Borobudur is
an old temple complex in central Java near Yogyakarta. It was built in the 9th
century. In origin it is a buddhist stupa: square basement, round body and slim
top. The sanctuary is built around a hill and has no entrance. The basement has
five square terraced stores receding from down under to up above. The walls of
each terrace are fully covered with two horizontal rows of stone reliefs.
Above the fifth square terrace there are three circular terraces in receding
stores. Stupas on the border of each round
terrace contain a meditating buddha. The central top
is a giant stupa with a short peak. The walls of each rectangular terrace have niches
at a regular distance with a meditating buddha in it. All buddhas on the same
side of the monument have the same hand position or mudra. The upper
reliefs on the inner side of the gallery walls depict various legends. The
upper reliefs of the first gallery for example show the life of buddha up to the
moment of his enlightenment when he starts to preach. The lower reliefs of the
first gallery depict jataka’s, educating stories about
benefactions of buddha in his previous lives, and awadana’s, educating
stories about benefactions of other saints. The reliefs on the walls of other
galleries relate of other buddhist legends.
The symbolism of the Borobudur is one of the
religious pilgrim walking clockwise along the reliefs in the galleries. On the
first stages his pilgrimage is still in the material world of transition.
Enlightened by the buddhist legends the pilgrim reaches the higher circular
levels where the material world makes way for the spiritual world of
eternity. This is the heavenly world of concentration and meditation. The
galleries are reached by climbing a steep stairway in the middle of each side of
the Borobudur. At the end of each stairway one turns to the right and passes a
small gate decorated with a kala or monster head.
Another famous temple complex not far from
Yogyakarta is Lara Jonggrang or Prembanan
after the name of a nearby village. The restoration of the monument is in an
advanced stage and the main temple dedicated to Siwa is resurrected. Some other
temples on both sides, dedicated to Wisnu and Brahma, are resurrected as well.
On the inner side of the gallery near the temples of Siwa and Brahma
realistic reliefs depict episodes from the famous
hindu epic Ramayana. In the temple
complex Siwa was worshipped as Batara Guru (highest teacher) accompanied by his
spouse Durga with eight arms (the Javanese call her Lara Jonggrang ) and their
son Ganesha with the head of an elephant. Other
gods worshipped in the complex are Brahma with three heads, Wisnu and the bull
Nandi, the carriage for Siwa.
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Bali
In the past hinduism was an influential
religion in several pricipalities of Java. But its influence diminished over the
ages. On the contrary in Bali hinduism is still present everywhere. Ordinary
life in Bali is impregnated by the Agama Hindu Bali religion. This religion is
based on a mixture of hindu and buddhist elements and old indigenous elements.
The statues in temples and courtyards, along the roads and in the countryside
suggest that there are many gods to worship and revere. In fact all these gods
are manifestations of trimurti, the tripple unity of Brahma the
creator,Wisnu the conservator and Siwa the destroyer. In the Agama Hindu Bali
religion a dualist philosophy has developed with opposites like heaven and earth,
gods and demons,sun and moon, good and bad. These opposites are complements, i.e.
one cannot exist without the other. For this reason it is important to pursue
harmony. This harmony can be reached by sacrifices and offerings. In Bali the
gods are associated with the sun and the mountains. They are present everywhere,
but their residence is in the highest mountains on the island. Every now and
then the gods descend their residence to look after the people's welfare. To
appease the gods as well as the demons, the people bring a small sacrifice every
day. Not only in the temples and in the courtyards, but also along the roads and
roadcrossings, in the countryside, near bridges, on cars and everywhere else
where people fear the wrath of gods and demons.
A Balinese temple has two or three
courtyards with bales (open pavillions), shrines, socles and merus.
Merus are high slim buildings with a roof composed of ever smaller stacked roofs.
The number of roofs indicates the status of the deity for which the meru is
designated: eleven roofs are for Siwa, the highest god, living on the flanks of
mountain Gunung Agung. The merus for Brahma and for Wisnu have nine roofs.
On the temple complex there are no pictures of the revered gods. The gods
are invisible and can only be represented in a symbolic way. A split gate , the candi
bentar, marks the entrance of a temple complex. Through this gate one enters
the first courtyard or jaban. Soon appears a second gate the paduraksa.
