Wayang Sukuraga

In addition to traditional wayang, the 2nd Gunungan International Mask & Puppets Festival (see my posts two days ago) also featured several new creation puppet theaters like this one: Wayang Sukuraga.

Wayang Sukuraga (literally puppets or puppet show of body parts) is different from the traditional wayang theater in that its characters are body part skin puppets. The stories and music are also different from those of the traditional wayang. While the traditional wayang theater performances usually tell stories derived from the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata and their local variations, the Wayang Sukuraga tells stories that are specifically created for it. Also, unlike the traditional wayang performances, which are usually accompanied by Gamelan ensemble, the Wayang Sukuraga performances can be accopanied by any kinds of music, traditional or modern.

Wayang Sukuraga was created about seventeen years ago by Afendy (nick-named Fendy Sukuraga), an artist and painter from Sukabumi, West Java.

Depicted in the above picture is Gunungan of Wayang Sukuraga displayed at the exhibition hall.

Wayang Sukuraga adalah wayang kreasi baru yang tokoh-tokohnya terdiri dari anggota-anggota badan. Wayang ini diciptakan oleh Afendi alias Fendy Sukuraga, seorang seniman asal Sukabumi, Jawa Barat, pada sekitar tahun 1996.

Unfinished Mask

Besides displaying the finished masks, Wewed (see yesterday's post) also showed how a mask is made. He was having a break when I visited his stand at the exhibition hall, and so all I saw was this unfinished mask. This mask, like many other Indonesian traditional masks, is made of kayu nangka (jackfruit wood).

Selain memamerkan topeng-topeng yang sudah selesai dibuat, Wewed (lihat posting kemarin) juga mempertunjukkan bagaimana topeng dibuat. Topeng yang belum selesai dibuat ini dibuat dari kayu nangka.

No Day Without Tree Planting

This billboard with a picture of the President handing over a tree to the Mayor can be seen in several places in the city. The writing on it says "No Day Without Tree Planting".

The billboard is part of the nation's wider campaign for Planting 1 Billion Trees Movement (called OBIT -- One Billion Indonesian Trees) which began in 2006.

The movement, which becomes part of Indonesia's commitment to curbing global warming, is commemorated every year on November 28. This year, the President launched the tree-planting-month-of-December campaign to speed up the achievement of 1 billion tree target and to encourage every citizen to take part in the movement.

This year's commemoration theme is "Hutan Kota Mendorong Terwujudnya Indonesia Hijau" or Urban Forest for Green Indonesia.

Soto Gerabah Solo

This is the food I tried and tasted at the Balkot Festival 2012: Soto Gerabah Solo.,

Soto is the Indonesian traditional soup. There are a lot varieties of it. Many different parts of the country have their own recipes of soto. This one comes from Surakarta or Solo, a regency in the province of Central Java. Hence the name, soto gerabah solo.

The middle word in the name, 'gerabah', means pottery. And that's the uniqueness of it: the soup is served in baked or fired clay bowls. They don't use stainless steel or metal spoon either. Instead, they use a spoon made of coconut shell and wood.

I chose this food among many others offered at the festival because of its uniqueness. I've never seen it in any other events in Bandung before. Besides it was drizzling and a bit cold. A warm soup with delicious spices was best.

Soto is best and is usually served with ground red or green chili paper and squeezed lemon juice (see the above picture).

The owner, with whom I talked while I was eating, said that they did not have any branches of their restaurant outside their hometown yet. Therefore, if you want to try you may have to go to Surakarta. The restaurant is on Jalan Prof. Supomo No. 57, at Pasar Beling area.

Chinese New Year's Rituals - A Photo Essay

Back in 2009, I posted a story about Chinese New Year's Festivities in Bandung. Since then, I have not posted any other similar stories. Last week, I received a series of wonderful black and white photographs of the Chinese New Year rituals from a young and talented photographer whom I met last year in a couple of photography workshops in which I was asked to mentor.

Ali Mecca, the name of the photographer, is a film and photography student at a Pasundan University in Bandung.













This is the text that he wrote to accompany the above pictures after I edited it:

Under the "New Order" regime (1966 - 1998), the Indonesian ethnic Chinese endured a discriminatory treatment. Their cultural identity was subsumed under the mainstream national identity. They were encouraged to use Indonesian names in lieu of their Chinese names, given a different ID card that differentiated them from the indigenous Indonesian, and were not allowed to perform and show their cultural heritage in public.

The advent of Reform Era (Era Reformasi) changed all that. Under the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid (October 1999 - July 2001) the government reinstated the Indonesian ethic Chinese civic and cultural rights and made the Chinese New Year a national holiday. Since then, the Chinese New Year has once again become a festivity that is celebrated throughout the country, not only among the Chinese, but also by many other Indonesians.

