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Beyond the Kraton

Right outside the Kraton is what was once known as Fort Vredeburg, which according to this article, was built in 1765 by the Dutch to protect the Dutch governor.  Nowadays, Vredeburg is a museum showcasing Indonesian culture and history.  Unfortunately for us, we arrived in Vredeburg late in the afternoon when the museum was closed.  The guard did let us in the premises to take a few pictures.

Vredeburg is located on a block along Malioboro and another street.  It is also located beside the old traditional market of Jogjakarta.  Across Vredeburg, there are two old buildings built by the Dutch during colonial times and one of the presidential residences, which is off limits so we were only able to take photos from the outside.  We spent a good hour in that area taking pictures.  Despite the noise and the blur of activities, I found it rather relaxing to watch life as it passes in this place that was once dominated by the Dutch. 

The Sultanate of Jogjakarta and the Kraton

In the book, Indonesia Peoples and Histories, Jean Gelman Taylor tells us of how Arabs established trading posts in Indonesia, which made it possible for “learned men to travel from one end of the Islamic world to another. Some settled in foreign ports to head mosques or set up a school.” (at, p. 66) Eventually, the rulers of small communities in the Indonesia archipelago converted to Islam and began calling themselves sultans. “In 1641 the ruler of the archipelago’s largest kingdom, Mataram in Java, advertised his rule as Islamic by taking the title of sultan.” (Ibid) “In the seventeenth century Indonesian sultans…extended their power by their tried methods of slavery, raids, and marriage alliances, and they added a new method: they employed and allied with the Dutch.” (Id., p. 142) “In Java, Mataram’s kings hired Dutch soldiers to preserve their throne against rivals.” (Id., p. 144) This paved the way for Dutch trade in Indonesia through the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) or the United East Indies Company, which was composed on various Dutch commercial companies that merged. Eventually, Dutch not only traded in Indonesia but colonized it as well.

Meanwhile, in the late eighteenth century, there were a series of wars of succession to Mataram Kingdom, which led to its division. Through that division, the Jogjakarta Sultanate was created. The first sultan of Jogjakarta is Hamengkubuwono I. The present Sultan of Jogjakarta who lives in the Kraton his descendant, Hamengkubuwono X.

While I am still trying to grapple with Indonesian history, particularly, Javanese history, my trips to several museums in Jogjakarta and my tour of the city, all care of Danang, gave me the impression that, although Java was colonized by the Dutch, their rule did not dilute the deeply routed Javanese traditions. For one, the Javanese continue to speak their own language. Although I am sure that a number of Javanese speak Dutch, I never heard it spoken by them. Also, the Javanese tradition of making batik and playing the gamelan (Javanese musical ensemble) still lives on. In Jogjakarta, the Sultan remains to be “the center of his palace (Kadatuan or Kraton), which [is] in turn the center of the city. The city [is still] the center of the King’s own patrimonial domain (Vanua), which [is] surrounded by a circle of submitted neighbours…” (Munoz, Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, p. 308 [c 2006].) I suspect it was this way even when the Dutch had ruled Indonesia as I noticed that the structures built by the Dutch in Jogjakarta were outside of the Kraton.

Although we were allowed entrance to the Kraton, we only saw a a fraction of it.  As the present Sultan, Hamengkubuwono X, and his family still live in the Kraton, many areas there are off limits.  Strangely, for all its grandeur, my favorite part of the Kraton is the entrance - the simple wooden doors that open up to the world inside the Kraton. This entrance is guarded by an old gatekeeper who did not hesitate to have his picture taken by me.

If there is such a thing as reincarnation and if an old soul was reincarnated in me, then, that soul must have been to Jogjakarta.  For strangely, while I was in Jogjakarta, I felt like I was in the old world.  But, how would I know what the old world is like, if I have never lived in it?

Ironically, while I felt a sense of old worldliness in Jogjakarta, I was reminded of what it was like to be a carefree teenager.  This was all because I was hanging out in Jogjakrta with LS and Danang.  LS and Danang are both at that stage of their lives when one is in between finishing school and finding the right job.  You know - it is that stage in life when nothing is definite and you have a lot of time on your hands to just chill.  Since I was out numbered, I was the one who had to adjust to LS’ and Danang’s languid disposition on a hectic schedule.  In the beginning, my obsessive-compulsive self, was bothered by the fact that LS would schedule activities that would ensure we were doing something every second of the day but would wake up late!  When I realized that no amount of nagging could get LS to wake up early, I let my hair down and just went with the flow.