Usually this gate fas the finest decorations. On both sides it is flanked by
stone rakasa, demonic figures repulsing evil powers. Behind the gate
there is a stone wall, aling-aling, which stops the evil powers in their
attempt to raid the temple when the gate is open.
The first courtyard is for the preparations of the ceremony. The second
courtyard is the sanctuary with altars and shrines where the gods reside after
desending from the mountain tops.
In Mengwi is
the official temple of Pura Taman Ayun, the second largest temple complex
in Bali. The temple was built in 1634 and is dedicated to the ancestors of the
monarchs reigning over Mengwi until 1892. The complex is surrounded by a canal
and connected to a pond with lotus flowers. In front of the temple is the wantilan,
a ringside for cockfightings. In the courtyard are countless merus, high
slim buildings with stacked roofs, for the gods when they descend to earth. In
the eastern part is an altar for the Mengwi monarchs who are still revered.
In Tanah Lot
a temple is built on a rock in the sea and connected to the shore by a small
piece of land or beach. Only at low tide the small sanctuary is open for prayer
and sacrifice. A theatre near the temple stages kecak
song and dance performances. Theme of each performance is a part of the Ramayana
legend. The legend is about Rama prince of Ayodia. On request of his wicked
stepmother Rama is exiled by his father. He has to stay in the forest for
fourteen years living in poverty. His brother Laksamana is his companion. So is
his loving and faithful wife Shinta who is kidnapped by Rahwana. After fourteen
years full of adventures, after saving his wife Shinta, Rama returns in triumph
to Ayodia together with his brother. The kecak was in origin a choir of men
sitting in concentric circles around an oil-lamp doing in trance the backing
vocals for a dance. It is called monkey dance because the performance ends with
a fight between the monkey army of Rama and the demon army of Rahwana. The
men sing by reprisal the words "tchak”or “kecak” which have no
meaning; hence the Balinese name of Tchak of Kecak. Later a story was
added to make the performance more interesting.
The most sacred temple complex of Bali is in
Besakih on the slopes of the mountain Gunung
Agung. Inscriptions in the year 1007 made notice of this temple. Since the 15th
century the temple has been a leading religious institution. The complex has
three large temples dedicated to Wisnu, Siwa and Brahma, each one on a terrace
above the other. In times of important ceremonies the three main altars are
dressed with coloured drapes: on the left black for Wisnu, in the middle white
for Siwa and on the right red for Brahma. These three large temples are in the
centre of eighteen smaller temples for various castes and for various directions
in Bali. The Balinese bring a visit to this temple at least once each year as a
kind of pilgrimage. Once in a hundred years is the Eka Dasa Rudra, a
ceremony meant to restore harmony in the universe. The ceremony is very
expensive and takes a long time of preparation. All priests in Bali are required
to cooperate, to prepare precious offerings and to sacrifice many animals. The
festivities last for three months.
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Sumatra
Sumatra has various ethnic groups with their
own cultures manifest in architecture, language, dress, dance and music. The
Bataks live in the interior of northern Sumatra. Up until the beginning of the
last century they lived in isolation. Attempts to convert the Bataks to islam
did not succeed. Missionaries trying to convert them to christianity were more
successful. Because of their isolation the Bataks preserved their original
culture for a long time.
Some Bataks still stick to their traditional
religion based upon the reverence of their ancestors and the belief in gods,
ghosts and the supernatural. These supernatural beings are present in
nature like water, air, trees, stones, rivers, mountains and lakes. Their
supreme deity is Ompu Tuan Jadi na Bolon, also called Debata. This god rules the
universe consisting of three worlds: the upperworld of the gods, the medial
world of mankind and the underworld of ghosts and demons. A datu
maintains the equilibrium between these worlds by performing rituals and
sacrificial offerings. The datu is not merely a priest, he is a witchdoctor and
astrologer as well. Elements in Batak religion and language indicate a very old
origin influenced by hinduism. The title of Batak monarchs for example began
with the word singa (lion) and the sculptured heads on both sides of a
traditional house also are called Singa or Gajah Dompak, names of hindu origin.
