3286 INDONESIA - Gibran Rakabuming Raka and Selvi Ananda at their wedding

Mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012, and the Governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014, Joko Widodo (born Mulyono, 21 June 1961) became in July 2014 the first president of Indonesia not to come from an elite political or military background. He has 3 children, the eldest being Gibran Rakabuming Raka (born in Surakarta at 1 October 1987), a successful businessman and politician. Gibran married Selvi Ananda on 11 June 2015, and the couple had their first child, Jan Ethes Srinarendra, on 10 March 2016.

3122 INDONESIA (Sumatra) - Bull race in Padang

The bull racing festival (Pacu Jawi in the local language, which means "push-ahead bull") was created more than 400 years ago as a way to celebrate the end of rice harvesting season by the Minangkabau people in West Sumatra, more exactly in Padang. While the race has become part of Indonesian culture, its main purpose is for sellers to exhibit the strength of their bulls to potential buyers. A good race performance can lead to generating a higher price for those farmers that plan to sell breeding stock.

3026 INDONESIA (Lesser Sunda) - Abui people

Also known as Barawahing, Barue or Namatalaki, the Abui are an indigenous ethnic group residing on Alor Island, located through southeastern Indonesia, not far from the northwestern coast of Timor. The term Abui means "mountains" or alternatively "enclosed place". Abui language is a member of the  Alor-Pantar languages, a family of clearly related Papuan languages. Their original religion was animistic until much later when Protestant missionaries arrived, and many Abui people become Christians.

1946 INDONESIA (Java) - A Happy Old Javanese Couple

With approximately 100 million people, the Javanese people form the largest ethnic group in Indonesia, predominantly located in the central to eastern parts of the island of Java. Even if the majority of the Javanese identify themselves as Muslims, their civilization has been influenced by more than a millennium of interactions between the native animism Kejawen and the Indian Hindu-Buddhist culture. Not coincidentally, Javanese culture values harmony and social order highly, and abhorres direct conflicts and disagreements.

1894 INDONESIA - One national ID card for every citizen

The Kartu Tanda Penduduk, commonly KTP, is an Indonesian identity card (literally: Resident Identity Card). Since 2011, the Indonesian government has implemented E-KTP or KTP elektronik which contains microchip on the card. Thus, the electronic ID card applied in Indonesia is a combination of e-ID UID PRC and India, because the electronics are equipped with a biometric ID cards and chips. The man shown in the postcard compares the two ID cards, the old one and the new one.

1779 INDONESIA (Lesser Sunda) - Rejang Dance - part of Three genres of traditional dance in Bali (UNESCO ICH)

Rejang Dance is one of the rare dances in Bali, because is performed only in a temple anniversary in its inner courtyard, to delight and entertain the visiting god and spirit. Danced by women, it consist of a slow procession, the participants conducting themselves with extreme grace and delicacy. Dominant movements used is ngembat and ngelikas or left and right movements performed while moving forward slowly.  It is the most dream-like Balinese dance, surpassing all one can imagine of smooth, unending motion. It is accompanied by mysterious old melody (Gong Kebyar or Gong Gede), subtle, smooth as the dance and with the similar feeling of infinity.

1725 INDONESIA (Lesser Sunda) - Balinese girls dressed in anteng

Textiles represent powerful symbols in Bali, indicating the status and well being of the wearer. Even buildings, trees and statues have textiles draped and attached to them, because they are by tradition symbolically dressed during ceremonies. Textiles could also assist as mediators with the supernatural world in religious rituals such as cremations, where hundreds of costly meters of cloth would be turned into ashes to accompany the soul of the dead to the other world. As merchants brought the first materials to Bali, they used textiles as a primary medium of exchange in trade at ports. Textiles would have been used as offerings to the gods, later being used as compulsory attire for temples.

1581 INDONESIA (Java) - The peacock dance (Tari Merak) in West Java

The peacock dance is a traditional folk dance popular in Asia, especially by Dai people in China, in Bangladesh, and in the western and northern parts of Cambodia.. In Indonesia, it is known as the peafowl dance (Merakin or Tari Merak) by Sundanese people in West Java, and Reog in other parts of Indonesia. It is performed by female dancers inspired by the movements of the male peacock, with the classical movements of Sundanese dance. The male peacock is famous as a dandy who reliably. Every bend and wobble of them that always dynamic with beauty of the tail feathers are always shown so that to make the peacock female interested. The clothes of the dancers have motifs like peacock feathers.