The Most Popular Malaysian in Indonesia

This baloon figure is that of Upin, one of the twin characters of a Malaysian animation movie Upin & Ipin. In Indonesia this movie is broadcast on two television stations: TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) and TPI.

Upin and Ipin are probably the most popular and adored Malaysian in Indonesia.

Images of Unity in Diversity

With about 300 ethnic units and 737 living languages, no other countries and territories are probably as diverse as Indonesia. Indeed, cultural diversity is this country's proud heritage embodied in the national motto "Bhineka Tunggal Ika" (Unity in Diversity).

The following pictures are only a small part of the pictures I took at Kemilau Nusantara 2009, one of the festivals that celebrates the Indonesian archipelago's (Nusantara) cultural diversity.

As I reported earlier, Kemilau Nusantara is an annual event organized by West Java Provincial Office of Tourism and Culture. This year's fest was attended by 14 (out of 33 Indonesian provinces) and 18 regencies and municipalities in West Java.

This post is Bandung Daily Photo's participation in this week's My World Tuesday meme. Please visit other participating blogs by clicking on the link.



Pencak silat dance from the Province of Banten.



A bride and groom from the Province of Lampung in the southern tip of Sumatra Island. Lampung has several ethnic-based wedding traditions. This is one of them.



A Jaipongan dancer from West Java.



A folk art from Sukabumi, West Java.



The Kancet Ledo/Gong dancers from the Dayak Kenyah tribe in East Kalimantan.

Batik: An Indonesian Cultural Heritage for The World

I have previously posted this picture before with a different story under Patterns and Colors of Batik Cirebon (Cirebonese Batik). I'm posting it again today to celebrate the official recognition by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) today that batik is an Indonesian cultural heritage. Batik is the third indigenous Indonesian cultural heritage to receive such a recognition after keris and wayang.

Although batik can be found in many parts of the world, nowhere else has the art of batik making been developed to such a high level and practiced with such an enthusiasm like in the Indonesian archipelago. "Documents" and batik patterns inscribed on stone temples dated as far back as the 8th century CE and those written and inscribed on lontar palm leaves dated as far back as the 17th century CE provide undeniable evidence that batik is Indonesian. In addition to this, there are more types, patterns, and genres of batik in Indonesia than anywhere else in the world.

Despite the fact that batik is Indonesian, the path to UNESCO recognition was not an easy one. It began in the year 2000 when Malaysia began to lay claim to batik as its own indigenous cultural heritage. Indonesian batik artisants and producers were furious about this, and after a concerted effort of research, documentation, and seminars, they submitted, on September 4, 2008, the data to counter Malaysia's claim to the UNESCO to be reviewed.

In February 2009, the data were reviewed and verified by an international committee under UNESCO.

On September 28, 2009, UNESCO officially recognized batik as an Indonesian intangible cultural heritage to the world.

Today, October 2, 2009, the recognition was officially delivered to the Indonesian delegates at the closing of the UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee Convention in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Photos of Indonesian Presidential Election: The Balloting Day

Today is the balloting day for the Indonesian Presidential Election. It's the second time Indonesians directly elect their president. (The first was in 2004. Before that, the president was elected by Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat or The People's Consultative Assembly.)

Here are some of the photos I took at the balloting station where I cast my vote today.



The balloting day was declared as a public holiday. Balloting stations throughout the country were opened at 08:00 A.M. local time (Indonesia has three time zones: GMT +7, +8, and +9) and closed at 01:00 P.M., at which time the votes began to be counted.

Voting is done by putting a check mark on the number, photo, or the name of pair of the presidential and vice presidential candidates that one chooses.

The top photos shows a Balloting Committee member showing a disqualified vote during the counting. The card was disqualified because the voter had written a word in addition to the check mark.



The tally results at the balloting station where I voted show that the incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Boediono(SBY - Boediono) was leading with 240 votes. The other two pairs of candidates, Megawati-Prabowo (Megapro) and Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto (JK - Win) were trailing behind with 43 votes respectively.

Police Boots and Uniform

This is one of the uniforms of Kepolisian Negara Republik Indonesia or POLRI (the Indonesian National Police). Different units have their own sets of uniforms whose designs are made not only to indicate which unit a policeman or policewoman belongs to but also what function he or she is performing at the time. Regardless of the designs, the colors are the same. They are the colors of the Indonesian Police uniforms.

Boots like these are worn by the traffic police or police patroling on motorbikes.

Learning Democracy

As a newly emerging democracy, Indonesia still has a lot of things to learn about its nature and decent practices. Just a little more than ten years ago, we did not use to have or enjoy what we do now. Direct and free elections of government officials and the freedom of speech and the press, for example, were only a dream when I was a student. Demonstrations - except if they were in support of the ruling regime - were strictly forbidden in the name of "national security" and "political stability" and for the sake of "economic development and progress," the polical jargons that the New Order regime under President Suharto often used to defend its undemocratic practices.