A traditional calendar with good and bad
signs determines the social relations in a Batak community. People live
according to regulations and only by offering sacrifices they have some
influence on their fate and destination. On the day of the scorpion they are not
allowed to organize a celebration as the scorpion is sure to catch the organizer
with its pincers (pincers of scorpion), only those born on scorpion days may do
so (scorpion's belly). Not even on the following day it is allowed to undertake
anything (scorpion's tail). On another day they are destined to be idle. All
efforts will be in vain on this day. Therefore they should not give their
daughter in marriage nor allow their son to marry on this day. They should even
refrain giving or receiving anything even merchandise. The day of the
hooked clock is a favourable day. On this day they should accept everything,
gold or other merchandise. However, they should not lend anything, for, as they
will keep what they receive on this day, they will lose what is lent.
Another day is destined to wave or carrier away. On this day they are not
allowed to inaugurate a house, in whatever point of the compass it may be
situated, at the risk of being carried away as corpses. On the fish day they
have to fry fish for their guests to eat. If they offer them meat they will have
to face the ill-effects of their deed, for their cattle will be killed in great
numbers. This day "likes" settlements and gifts if people should mourn
the loss of a relative on this day. This is also an appropriate day for
rendering harmless a curse by means of a sacrifice. On the day of the fruit it
is a good thing for them to marry, to receive cattle (i.e. as a weddinggift, as
payment of a debt, etc.) or sow rice. Another day is favourable of
incompleteness. Anything done on this day should only be done incompletely.
Completion will only be possible if they offer a sacrifice.
In the past the Bataks were fighting each
other in many conflicts and they had to anticipate a hostile attack at any time.
Because of their continous struggles they built their villages in inaccessible
places. In mountaineous areas they surrounded their villages by a stone wall of
2 and 3 metres high. In the plains they surrounded their villages by a thick and
high bamboo hedge with a small entrance which could be closed and barricaded.
This huta or traditional walled village is exhibited in the open air
museum of Simanindo. The axial length of a
traditional village is pointed from east to west. In the centre at the south
side of each village is a rumah bolon, the large house of the local
monarch. On both sides there are other houses, bagas or rumah, and
at the north side there are ricestores or sopo. Their stooping facade
turned to the village square is typical for Batak architecture. The richly
ornamented houses are built on poles and a narrow stairway leads to the entrance.
The facade of each house is decorated with traditional religious symbols: singa,
buffalo, buffalo horns, lizards and female breasts. The fine curves of the
wooden carvings are painted in red, black and white. The roofs are covered by
black ijuk fibres of the palmtree. Since the Second World War the roofs
are made of rusty iron plates making a poor impression. The outside of the
houses is no longer decorated showing plain wood.
The village square is used for ceremonies
and festivals. The open air museum in Simanindo presents a demonstration twice a
day. These demonstrations give an impression of traditional dance and music at
several occasions. The gondang orchestra of drums, gongs and flutes, is
sitting in the gallery of the largest house. In the tot-tor sacrificial
dance the datu or priest leads a buffalo to the village square. He
binds the animal meant as a sacrifice to a stake decorated with branches of a waringin
tree. In real adat festivals the buffalo is killed after a series of
ritual dances around the stake. When the women dance they move their arms and
hands in a strait style and they slightly bend their knees to the rhytm. They
dance on the spot and virtuously keep their eyes on the ground. An acme of each
demonstration is the dance of Si Gale Gale,
a wooden puppet which moves by pulling some strings. In the past this puppet
danced at the funeral of a person who had no children to look after the peace of
soul after his death. The puppet is a surrogate son who by his dance
brings rest and satisfaction to the soul of the deceased. It is believed that
the first Si Gale Gale puppet was made for a king with many daughters and just
one son. The son was a good dancer with a frail health who died at young age.
The king was in so much pain and sorrow that the people from his village made a
wooden puppet who looked just like his son. As the king saw him dancing he found
comfort.
The garment of the dancers is traditional
dress: a dark blue or dark red sarong with small strips and motifs under their
blouse. The most important piece of dress is the slendang
or shoulder cloth, which all Bataks, men as well as women, wear. Nowadays most
Bataks wear modern Indonesian clothing. The women wear a batik sarong and
a blouse or gown with flower motifs, the men wear trousers and a shirt with
short or long sleeves, sometimes they wear a jacket. At festivities they always
wear a slendang on top.