While we did go to all the usual places that tourists would go to in Jogjakarta, we did a lot of talking, eating and joking around along the way. LS, Danang and I felt at ease with each other.  This made the Jogjakarta experience a pleasant one for me.  Of course, when it came to batik shopping, LS and Danang probably did not have as pleasant a time as I did.  But, I’ll let them tell you their version of that story.

The Gates of Bali: Gunung Agung and Gunung Batur

Tita D and I took a walk along Kuta beach on our first morning in Bali. From a distance, I could see two mountains, which I later learned were Gunung Agung and Gunung Batur. I later told LS about it and she said that they represent the gateway to Bali. All the Balinese temples I saw had gates that looked like those two volcanoes. (more…)

I had to eat corn to see Gunung Merapi

I read somewhere that to get to the Indonesian volcano I wanted to see, Gunung (the Indonesian word for mountain) Bromo, I had to take a five-hour bus ride from Jogjakarta. Danang later told us that Gunung Bromo is actually much farther than that, i.e., a ten to twelve hour ride to a town beside Gunung Bromo and a two hour trek to get to the viewing point. As we had limited time on our hands, I decided to forgo with the visit to Gunung Bromo on this trip.

As he sensed my disappointment, Danang suggested we see Gunung Merapi instead. I knew nothing about Gunung Merapi but decided to see it.

On our second day in Jogjakarta, LS, Danang and I headed for Ketep Pass in Kaliurang, Jogjakarta. We left town at 8:00 a.m., fell asleep on Danang a couple of times during the two hour drive to Kaliurang and stopped by a Museum before we actually got to Ketep Pass. When we got there, Gunung Merapi was covered by a huge cloud. We took a look around the Ketep Volcano Centre for about an hour before deciding to head on to Borobudur. On the way out, I saw someone selling roasted corn on the street. As roasted corn is one of my favorite food, I told LS and Danang that I would treat them for corn. After pigging out on corn, we walked back to the car.  On the way to the car, I saw Gunung Merapi. It waited for me to eat corn before showing itself. I was extremely pleased and grateful.

Gunung Merapi is not a perfect cone-shaped volcano like Mt. Mayon in Legaspi, but, Gunung Merapi is massive and radiates energy.  Thick smoke plumes are seen coming out of its mouth. I sensed that, anytime, it could explode. I did not, however, sense any anger or negativity from the volcano only passion and fire. I was not, therefore, surprised to learn that merapi is the Indonesia term for “full of fire”, and, Gunung Merapi is just that – a volcano that is full of fire.

Volcanoes welcomed me to, and bid me farewell when I left, Jogjakarta

I always take the window seat whenever I ride an airplane.  This was not the case when we flew from Jakarta to Jogjakarta.  LS insisted she take the window seat as she wanted a good look of the view and I surprised myself by giving in to her demand.  Of course I was a little irritated when LS fell a sleep for most of the flight and never got to see the view.  I was wide awake during the flight and could have made good use of the window seat.  But, my irritation did not last long.  From my seat, I saw what appeared to be mountains welcoming me to Jogjakarta.  I found out later that what I saw were not mountains but the volcanoes of Java.  I was thrilled when I learned this. (more…)

Volcanoes fascinate me.  This is strange.

You see, I have not seen many volcanoes.  I have never seen a volcano erupt.  Although, I felt the wrath of Mt. Pinatubo when it erupted some years ago.

I was in college in Manila when Mt. Pinatubo, which is located outside of Manila, coughed out ashes that spread across the globe. At about 5:00 p.m., the sky darkened and it began raining ash. By 6:00 p.m., it was completely dark and everything was covered in a thick blanket of ash. By some miracle, my dad found me and took me home. We drove at a speed of about 2 kilometers per hour as our windshield was covered in ash and we could not see where we were going. Mt. Pinatubo buried several towns leaving many dead or homeless. Such was the effect of its fury.

Despite the danger that volcanoes pose and even if I never saw a volcano cough out lava or ash, I am drawn to them.

Before my trip to Indonesia, I have only seen four volcanoes, Mt. Mayon, Mt. Pinatubo, the Taal Volcano and Mt. Sto. Tomas.  So you can imagine what joy I felt when I saw not one, but seven volcanoes, while I was in Indonesia.  Even better, I saw five of them at one time.