We did enjoy a remarkable economic growth then, and Indonesia was named as one of the emerging economic tigers of Asia. However, a government without transparency and public accountability tends to become corrupt and abusive of its power. And that is exactly what was discovered when the economic crisis of 1997-98 hit the region. A large portion of the wealth of this country was found to have been circulating only in a limited circle of people, mostly those closest to power and their cronies. Collusion, corruption, and nepotism were rampant that what appeared to be progress and prosperity was nothing more than a shell that was hollow inside.



With the crises, came the Reform movement, and democratization programs were speedily instituted. The 1945 Constitution has since been ammended four times to make rooms for democratic institutions and practices, and avoid abuse and misinterpretations by those in power.

Government officers and members of the legislative bodies are now freely and directly elected and, with the abolition the regulations that gave the government control over the press, the press is now as free as those in any democratic countries. Citizens are also free to stage protests and demonstrations and to petition the government for redress of grievances. The establishment of the all powerful Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission) particularly has made the efforts to get rid of corruptive practices a crowning jewel of our efforts to have a clean and accountable government and get back on track to prosperity. A lot of high ranking public officers, including a substantial number of the members of the legislative bodies, have been captured, tried, and indicted for embezzlement of public funds.




Although relatively new, the spirit and practices of democracy are well-embraced by Indonesians from all walks of life, as these photos show. The top photo is of a small group of Indonesia University of Education students who - like a lot other students from around the country - recently protested a new legislation passed by the DPR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) - the Indonesian parliament. They considered the new law, which would require that all Indonesian schools and universities be made into Badan Hukum Pendidikan (Legal Educational Body), as an effort to privitize education and a betrayal of the Constitutional rights of the citizens to get an affordable education for all.

The second, third, and fouth photos are of students giving their votes for Students Legislative and Executive Bodies.

Indonesian Endangered Animal: The Sumatran Tiger

This is a picture of harimau Sumatra or the Sumatran tiger (panthera tigris sumatrae) that I took at Bandung Zoo sometime ago. The Sumatran tiger is one of only six surviving subspecies of tiger. The other subspecies are - in discending order of their number in the wild: The Bengal tiger (panthera tigris tigris), the Indochinese tiger (panthera tigris corbetti), the Malayan tiger (panthera tigris jacksoni), the Siberian tiger (panthera tigris altaica), and the south China tiger (panthera tigris amoyensis).

As the name indicates, the Sumatran tiger is native to, and is only found on, the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is considered as a critically endangered subspecies of tiger with an estimation of only about 250 individuals currently still surviving in the wild, according to an Indonesian NGO The Coalition for the Monitoring of Protected Wild Animals. This remaining population is scattered in 18 separate enclaves, most of which are found at Leuser and Kerinci Seblat National Parks.

The Sumatran tiger is the only surviving subspecies of tigers out of three that Indonesia has or used to have. The other two that are now extinct are the Balinese tiger (panthera tigris balica) and the Javan tiger (panthera tigris sondaica). The Balinese tiger went extinct in 1937. The last of it - a female - was reported to have been killed at Sumbar Kima in the West of Bali on September 27, 1937. The Javan tiger was thought to have become extinct not too long ago in 1980, although there were reports of its sightings as recently as last year. The sightings, however, could not be verified.

Habitat destruction caused by logging and the conversion of pristine forests into palm oil plantations, industrial forests, and farms is the main threat to the existing population of the Sumatran tiger. But hunting and illegal trade of its skin and other organs are of no less serious threat to its extinction. In the two year period between 1998 and 2000, for example, 66 tigers (or about 20 percent of its population) were recorded to have been killed (the number could have been higher as it is quite probable that there were undiscovered killings). This should come as no surprise as a piece of Sumatran tiger skin can fetch about US$ 3,300 at the international market. Some black market rare animal skin brokers are even reportedly willing to give a handsome amount of downpayment as an incentive for people to hunt the tigers.

The Sumatran tiger is the smallest surviving subspecies of tigers. The adult males weigh about 100 - 140 kilograms (220 - 308 lbs), whereas the female weight about 75 - 110 kilograms (154 - 242 lbs).

Indonesian Endangered Animal: "Kalong" - The Flying Fox Bat

These are "kalong" (Javanese brown giant fruit bat), another collection of animals at Bandung Zoo.

"Kalong" (Pteropus Vamvyrus) is classified into the suborder of megabats (megachiroptera) or the giant bats. Because of what they eat and their behavior, megachiroptera is also called fruit bats or flying foxes. An adult "kalong" can reach about 60 centimeters in length (about 23.5 inches) and weigh about 1.5 kilograms (about 3.3 lbs) with wing span of about 1.5 meters (5 feet).