Pematang Purba is a an open air museum with
a magnificent rumah bolon, once a residence for
the king of the Simalungun Bataks. The large house and the adjacent harem was
restored in the late twentieth century. A small stairway leads to the entrance.
The floor is made of old teak shelfs with a dark patina. The dark inside reveals
several cooking and sleeping places. A large wooden coffin was meant to
retain the deceased monarch when his son and successor was not yet grown-up.
Until that moment the body stayed in the house. The complex comprises rice
stores, a meeting house and a royal cemetary.
The last monarch died in 1948 and left behind twelve wifes. That is why some
burial monuments are from the sixties and seventies in the twentieth century.
The epitaph “requiescat in pace” clearly indicate that they were christians.
Ambarita is a
little huta or enclosed village on the northeast coast of Samosir
island in Lake Toba. The traditional village is an open air museum with several
old houses built by Toba Bataks. The village is famous for its megaliths:
stone tables and seats of at least threehundred years old. The local monarchs
held court in this village where they brought their enemies and criminals to
justice. When a person was sentenced to death, he was decapitated and his head
was put on a stone table. Later his head was thrown into the deep water of lake
Toba.
Balige is a Batak village to the south of
Lake Toba, approximately one hour away from Parapat. The village is well known
for its rumah or traditional houses and its
fine cloths. The village is situated in an area populated by muslim Bataks. The
outside of some houses in the village is no longer decorated.
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Sulawesi
The unique culture of the Torajas is based
upon an agelong tradition. The Torajas are an ethnic community of approximately
350.000 people in the interior of south and central Sulawesi. They live
dispersed in little villages throughout the steep and sloping mountain
area. The villages are conspicuous because of the traditional houses with large
roofs. These houses or tongkonan stand
close to each other. The normal houses are dispersed in the environment. Each
village has cultivated land, waste land and two festival grounds. One of these
festival grounds, the rante patunuan, is for the rituals of the
west (funerals). The other, the rante kala’paran, is for the
rituals of the east concerning life, people, animals and crops.
The traditional houses or tongkonan
are built on poles. They are the most important buildings in each village. Their
history unites many families because the tongkonan were constructed by
their common ancestors. All family assets are kept in the tongkonan. The facade
of each tongkonan is turned to the north. The major family ceremonies are held
in the tongkonan. But not every family has a tongkonan. In the past the Toraja
society was divided in three ranks: nobles, free men and slaves. Only nobles and
their family members were allowed to keep a tongkonan. The tongkonan of the most
important families have a "navel" post, a wooden post in the middle of
the house, to support the floor girder in the axial length of the house. Various
motifs in the wood encarvings on the outside of the tongkonan indicate the rank
of each family. There are more than twohundred different motifs and each
motif has its own symbolic meaning. Most common motifs are the head of a buffalo,
the basket, leafs of the sirih plant, cock feathers, the sun and the seacrab.
Conspicuous in Toraja architecture is the large roof of each tongkonan. It
resembles a boat with curved stern and prow placed on top of a house on poles.
The roof is covered with pieces of sliced bamboo stuck together by rotan. A
stairway at the front leads to the entrance of the house, which is divided in
three compartments: a front compartment, a central compartment with kitchen and
a sleeping compartment. Nowadays the cooking compartment is located in a
separate building next to the tongkonan. A tongkonan does not lodge the whole
extended family, but just a nuclear family of four to twelve people.
Opposite each tongkonan is a ricestore, a
smaller replica of the tongkonan house. The architecture of the ricestore is
different from the traditional house in one essential aspect. The poles of the
ricestore are circular, whereas the poles of the house are square. There is a
practical reason for this difference: to prevent mice from eating the rice
supplies in the store, the circular poles are made of slippery wood. Mice, rats
and other rodents cannot climb up the poles. A floor underneath the store serves
as a sitting or sleeping place for visitors during a ceremony. It is also in use
as a working place.
The Toraja consider death the most important
moment of their life, the liberation of their soul from the material world. A
festival makes it possible for the soul to leave for puya, the land of
souls. Their funeral ritual, part of the rituals of the east, is strictly
separated from everything else concerning life and its spheres. Rice is related
to life and relatives of the deceased are not allowed to eat rice in the
mourning period. All their lifetime the Torajas save money to give their parents
and other relatives an excellent funeral festival. This is so important for them
that they consider large financial debts in order to organize a festival. The
funeral festival of a high ranking person can cost many thousands of pounds and
can last for many days. Sometimes the festival is divided in two periods
to save money for the second part which may take place weeks, months or even
years later.