I should not have been surprised by the number of volcanoes I saw in Indonesia since, according to this article,

“Indonesia leads the world in many volcano statistics. It has the largest number of historically active volcanoes (76), its total of 1171 dated eruptions is only narrowly exceeded by Japan’s 1274, and these two regions have combined to produce 1/3 of the known explosive eruptions. Indonesia has suffered the highest numbers of eruptions producing fatalities, damage to arable land, mudflows, tsunamis, domes, and pyroclastic flows (104, 186, 84, 13, 76, and 96, respectively). In the first five of these, Indonesia also leads other regions in the global proportion of eruptions with each characteristic.

Four-fifths of Indonesian volcanoes with dated eruptions have erupted in this century, and history shows the danger of volcanoes that have not erupted in recent centuries. Relatively few stratigraphic studies of older volcanic deposits have been completed in Indonesia, and only 0.5% of known Indonesian eruptions have been dated by other than historical techniques, emphasizing the need for more study of the prehistoric record in this region.”

But I was surprised.  More than that, I was awed and humbled by the strange sort of friendship that the Indonesian volcanoes have extended to me.

Star posted a comment about my 29 April 2009 article, Borobudur has taught me Buddhism. I was about to reply to her comment and post several pictures. Alas, this dinosaur does not know if it is possible to post pictures together with a comment and does not have time to learn about it now.  I am, therefore, posting my reply (with pictures) to Star.  You may find this bit of information interesting as well.

Star -  Wow!  I did not realize there is so much one could learn from a lotus.  Incidentally, I learned a pose in my yoga class some time ago.  The pose is called Padmasana.  Padma means lotus and asana means pose.  In his book, Light on Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar says that Padmasana ”…is one of the most important and useful asanas.  It is the posture for meditation and the Buddha is often depicted in it.”  While the position of the hands of the buddhas in Borobudur change depending on the direction they face, all of them sit in Padmasana.  This is yet again another reason for me to believe that Borobudur takes its inspiration from the lotus.  

Incidentally, I find Padmasana very difficult to do.  I always feel as is my legs would get stuck in that position and I would not be able to untangle myself.  As a result, I have yet to be able to meditate in this pose.

 

A crash course in religion and faith was not in my Indonesian itinerary.

My itinerary was simple - see Borobudur and Prambanan, go for a swim in Bali, eat and shop.  Of course, I also wanted to see Gunung Bromo but that was too much of an effort for this trip.  Other than that, my modus operandi on this trip was to rely on LS. 

LS surprised everyone by being able to carry a conversation in Bahasa Indonesia at the end of our trip.  As for me, Tito L gave me a tiny electronic translator.  All I had to do was type in the Indonesian word or phrase and I would get an instant English translation.  The lazy me never got to use it.   So, I relied on LS to communicate with everyone new we encountered to get information. I also relied on LS, who read up on Indonesia before our trip, to provide me information about the places we saw and things to do.  I was only emphatic about my views when in came to shopping.  I did a lot of that in Indonesia.

But sometimes, things do not go the way you expect it.  Instead of just coming home with things I bought from the trip, pictures and a few traveler’s tales, I came home with a deeper understanding of different religions and of faith.  And this is not a bad thing.   

Pura Tanah Lot:  The temple by the sea

According to this article, Pura Tanah Lot means “temple of land in the middle of the sea”.  I cannot argue with that as the temple speaks for itself.

I was told that only the Balinese are allowed to visit the temple on special occasions.  It is off-limits to everyone else.  It is also believed that Pura Tanah Lot was built in honor of the Balinese sea gods sometime in the 15th or 16th century under the direction of the priest Nirantha. (See this article.)  According to local legend, sea snakes guard the temple against evil spirits.

To get to Pura Tanah Lot, LS and I had to pass a number of stores that sell clothes and other Balinese products.  For this reason, I was rather distracted upon reaching the gates of the temple.  I was also distracted by the crowd.  Luckily, LS and I found a quiet spot on top of a hill opposite the temple.  We spent some time on that spot watching strong waves crash against the temple walls.  It was there what I wondered whether there were really sea snakes nearby.  Looking back, I think, maybe if I stayed on that spot any longer that I did, I would have probably gone to embrace the beautiful sea, which was calling to me.