1393 INDONESIA (Lesser Sunda) - Naga Banda in Ngaben Ceremony

Ngaben, or Cremation Ceremony, is a Hindu funeral ritual performed in Bali to send the deceased to the next life. The body of the deceased is placed as if sleeping, and the family continues to treat him as sleeping. No tears are shed, because the deceased is only temporarily absent and will reincarnate or find final rest in  Moksha. To find out the proper day of the ceremony, is consulted a specialist. In this day, the body is placed inside a coffin, placed in its turn inside a sarcophagus resembling a buffalo (Lembu) or in a temple structure (Wadah), made of papier-maché and wood. The sarcophagus is then borne to the cremation site in a procession, which is almost never walked in a straight line, to confuse the evil spirits.

0745, 1346, 1389 INDONESIA (New Guinea) - Dani Tribe in Baliem Valley

Posted on 16.07.2013, 30.11.2014, and 01.01.2015
The Dani (also spelled Ndani) are a people from the Grand Valley of the Baliem River, a broad, temperate plain lying 1.800m above the tropical jungles of Papua, of the island of New Guinea. They are one of the most numerous tribes in the highlands, and simultaneously one of the most well-known, despite the fact that were discovered only in 1938. At least 50.000 Dani live on the valley floor, and another 50.000 inhabit scattered settlements along the steep-sided valleys around the Grand Valley. Temperature is mild, rainfall moderate, wildlife harmless and disease rare, so it can said that this is one of the world's most pleasant corners. Sweet potatoes are important in their culture as food, but also as the most important tool used in bartering, especially in dowries, and this is reflected in the over seventy different names used for this vegetable. They grow also ginger, taro, cucumber, carrot, greens, yam, and a single fruit: banana. As most Papuans, they consider pigs the most important living creatures besides people. Pigs mean wealth and social importance. Only the possession of several wives is as important and usually a man who has many pigs will have more than one wife.

Their tools are made of stone and bone, wood and bamboo. A few of the more exotic materials, such as seashells, furs, feathers and the finest woods, reach the Grand Valley along the native trade routes. Metals, and even pottery, were unknown to the Dani, but despite their primitive tools, their houses and gardens are complex. Their settlements are collections of compounds enclosed by a stockade, within which are four kinds of structures, arranged according to a traditional pattern. At one end of the oval courtyard is the circular domed men’s house. On both sides were long rectangular family or cooking houses and smaller circular structures in which each woman slept with certain smaller children and her husband, when he was not in the men’s house. Finally there are houses divided into stables where the pigs were kept. More about their houses I wrote here.

 

The men only wear long and thin sheaths for penis (kotekas), and the women short skirts woven from orchid fibers, decorated with straw, and woven bags (noken) across their backs. Their fondness for "dressing up" shows the most during the time of war, when put boar tusks in their noses, and headdresses made of Paradise birds feathers. Dani occupied one of the most fertile parts of Papua, so they often had to fight for their territory. Actually ritual small-scale warfare between rival villages is integral to their traditional culture, with much time spent preparing weapons, engaging in both mock and real battle, and treating any resulting injuries. Some sources say that they practiced cannibalism, others the opposite. Anyway, they were the most dreaded head-hunting tribe on the island. The tribe is also notorious for the custom that if someone dies in the village, each of his female relatives will have a segment of their finger cut off.

INDONESIA (Lesser Sunda) - Three genres of traditional dance in Bali (UNESCO ICH)

Balinese dance is a very ancient dance tradition that is part of the religious and artistic expression among the Balinese people of Bali island. Dances are performed by male and female dancers dressed in traditional costumes consisting of brightly coloured cloth painted with gold floral and faunal motifs, with gold-leafed and jewelled accessories. The dances are inspired by nature and symbolize particular traditions, customs and religious values.

0547, 1275 INDONESIA (Lesser Sunda) - Barong Dance - part of Three genres of traditional dance in Bali (UNESCO ICH)

0547 Barong Dance (1)

Posted on 10.03.2013, 11.10.2014
In Hinduism, dance is an accompaniment to the perpetual dissolving and reforming of the world. In the isle of Bali there are various categories of dance, the most known being Barong Dance, which illustrating the eternal battle between good and evil through the battle between Barong (a lion-like creature in the local mythology, the king of the spirits, leader of the hosts of good) and Rangda (the demon queen and mother of all spirit guarders).

1275 Barong Dance (2)

The story say that Rangda, the mother of Erlangga, the King of Bali in the 10th century, was condemned by Erlangga's father because she practiced black magic. After she became widow, she summoned all the evil spirits and demons to come after Erlangga, and she and her black magic troops were so strong, that the raja had to ask the help of Barong. The fight begun, and Rangda casted a spell that made Erlangga soldiers to want to commit suicide, stabbing themself with their own kris.

1007-1008 INDONESIA (Java) - The Olden Days Indonesia

"The Olden Days Indonesia" is a series comprising wonderful reproductions of postcards issued at the beginning of the 20th century. The couple shown in the first of these was immortalized, undoubtedly, with a special occasion. On the original, published by J. art shop Sigrist from Jogja (today Yogyakarta), is written "Javaansche Bruid en Bruidegom - Temanten laki en prampoean di poelo Djawa" (i.e. "Bride and groom in Java"). Actually the photo don't show an ordinary bridal couple - even if, as far as I know, the two were not identified (nor the photographer) - but a patrician one, and this thing is proven by the clothes, a typical kraton (royal palace) wedding dress of Yogyakarta.

Both of them wears a gold bracelet on arm, with a dragon head. Ornament worn on the chest is a gold necklace with a three objects, called calendar. The ear jewelry, sumping, are shaped like wings and leather images are painted with golden color. The hat worn by the groom, kuluk, is made of glass. Batik patterns are used quite unique as well . The bride is dressed in dodotan (Javanese traditional clothes of batik) and bun bokornya as motif headdress, with a special frilly headdress cassowary feathers, decorated with flowers and jebehan bight.

In the second postcard is a wayang orang performance in the same city, in 1920. Wayang (which means shadow) is a Javanese word for particular kinds of theatre. About wayang kulit, or shadow puppets, I wrote here. Wayang wong (in Javanese), or wayang orang (in Indonesian - literally means "human wayang") is a type of unmasked dance theatrical performance, with themes taken from episode of Ramayana or Mahabharata. Performances are stylised, reflecting Javanese court culture. Garrett Kam, a Hawaii-based teacher and performer of Javanese dance, wrote in a article in 1982: "Wayang wong dance drama in the central Javanese Kraton (royal court) of Yogyakarta represents the epitome of Javanese aesthetic unity. It is total theatre involving dance, drama, music, visual arts, language, and literature. A highly cultured sense of formality permeates every aspect of its presentation". Originally, it was performed only as an aristocratic entertainment in palaces of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, the first court dance drama, Gondorwedoyo (Scent of the Heart), being presented under the personal direction of Hamengku Buwana I in the 18th century. In the course of time, it spread to become a popular and folk form as well.

0999 INDONESIA (Java) - Being the owner of a cock makes him proud

The truth is that the cock from the postcard is a really beautiful one. At first I believe that is a fighting cock, especially that cockfighting is a very old tradition in Balinese Hinduism, but then I realized that can't be, because it has big comb and wattle, and at the fighting cocks these are removed, because they would be a disadvantage during a match. Moreover, the man is Javanese. Anyway, the rooster is an important animal for many ethnic groups from Indonesia, of different religions. I don't know much about birds, so I can't say precisely what breed is, probably Bekisar or Kedu.

0814 INDONESIA (Sulawesi) - A Torajan with a tedong bonga

I wrote about Toraja and their special houses here, but I didn't say anything about the importance of water buffalo in their society, in lives, but also in death. In lives, wealth is counted by the ownership of water buffaloes. Together with pigs, buffaloes are the main animals in Toraja’s culture to be sacrificed in every ceremony, especially in Rambu Solo or Toraja’s funeral ceremony and Rambu Tuka or its thanksgiving ceremony. As a special animal, buffaloes in Toraja can be extremely expensive. One big "white” buffalo can be priced to tens of millions rupiah. In the postcard is a tedong bonga, a local variety, with a unique black and white colouration.

0741 INDONESIA (Java) - Prajurit Wirobrojo, the Sultan's of Yogyakarta ceremonial guards

Located on the island of Java, Yogyakarta is the capital of the region with the same name,  the only one in Indonesia still ruled by a pre-colonial monarchy, the Sultan of Yogyakarta, who serves as the hereditary governor of the region. The current Sultan is the tenth of the dinasty Hamengkubuwono, which rule the region since 1755. Yogyakarta (which means in Indonesian "the city that is fit to prosper") was the capital of Indonesia between 1945 and 1949, and one of its districts, Kotagede, was the capital of Mataram Sultanate between 1575 and 1640.

0256 INDONESIA (Kalimantan) - "If has the short ears mean he’s a monkey"

About the Dayak (or Dyak) people, from Borneo, I wrote here, only that then I insisted on Ibans, the most important branch of this ethnic group. This time, the postcard is from Indonesia, which hold approximately 73% of Borneo's  territory, divided into four provinces: West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and East Kalimantan.