The first part of the funeral festival takes
place in the tongkonan and is not open for tourists. When a person has died his
body is cleansed, his intestines are emptied and his corpse is injected with
formaline. He is neatly dressed , wrapped in drapes and covered by expensive
tissues. The mourners recite elegies and prayers and bring the deceased with his
head turned to the west into the tongkonan. In this period they do not speak of
the “deceased” but of the “sick". When enough money has been saved it
is time for the second part of the festival. The relatives start building
festival stands for their guests. They figure out how many buffalos and pigs
will be sacrificed, how many people will be invited, how many dancers and
servants will attend the festival and so on. When the second part begins the
deceased is placed in the central compartment of the tongkonan with his head
turned to the south. From this moment on he is considered actually dead and
"deceased". Women start an elegy and men butcher a buffalo in
the courtyard. Next day the visitors arrive, sometimes thousands of them:
members of the family, friends, acquaintances, officials, etcetera. They bring
gifts like pigs, buffalos, firewood, palmwine and money. The most important
visitors are offered sirih by eight or twelve girls in traditional dress
carrying a golden knife or kris and a kandaure or bead adornment.
At the end of the first day it is time for buffalo and cock fights. The next day
the deceased is "aroused", a ritual which means that the festival is
resumed. The priest sings funeral songs and members of the family lament. The
corpse is taken to the floor underneath a ricestore in front of the a tau-tau,
a wooden statue of the deceased. Then the corpse is taken to a stretcher shaped
like a ricestore and a procession starts to move towards the festival ground. On
arrival the sacrificial buffalos (sometimes more than fifty!) are shown to the
guests and then butchered. Thereafter the deceased is transported to
a tomb in the rocks next to his ancestors. The position of the tomb depends on
the status of the deceased in his lifetime. The wooden statue or tau-tau is
placed near the other wooden statues of the family in the rocks. From this
moment on the deceased will guard his descendants.
The second part of the funeral festival is
open to tourists. The guests gather near the festival ground. Then a girl in
traditional dress escorts them to the ground. They pass the stretcher with
the coffin of the deceased. On arrival the girl offers them a place to stay. The
best places in the central part of the ground are for the local gentry. From
here they can see the reception stand. Above the stand is a portrait of the
deceased. Nearby is the tau tau or wooden statue of the deceased under an
umbrella to protect him against the sun. On their way to the reception stand the
guests pass the statue and bring him their honours for a last time. A priest
in white dress performs a ritual dance to expel the bad spirits. Next servants
offer the guests drinks like palmwine and dodol or fruit juice. During
the festival many animals are butchered and consumed.
Many villages in Tana Toraja or the
land of Torajas still have a traditional kind of architecture. A nice village to
visit is Marante with traditional tongkonan
houses and rock tombs. The village of Nanggala
has nice ricestores. In Palawa
traditional tongkonan houses and rice stores are built on a platform. The
village has a circle of ritual stones as well. Batutumongga
has a big circle of 56 large erect stones or megaliths. In this village the
deceased members of a family are buried in separate rock tombs. Memorial stones
or menhirs were constructed in remembrance of the deceased . In the land of
Torajas magnificent rock tombs and tau-tau statues are to be found in Lemo.
In Tampang Allo
one can see “hanging tombs”
with decomposing coffins and ornaments. In nearby Kambira
is a tree for the burial of deceased babies, i.e. sucklings without any teeth.
In the past the little corpses were placed into holes cut out of the stem. This
custom is no longer in use.
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Literature
Diverse "De
Kecak dans of de apen dans", leaflet Arena Serba Guna "Wantilan Surya
Chandra"
Diverse "The 30
days and the 12 months", leaflet museum village Ambarita
Diverse
"Traditionele Batak dansen", leaflet museum Huta Bolon Simanindo
Martyr, Debbie
"Indonesië, thuis in elk land", edition in the Reiskompas series of
travel guides
Wassing, R.S. en Wassing-Visser, R.
"Indonesië", edition in the Dominicus series of travel guides
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