Tourism minister sees off Majapahit ship to eight countries

Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik in Jakarta on Sunday saw off the "Spirit of Majapahit" traditional ship from North Jakarta`s Marina Batavia marine resort, leaving for eight countries.

The Spirit of Majapahit ship with 20 tons of weight was traditionally made of teak wood at Slopeng coastal resort in Sumenep, East Java seven months ago, and would leave for Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippine, Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ship was constructed by Sapardi in assistance of 15 craftsmen in oval shape with two tapering ends in a bid to pass through the 5-meter-high waves.The Spirit of Majapahit is the Indonesia`s largest traditional boat with a length of 20 meters, 4.5 meters wide, and two meters high, and this ship was made of the 28.63 cubic old teak wood.

The Spirit of Majapahit ship was the result of reconstruction from the trading ship replica in the Majapahit Empire era which was taken from the relief panels in Borobudur temple in the 13th century.The reconstruction of the Spirit of Majapahit ship was the results of a seminar entitled "Finding the Shape of Majapahit ship" organized by the community of Japan Majapahit Association (JPA), a group of Japanese entrepreneurs who took care about the history and culture of the Majapahit Empire in Tokyo, March 2009 and the Workshop in Jakarta in June 2009.

Earlier: Indonesia and Japan build ancient Indonesian ship 

Thousands celebrate Indonesian cuisine, eat good food

Thousands of people flocked to the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, this weekend for the annual Bango Culinary Festival.
Yuniaty, 40, of Tuban, East Java, said she brought her family to the festival to enjoy a feast of cheap food.
“I just happened to be in Jakarta and heard about the culinary festival from a relative who works as a server at a satay booth here,” she told The Jakarta Post.
Fifty-eight booths competed to attract customers with delicious, reasonably-priced dishes.
The menu included Indonesian foods such as satay, mie jawa (Javanese noodles), sop konro (Makassar beef-rib soup) and slawi tempe (soybean cakes).
Warung Leko sold iga penyet (smashed ribs) for Rp 25,000 (US$2.75) and Warung Ngalam sold Javanese noodles for only Rp 10,000.
For the first time the festival organizers invited Warung Ngalam, a restaurant in Menteng, Central Jakarta, to participate, restaurant manager Ida said. Bango, the local soy sauce company, waived the restaurant’s application fees, she added.
“We just needed to buy ingredients from them, which cost only Rp 150,000,” she said.
Ida also said Warung Ngalam’s booth earned more than Rp 2 million at the festival.
“Rain has slightly reduced the number of visitors at the event,” she said, adding that she hoped Warung Ngalam would be invited again next year.
The festival is part a corporate initiative to promote Indonesian culinary diversity, PT Unilever Indonesia director Handrianus Setiawan said.
The Bango Culinary Festival was aimed primarily at Indonesian mothers, Handrianus said.
“They are agents who continuously work in the kitchen and play an active role in preserving and passing on Indonesian recipes within families,” he said.
Aurora Tambunan, Jakarta’s deputy governor for culture and tourism, said she hoped the festival would communicate the importance of preserving Indonesian recipes and appreciating mothers.

Kempinski Hotels SA restores its two historic hotels in Indonesia and Thailand

Kempinski Hotels SA has renovated the entire building, which is now part of Grand Indonesia Mall, one of Jakarta’s most luxurious shopping centers. Constructed by the American architect Abel Sorensen, the building was built in a T-shape to enable unobstructed views from each room.

Recent renovation has restored the masterpieces from various Indonesian artists adorning the lobby, meeting rooms, restaurants, and cafes to complement the contemporary design of the hotel. The historical Bali room, with its wood panels and carving, was restored to its original grandeur and is currently considered as Jakarta’s top luxurious venue. The hotel also reopened the Pavilion Ramayana Bar, previously a restaurant with old frescos depicting Indonesian traditional characters. Post renovation, the hotel features a new chill-out lounge with an elevated bar to cater to Jakarta’s elite and foreign visitors.

The Kempinski Hotel Indonesia, which was opened in 1962 by President Soekarno, was seen as a showcase of Indonesian art and traditions. The hotel was placed on the list of Indonesia’s cultural heritage sites in 1993.

Kempinski Hotels SA also renovated the Siam Kempinski hotel in Thailand. Old Siam Intercontinental Hotel was considered equal to Hotel Indonesia in Jakarta in early 1970s. Featuring a distinctive modern architecture, the lobby of the hotel was covered by a transparent giant Thai-style roof.

Jakarta Hotels

Indonesia one of best golfing destinations in SE Asia

Indonesia is regarded as one of the best golfing destination in Southeast Asia with over 180 golf courses spreading across its many islands, Indonesian officials said.

John Eu, chief executive officer of GlobalOne, praised that Indonesia has one of the best golfing destinations in Southeast Asia. Every golf course is designed with special features useful for increasing golfers' experiences, he said.

Japanese golfer Singho Katayama, Chinese Liang Wenchong and Singaporean Mardan Mamat, all said during the Indonesia Open held from Jul.2 to Jul.4, that they liked the golf course design but the course also posed tough challenges for them.

Arifin Panigoro, chairman of Indonesian Golf Association, said that he believed the country is able to provide outstanding experiences to all golfers from all over the world to enjoy golf.

"Besides, many world-class golf courses in Jakarta are within an hour's drive from the city center, and they are really beautiful with different views," said Arie Budhiman, head of Jakarta City Government of Tourism and Culture Office.

Most important is that the city has a growing pool of playing talent, said Fauzie Bowo, governor of Jakarta.

"Golf has always been a popular sport for many people in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta," he said.

