaped balloons for children, and fried tofu and bananas to the pious picnickers.
The visitors snap up sweet-scented jasmine and delicate red and white rose petals to scatter over the graves after they are spruced up, as well as fragrant rosewater to sprinkle across them.
Marliana has been selling flowers and rosewater ahead of Ramadan for the past five years.
“I’ll use the money that I gain now to celebrate Ramadan and Lebaran. I need money to buy my kids new clothes,” she said, referring to the tradition of purchasing new outfits for the festival.
Hasan, a food hawker, says he wouldn’t be anywhere else at this time of year to serve up his steaming bowls of chicken noodle soup.
“I earn about 200,000 rupiah, double compared to a usual day for me,” he grins.
But not all the vendors are happy. Rukmini has worked as a grave cleaner during this period for more than a decade but says this year the crowds are thinner as people are facing tougher economic times.
“We’re facing difficult conditions because prices are rising. People are also paying me less,” she grumbles, adding that she has made less than half her earnings of last year.
Source: http://afp.google.com
September 13th, 2007
BY EIKI YANO, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
JAKARTA–It looks like any other MP3 player, but there won’t any Avril Lavigne pumping out of the headphones of this device.
The “Digital Koran” is currently enjoying growing popularity in stores selling Islamic merchandise in Jakarta.
With nearly 220 million people, Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population. Nearly 90 percent of the population is Muslim.
As the Koran is written in Arabic, a language foreign to most Indonesians, devotees must practice in order to recite the scripture.
But many of the books of the Koran are thick and heavy, making the printed version an unattractive option. To make it easier to carry the scripture, a store of Islamic books and drawings in Jakarta decided to start selling Digital Koran last year.
The devices, which are manufactured by Chinese and South Korean companies, are also sold in the Middle East. According to a South Korean manufacturer, however, demand in Indonesia is sharper than elsewhere.
Among the dozen or so models, the lightest weighs only 60 grams, which means it can fit in a shirt pocket. Prices range from the equivalent of several thousand yen to about 20,000 yen.
The most popular models are those that show Indonesian language translations on the screen while users listen in Arabic.
Some models have summarized chapters for beginners, while others carry only chapters to be recited on pilgrimages to Mecca.
Despite moves in the late 1990s to embrace democracy, Indonesia remains riddled with corruption.
As a rejection to this, a growing number of middle-class people, especially those who are highly educated, are said to be seeking moral and spiritual satisfaction through Islam.
“Company employees and others who are earning high salaries are buying the equipment in order to study the Koran on buses or trains when they go to or come back from their workplaces,” Maryono, 25, a store clerk, said.
However, he added, “I cannot buy one because my salary is not high enough.”(IHT/Asahi: September 13,2007)
Source: http://www.asahi.com
September 13th, 2007
Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The annual Betawi Festival opened Friday in Situ Babakan, South Jakarta, with musical performances and dances that recalled the strong Chinese influence on native Jakarta culture.
One striking performance featured gambang kromong music that accompanied seven artists performing a traditional Betawi dance.
While the dance was Betawi, the song was Chinese, symbolic of the Chinese influence on the Betawi and their artistic traditions.
During the opening night of the festival, a choir from the Chinese-Indonesian Women’s Association presented two songs. The first was a traditional song, Keroncong Kemayoran, while the other was a Chinese song titled Jasmine.
Association head Nancy Widjaja said it was the first time the administration or the organizing committee had asked them to take part in the festival.
She said this was hopefully the start of greater involvement by the association in helping to preserve the city’s traditional culture.
“We are so happy to perform here and I think we should cooperate more to preserve Betawi culture, since it has so many similarities with Chinese culture,” she said.
Chinese culture deeply influenced Betawi tradition when Chinese began migrating to what is now Jakarta centuries ago.
Gambang kromong is one obvious example. It is a Chinese musical style that developed in Batavia, now Jakarta, into a unique combination of Chinese and Betawi.
“Preserving Betawi culture gives us the chance to preserve our own culture,” said Nancy.
However, the festival, which ends Sunday, is not concerned solely with exploring Chinese cultural influences in Betawi arts.
It will also offer lenong (comic theater) for children and adults, traditional foods, traditional dances performances and a book discussion.
Jakarta Culture and Museum Agency head Aurora Tambunan said the festival faced a serious challenge in attracting visitors despite the variety of performances being offered.
She said the festival continued to draw mainly from nearby neighborhoods, with most of Jakarta’s middle-class resident giving the event a pass.
“It is a challenge for us to catch the attention of more Jakartans. What is the point of holding the festival if only nearby residents come to see it?” she said.
Situ Babakan kampong, where the festival is taking place, was declared a Betawi kampong in 2000.
The kampong hosts traditional Betawi performances year-round. However, lack of access to the area has hampered its development as a tourist attraction.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com
September 11th, 2007
The Cultural and Tourism Ministry is gearing up to welcome an expected seven million foreign tourists next year as part of the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program.
“We have held an introductory event, called ‘Gebyar Wisata Nusantara‘, in a number of big cities nationwide to promote the 2008 program,” Tourism ministry business director Winarno Sudjas said Friday.
“We’ve also participated in some tourism expos abroad as part of the promotion.”
According to the Central Statistics Agency data, during the first quarter of 2007, the country saw more than 2 million foreign tourists visit Indonesia from mostly South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan and Singapore.
Source: Antara
September 10th, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts