The power of mystical Mount Merapi

NAME Mount Merapi has been quite popular in the ears of the people of Indonesia. Something related to the presence of Mount Merapi is often associated with things smelling mystery, among them the existence of supernatural beings rulers and inhabitants of Mount Merapi. It is no exaggeration, because the investigation proves that the local communities and authorities believe that the inhabitants of Mount Merapi is there.

They call her Grandmother Merapi. "You see a small hill on top of that? It's called mountain Wutah, gapuranya or Grandmother Merapi palace gates". One line proudly spilling out of it quick, a native of Kinahrejo Cangkrinagan Sleman, shortly after we climbed a rocky barren fig trees without a bar of any decoration.

Local people believe, wingit region is flanked by two small mound was known as the palace Grandmother pelatarannya Merapi. To rise to it, reminded to uluk greetings, or just ask for permission so on it. "Kulo nuwun Eyang, coolies, FE ingkang SOWAN, sumangga silakna rikma Niro," added his wife bangat, Suharjiyah, as he led us to imitate the pronunciation.

Tenyu course, appeals a married couple whose bodies were becoming wrinkled with age is not without reason. According to him, the ruler of the kingdom of Merapi very offended when there are new entrants are adventurous (do all kinds), pethakilan (indecent act) without giving uluk greeting (excuse me). Those things are the consequences if violated would be very fatal. "They are not at all clear that culture mengubris grip consequences will be fatal, usually will get lost until kecebur abyss," said bangat.

One thing to remember, every newcomer in the region would undoubtedly Kinahrejo damned if to offend the locals. "Later kuwalat might happen," added quick. Is that cruel? "Actually not. Just really, Grandmother Merapi's not like it when the village here (Kinahrejo, Red) subjected to acts that are not praiseworthy. The problem, residents here still include people sebetulnyakan palace Grandmother Merapi. Not believe? Just you watch and ask residents here, what ever the region exposed to bursts of hot lava of Merapi? Surely they do not answer, "explained bangat.

Added, some local residents described the court ruling Merapi with scary creatures, but good-hearted and meant no harm, "He is the protector of local communities," said Suharjiyah. The amount of trust of local communities to the presence of Merapi Grandmother makes them believe that the things that mystical place upon society. For example, the gate kramat, residents living on the slopes of Mount Merapi is believed that the gate is the antidote of all dangers.

The gate that stood for nine centuries it was almost never touched Mount Merapi disaster. Though technically the area including a list of danger areas. It is also not free from the presence of two hills (Wutah and gird) that serves as a fortress surrounding villages Kinahrejo. "The hill and the hills gird Wutah that's still in the area of ​​power Grandmother Merapi. Itukan pasebannya (a place for the king) palace Grandmother Merapi. So Grandmother may not have the heart to destroy those who have long inhabited the place about it," quick to explain further .

Indeed, compared to other villagers, the fate of the inhabitants of the village and surrounding Kinahrejo the lucky ones. Besides being a village that almost always escape the danger hot lava of Merapi, the village which is said to include the village's beloved Grandmother Merapi also become a reresentasi of an atmosphere-paced life comfortable and peaceful.

No wonder that the future often come sindirin among local residents to residents in the region southwest of Merapi volcano that is often so catastrophic lava subscription. "If you want quiet peaceful life, move here. Merapi's Grandmother always protect us," said Wardiyah, one resident who claimed Kinahrejo native village.

Wardiyah utterance is indeed true. Villagers Kinahrejo as Grandmother has received guarantees from Merapi. In short, while they adhere to all existing regulations such as fur Bekti always present in the form of elaborate ritual offerings and perform rituals always harbor each year, they are confident and optimistic that they will always avoid the threat of eruption of Merapi.

Kuta Beach

Pantai Kuta adalah sebuah tempat pariwisata yang terletak di sebelah selatan Denpasar, ibu kota Bali, Indonesia. Kuta terletak di Kabupaten Badung. Daerah ini merupakan sebuah tujuan wisata turis mancanegara, dan telah menjadi objek wisata andalan Pulau Bali sejak awal 70-an. Pantai Kuta sering pula disebut sebagai pantai matahari terbenam (sunset beach) sebagai lawan dari pantai Sanur.
Kuta beach is wide, clean white sand is the main attraction for tourists, so there is a saying, Come to Bali without visiting Kuta was incomplete.
In the twilight when the Sun began to set, Kuta scenery presents a very beautiful and romantic. While enjoying a refreshing blast of cool air, Kuta is often used where an exciting afternoon exercise. In 1930, Kokes promote Bali as well as Kuta, and inspire the development of architecture Kotij Hotels (cottages).
Now been able to become the center of Kuta Bali tourism, because it has been able to provide tourist facilities as needed as many inns and hotels, shopping centers, recreation areas, so vibrant nightlife, sports facilities and amenities such as bungy jumping, water boom, etc. . Tourism Indonesia Heaven on Earth

 

 

Asmat tribe

Asmat is a tribe in Papua. Asmat tribe known as the result of a unique wood carvings. Asmat population is divided into two, namely those living in coastal areas and those living in the hinterland. Both populations are mutually different from each other in terms of lifestyle, social structure, and rituals. Coastal populations further divided into two parts, namely Tribe Bisman that sits between the River and River Sinesty Simai Nin and Tribes.
There is much disagreement among the Asmat village, the most terrible is the way in which Asmat kill his enemies. When the enemy was killed, his body was taken to the village, then cut and distributed to all residents to eat together. They sang songs of death and beheaded him. His brain is wrapped in sago leaves and baked and then eaten.
Usually in a village inhabited by approximately 100 to 1000 people. Each village has a bachelor's house and many family homes. Bachelor house used for ceremonial and religious ceremonies. Family houses inhabited by two to three families, which has its own bathroom and kitchen.
The Asmat have a very simple way to make up themselves. They just need a red ground to produce a red color, to produce the white color they make it from the shell that has been refined, while the black color of charcoal they produce are mashed. How to use was quite simple, just by mixing the material with a little water, dye that was to be used to color the body.
In addition to cultural, Asmat population is also very good at making carvings. Carving for Asmat could be a link between contemporary life with life ancestors. In every dwelling carved image and respect for their ancestors are loaded with greatness Asmat.
Statues and carvings they are generally created without a sketch. For the Asmat, in time to carve the statue is one in which they communicate with the ancestors who exist in another world. This is possibly because they know the three concepts of the world: AMAT ow capinmi (natural lifetime), ow Dampu campinmi (pesinggahan nature spirits of the dead), and Safar (heaven).
These tribes believe that before entering heaven, the spirits of the dead person would interfere with humans. Disorders can include illness, disasters, and even war. So, in order to save human and redeem souls, they are still alive to make the statue and held a party like a party bus sculpture (Bioskokombi), party masks, party boats, and caterpillars feast sago.
It is said that the statue of the bus is the most sacred statue form. But now for the Asmat sculpture does not merely fulfill the call of tradition, because the carving was also they sell to a stranger at a party while carving. They know the results of hand-carved high priced between USD 100 thousand to millions of dollars outside Papua.
In the life of Asmat, stones that we usually see on the streets was very precious to them. In fact, the stones can be used as a dowry. All of that is because the residence Asmat swamps that form so it is very difficult to find stones of the streets are very useful for them to make axes, hammers, and so on.
LivelihoodAsmat People feel themselves part of nature. That's why they have great respect and maintain the natural surroundings even, the tree around which they live are considered to be a picture of himself. Describes a tree trunk arms. Fruit describe the head. Roots describes the foot.
Asmat people everyday work in the surrounding environment, especially for foraging. Children should help their parents. They are looking for bulbs, shrimp, mussels, crabs, and the locusts to eat. Meanwhile, the father cut down sago trees and hunting animals in the forest. Raw foods are cooked by the mothers collected. In addition to a cooking tasks, the mother also has the task of capturing the fish in the swamp.

Wood Carving Asmat
wood-carving-typical asmatKarya Asmat woodcarving is one of the national cultural wealth that already have a name for the foreign tourists. Characteristics of Asmat carvings have a unique pattern and are naturalists. From the patterns it looks complexity of how to make it so that makes them valuable carving work and quite a lot of demand, were foreign tourists.
In terms of the model, Asmat carving is very diverse, ranging from human figures, boats, panels, shields, drums, egg kaswari, until the pole carving. The Asmat are usually adopted and the environmental experience of everyday life as their carving patterns, such as trees, boats, animals, people boating, and others.
Asmat community consists of 12 sub-ethnic groups, and each has a characteristic in his art. So is the wood used, there are also differences. There is a prominent ethnic sub carved statues, there is a prominent carvings salawaku or shields, others have carved wall hangings and equipment for war.
The most special and unique is that every piece of sculpture does not have the same or a duplicate because they do not produce the same pattern carved on a large scale. So, if we have one of Asmat carvings with a certain pattern, it is the only one that exists because the Asmat people do not make the same pattern in carving. Be the same shape, such as shields or panels, but the matter would be very different pattern. That's the uniqueness of Asmat carvings.
Know the Asmat is the vehicle itself would be the nation's cultural richness of Indonesia. Asmat is one of Indonesia's cultural icon who became its own value to be developed into tourist paradise in Eastern Indonesia. The Asmat have a variety of cultural and performing arts are exceptional. Every tourist who comes to the Asmat region would have presented a natural phenomenon that blends with its natural environment is still a virgin. What an adventure that is hard to forget.

Bunaken Marine Park

Bunaken Marine Park Located on Bunaken District Kel.Bunaken about 7 miles from the Port of Manado which can be taken for 35 minutes from downtown by boat motors. Initially Bunaken is a coral island (atoll). Its area is approximately 887.5 hectares with slightly wavy morphology conditions. Bunaken National Marine Park is one of the most beautiful in the world.

Most of the coastal areas of mangrove forests and white sand. There is a sea of hard and soft coral reefs, steep rock walls, with various shapes and colors of marine life including fish are sharks, turtles, Mandarin Fish, sea horses, stingrays, and the famous ancient fish is the Sea King (Coleacant) and there are many more that make up the beautiful marine park. The beauty of marine parks can be seen in locations called Lekuan 1, 2, and 3, Fukui, Mandolin, Cape Chapter Bandung, Ron's Point, Sachiko Point, Pangalisang, Home Village, and East Bunaken.

Where tourism is the Sea and nautical tourism with excursions object, namely the sea and beach. Tourism activities that can be done, be enjoying the park by way sigtseeing (round) glass boat (catamaran), snorkeling (swim wear a respirator), diving (diving), and underwater photography (underwater photos), as well as bodies sunbathing and sightseeing beach. The facilities provided in the Bunaken marine park, which filled the boat, diving center, cottages (inn) restaurant, hall, and souvenir kiosks. Tourism Indonesia Heaven on Earth

Ngaben - burning bodies in Bali

Ngaben is a cremation is carried out in Bali, especially by the Hindus, where Hindus are the majority religion in the Thousand Islands this temple. In the Panca Yadnya, the ceremony is included in Pitra Yadnya, the ceremony devoted to ancestor spirits. Ngaben ceremony at its core meaning is to restore the ancestral spirits (deceased person) to the place of origin. A man has Rauh said Bayu, Word, IDEP, and after death Bayu, Word, IDEP was restored to Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva.

Ngaben ceremony is usually conducted by family relatives of the deceased, as an expression of respect of a child against his parents. In this ceremony once typically spend 15 million s / d Rp 20 million. The ceremony is usually performed with a lively, no sobs, as in Bali there is a belief that we should not mourn those who have died because it could hinder the journey toward the spirit of place.

Day of Ngaben determined by finding a good day which is usually determined by Rauh. A few days before the ceremony the family held Ngaben assisted by the community to make "Bade and Ox" marvel made out of wood, colored paper and other materials. "Bade and Ox" This is where the bodies which will be implemented Ngaben.

Morning when the ceremony is held, the family and relatives and the community will gather to prepare the ceremony. The bodies will be cleaned or commonly called "Nyiramin" by society and family, "Nyiramin" is led by people who are considered the oldest in the community. After that the bodies will be fitted with traditional Balinese dress like people who are still alive. Before the summit carried out, the whole family will pay their respects and give prayer spirits diupacarai hopefully get a good place. Once everything is ready, then the corpse will be placed in "Bade" for rollicking carried to the cemetery where Ngaben ceremony, accompanied by a "gamelan", "bhajan", and followed by all the family and society, in front of "Bade" there is a white cloth meaningful long as paving the way towards the spirit of the place of origin. At each junction or intersection so "Bade" is played 3 times. Arriving at the cemetery, a ceremony conducted by Ngaben laid in "Cow" which has been prepared starting with the other ceremonies and prayer mantra of Ida Rauh, then "Cow" burned to the Abu. Ash is then discharged into the sea or rivers are considered sacred. 
 

After this ceremony, the family can still pray for ancestors of shrines and temples respectively. This is what causes the family ties in Bali is very strong, because they always remember and respect the ancestor and his parents. There is the belief that ancestral spirits are reincarnated in the family circle will be back again, so usually a grandchild is a reincarnation of his parents

Borobudur, the Biggest Buddhist Temple in the Ninth Century

Who does not know Borobudur? This Buddhist temple has 1460 relief panels and 504 Buddha effigies in its complex. Millions of people are eager to visit this building as one of the World Wonder Heritages. It is not surprising since architecturally and functionally, as the place for Buddhists to say their prayer, Borobudur is attractive.

Borobudur was built by King Samaratungga, one of the kings of Old Mataram Kingdom, the descendant of Sailendra dynasty. Based on Kayumwungan inscription, an Indonesian named Hudaya Kandahjaya revealed that Borobudur was a place for praying that was completed to be built on 26 May 824, almost one hundred years from the time the construction was begun. The name of Borobudur, as some people say, means a mountain having terraces (budhara), while other says that Borobudur means monastery on the high place.

Borobudur is constructed as a ten-terraces building. The height before being renovated was 42 meters and 34.5 meters after the renovation because the lowest level was used as supporting base. The first six terraces are in square form, two upper terraces are in circular form, and on top of them is the terrace where Buddha statue is located facing westward. Each terrace symbolizes the stage of human life. In line with of Buddha Mahayana, anyone who intends to reach the level of Buddha's must go through each of those life stages.

The base of Borobudur, called Kamadhatu, symbolizes human being that are still bound by lust. The upper four stories are called Rupadhatu symbolizing human beings that have set themselves free from lust but are still bound to appearance and shape. On this terrace, Buddha effigies are placed in open space; while the other upper three terraces where Buddha effigies are confined in domes with wholes are called Arupadhatu, symbolizing human beings that have been free from lust, appearance and shape. The top part that is called Arupa symbolizes nirvana, where Buddha is residing.

Each terrace has beautiful relief panels showing how skillful the sculptors were. In order to understand the sequence of the stories on the relief panels, you have to walk clockwise from the entrance of the temple. The relief panels tell the legendary story of Ramayana. Besides, there are relief panels describing the condition of the society by that time; for example, relief of farmers' activity reflecting the advance of agriculture system and relief of sailing boat representing the advance of navigation in Bergotta (Semarang).

All relief panels in Borobudur temple reflect Buddha's teachings. For the reason, this temple functions as educating medium for those who want to learn Buddhism. YogYES suggests that you walk through each narrow passage in Borobudur in order for you to know the philosophy of Buddhism. Atisha, a Buddhist from India in the tenth century once visited this temple that was built 3 centuries before Angkor Wat in Cambodia and 4 centuries before the Grand Cathedrals in Europe.

Thanks to visiting Borobudur and having supply of Buddha teaching script from Serlingpa (King of Sriwijaya), Atisha was able to improve Buddha's teachings after his return to India and he built a religion institution, Vikramasila Buddhism. Later he became the leader of Vikramasila monastery and taught Tibetans of practicing Dharma. Six scripts from Serlingpa were then summarized as the core of the teaching called "The Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment" or well known as Bodhipathapradipa.

A question about Borobudur that is still unanswered by far is how the condition around the temple was at the beginning of its foundation and why at the time of it's finding the temple was buried. Some hypotheses claim that Borobudur in its initial foundation was surrounded by swamps and it was buried because of Merapi explosion. It was based on Kalkutta inscription with the writing 'Amawa' that means sea of milk. The Sanskrit word was used to describe the occurrence of disaster. The sea of milk was then translated into Merapi lava. Some others say that Borobudur was buried by cold lava of Merapi Mountain.

With the existing greatness and mystery, it makes sense if many people put Borobudur in their agenda as a place worth visiting in their lives. Besides enjoying the temple, you may take a walk around the surrounding villages such as Karanganyar and Wanurejo. You can also get to the top of Kendil stone where you can enjoy Borobudur and the surrounding scenery. Please visit Borobudur 

source : http://www.yogyes.com/en/yogyakarta-tourism-object/candi/borobudur/

Lake Toba

Lake Toba is a famous lake that has wonderful view. It has 100 kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide. Lake Toba is stated as a super volcanic lake and the largest volcanic lake in the word. A super volcanic eruption occurred there 75,000 years ago. Sometimes this fact frightens some people, but those are nothing compared to the facts that Lake Toba is a magnificent lake.

As one of the most beautiful places in the world, Lake Toba has its legend. From so many versions, below is the one finally quoted by the writer.

Once upon a time, there was a man living around the ravine of Pusuk Buhit, the known mystical mountain close to Lake Toba. Nobody knew when he arrived there or where he came from. He lived in a small temporary hut in a farming area by the river surrounded by an oval-shaped hill. He was a fisherman. He also owned a field. Once he found a big fish in his woven rattan fish trap. It was the beginning of his life’s changing. Never had he caught such big fish before that he was so surprised. The fish was an extraordinary one. The man took the fish into his hut and walked outside his hut thinking about the way how to cook the very big fish.

After a little while, he got into his hut. He startled to death because the fish had disappeared and he found another creature, a beautiful human. The fish had turned into a beautiful lady and its scales changed to be beautiful jeweled ornaments fitted in her body dressed so elegantly. She was like a princess.

In an instant, the man fell in love with the princess. He proposed her saying “Will you be my wife?” She nodded obediently and respectfully. The princess agreed to his proposal in one condition that he would never tell anyone that she had been a fish. The man happily approved her condition.

They were very happy and raised their only daughter. The man worked in their field and his wife always asked their daughter to bring her father’s meal into the field. One day, the daughter was sent to bring her father’s meal. On the way to the field, the little girl felt very hungry that she ate up his father’s lunch. Knowing that the little girl had finished his lunch, the father went mad. He shouted angrily ‘you’re really the offspring of fish.’

The man’s wife soon knew that his husband had broken his promise that he would never say that words. She knew it from her daughter who ran home crying ‘mother, why does father say I’m the offspring of fish?’ Her mother was very sad and disappointed. Giving no answer she brought her daughter up to the hill telling her that there’d be a huge disaster.

On the hill, the girl’s mother knelt down and prayed to her God. Soon, there was an earthquake, storms, and springs came out from the ground. The entire place was flooded and water was everywhere that her daughter, husband and she drowned. The woman turned into a fish again and her husband turned into a stone. The story told that their daughter wandered everywhere. The place where they lived turned into Lake Toba with Samosir Island in its centre.