Age-old batik motifs return

Traders in Jakarta are unfamiliar with famous Betawi batik print as most of these forms of batik print were purchased from coastal strips of Java such as Cirebon, West Java and Pekalongan, Central Java.

Confirming the same, a seller from Jakarta informed that, stores in Jakarta don’t trade in Betawi batik cloth. It is a colourful cloth with floral panels and tumpal motifs.

But this may not be the exact definition for Betawi batik, as it comprises of varied traits such as motifs and colours, which are quite different from North Coastal areas, domestically know as Pesisir batik, wherein pesisir means ‘coast’.

Traders opine that Jakarta and batik are two side of the same coin. As, just like the city reflects a free-flowing nature, a pesisir piece of fabric too takes under its wings, various types of influences, entering the country by foreign traders.

According to a member of the collection and preservation department, Textile Museum, Jakarta, Betawi batik makes use of traditional colours, which can catch people’s eye, most depicting a continuous tumpal motif, vertical row of isosceles triangles, set on a rectangular base. More so, the tumpal motif is generally set against the batik’s body at either ends of the cloth, and sometimes even at the centre of the fabric.

As per experts, tumpal motifs symbolize magnificence and fertility and it is also used as a metaphor for Mount Semeru, which is the highest sacred volcano in Java.

But many-a-times, the tumpal also take shape of a tree of life, an expression of the Javanese used to depict, the link between humans and nature goddess. More so, sometimes in the main areas of the fabric, banji (swastika) motifs are seen arranged in a proportioned manner, placed side by side with floral designs.

However, banji is taken from Chinese characters, wan zi, which in literal form means 10,000. But it is strongly linked with the thought of bringing prosperity to the individual or family or otherwise.

Earlier, Betawi batik was considered as an exclusive piece of fashion for the Dutch, wherein, the Dutch men wore batik pants and women dressed in batik sarongs. In these times, the aggressive use of butterfly, floral motifs and Hong bird motifs influenced batik, which is a depiction of European and mainland Chinese cultures.

But Betawi batik gained importance during the colonial era and managed to live through only till the 1990s. As per an anthropologist, batik in Jakarta commenced in 1930s, when the peranakan traders started purchasing fabrics, of motifs made with wax, but not dyed. The whole process of dyeing the fabrics, would then take place at the backyard of the trader’s home.

However, batik workshops in West Jakarta, which used to be the centre of batik factories, were out of business in 1972. This is because; firm owners started manufacturing screen-printed textiles with batik designs. But these were considered harmful tothe environment, as officials were unable to provide any waste management solutions, thereby, resulting in huge amounts of untreated chemical waste.

As per a batik maestro, shops that trade in roots and bark, which are vital in making vegetable colour, were endemic and Batavia batik was sent to Sumatra, Southern Borneo, Singapore, Malay Peninsula and even to Thailand.

Indonesia and Japan build ancient Indonesian ship to fund archaeological study

The Indonesian government and a Japanese academic group have recently reconstructed an ancient ship to raise money for an archaeological study on historic ruins in and around Java Island. According to the Japan Majapahit Association, the ship has been making port calls in Asian countries since late last month, asking for financial and technical support to excavate the ruins of the Majapahit kingdom, which existed in the area from the 13th to the 16th century.

The ship was built in Madura, part of Indonesia’s Java province, and left there last Sunday for a 9,000-kilometer journey to last about six months before heading back to Jakarta. It will reach Japan around the middle of July, making its first stop in Kudaka Island in Okinawa Prefecture. The island served as a trading post of the Ryukyu kingdom, which used to govern Okinawa.

The ship will then sail to Naha. The crew will make a courtesy call to Okinawa Gov Hirokazu Nakaima before continuing on their journey to Kagoshima, Yokohama, Tokyo and Fukuoka.

Ngusabha Kasa Festival, Asak , Karangasem

(source and copyright: baliwww.com)


The two dance terms used for this dance have different meanings in different villages. Both dances have their own particular characteristics. In the traditional village of Asak in Karangasem, however, these two names are combined for a particular dance form the Pendet Rejang. This dance with its own function, role, attributes and costumes, is performed at the time of the Ngusabha Kasa Festival around June/July each year and is centred on the Great Hall in the village of Asak.

The Pendet Rejang dancers wear special costumes. Their head dress has a kind of crown with expensive jewels, and is decorated with gold flowers. No fresh flowers are used, but pure gold flowers called sasak flowers, with some golden cempaka flowers as a border for the headdress.

The dancers occasionally on special occasions wear a special covering for their breasts, called saput kain karah – such as is worn by the Rejang dancers of Bungaya village. At other times they wear gold painted cloth. In Asak the kebyar gong gamelan accompanies the dancers, unlike in the nearby villages of Tenganan Pegringsingan and Bungaya where Selonding groups perform the music.

When performed in the first month called sasih kasa – the Pendet Rejang dance also has the basic function of making an offering. The movements of this dance are not as dynamic as those of the Rejang dance in general. They are slower, as though by instruction, making this particular dance very mild creating a sacred impression. This dance is performed with other dances such as the Abuang Taruna and Abuang Krama dances. The dance must begin from the South, and go towards the North. Once the dancers have danced one complete circle, finally all the special prani offerings are presented at the main hall, and accepted by 24 old women from a group called Jro Krama Saing. This group of old women organizes all the water containers, the musical instruments, and alcoholic drinks which are taken around three times in front of the temple.

The Pendet Rejang dancers continually perform their duties, until finally all the offerings are properly arranged at the Temple. Then the work of the dancers is complete and everybody awaits the commencement of the main ceremony.