"Kalong" are fruit eaters (frugivores) and like most fruit bats they have big eyes and excellent sense of smell, which help them navigate in the dark - the time when they go out to eat - and find their food. For your information, most fruit-eating bats don't generally use echolocation.

"Kalong" is one of Indonesia's endangered animals and is protected by the law.

Indonesian Endangered Fauna: The Sumatran Tapir

This is the Sumatran/Malayan Tapir (Tapir Indicus), one of the world's four species of tapirs. Tapir indicus is native to southeast Asia and can be found mainly in the tropical forests of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, peninsular Malaysia, and parts of Indochina, particularly Thailand and Myanmar (Burma). Like its siblings in South and Central America (tapirus bairdii, tapirus pinchaque, and tapirus terrestris), it is classified as a vulnerable and endengered species.

Tapir is classified into the order of perissodactyla together with horses and rhinoceroses, its closest relatives in the animal kingdom. An adult tapir is generally 2 meters long and about one meter tall and can weigh somewhere between 150 to 300 kilograms. With light grey and black coloring (see photo), Sumatran/Malayan tapirs are considered to have more interesting appearance than its Central and South American siblings which have dark furs.

Tapir's most distinctive feature is its proboscis or snout. It can move in all directions and is used to grab foliage that is otherwise difficult to grab and detect scents. The snout of Sumatran/Malayan tapir is the longest of all tapir species.

Shown in the above photo is a mother tapir, named Novi, and her baby son Nova who was born on 22 November 2008 at Bandung Zoo. Nova's father, a male tapir named Willy, is not in the photo. Baby tapirs of all species, by the way, always have stripped and spotted coats like the one you see in the photo. This probably has to do with survival technique of camouflage.

Batik Cirebon (Cirebonese Batik)

"Batik" is derived from the Javanese words of "amba" (to write) and "titik" (dots). The word "batik" refers to a painted or printed piece of cloth or fabric produced by applying wax (called "malam") that blocks dye colors to produce the desired designs and patterns.

The practice of Batik making has existed in the Indonesian archipelago for a long time. Historical records written on lontar palm leaves show that Batik making (industry?) was already thriving in the Javanese Kingdom of Majapahit (whose territory, according to a historical account, covered most of what is now the Indonesian archipelago, Singapore, Malaysia, the southern parts of Cambodia and Thailand, and the southern parts of the Philippines) in the 14th Century C.E.

There are a lot of varieties of batik in Indonesia. Among the most prominent of these are Batik Pekalongan (named after a town on the northern coast of Central Java), Batik Solo, Batik Jogja (Solo and Jogja are the names of two cities and Javanese cultural centers in the southeast part of Central Java), and Batik Cirebon (named after a coastal city in the north east of the West Java Province).

According to batik experts, Batik Cirebon is unique in that it has more multicultural characteristic in its patterns and colors than those produced in the Javanese hinterland cities like Solo and Jogja. It usually has bolder and more vibrant colors, e.g. red, blue and green, and more varieties of patterns that reflects the influences that the coastal trading post of Cirebon has received from the Moslem, Chinese, Indian, and European traders visiting this town.

The women in the photo are a family of Cirebonese batik makers who recently took part in the Kemilau Nusantara tourism and cultural exhibition in Bandung.

Text and picture by Eki Qushay Akhwan

Indonesia Electricity Crisis

This huge banner on the wall of PT PLN (Indonesia's State Electricity Company) office building on Cikapundung Street, Bandung, reads "Avoid Blackout ...! Let's economize the use of electricity now ...!"

This banner is part of the nation-wide campaign to conserve the use of electricity and other forms of energy.

Shortage of electricity supply is a nation-wide concern now. Indonesia's electricity consumption grows 6.7 percent per year, while the the generating capacity only grows 3.5 percent per year. If this trend continues, Indonesia will soon have an electricity crisis.

For your information, Indonesia only has one electricity company, that is PT PLN (Perusahaan Listrik Negara) or State Electricity Company. PT PLN handles both the production and distribution of electricity for the whole country. This monopoly is guaranteed by the Indonesian Constitution, which states "Branches of production which are important for the state and which affect the lives of most people shall be controlled by the state."

As a result of this monopoly, however, PT PLN has been considered by many as inefficient. Our electricity tarif, for example, is one of the most expensive among ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries. (Lower income families who use 900 Kwh or less of electricity, however, are heavily subsidized by the state, and therefore they don't have to pay the actual tarif.)

There have been proposals to end PT PLN monopoly, but the latest legislation passed by the House of Representatives (DPR) was revoked by The Indonesian Constitutional Court because it was considered unconstitutional.

Private companies can produce electricity but all their production has to be sold to PT PLN at the price that is subject to government regulation.