Archive for the ‘cultures’ Category
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 |
panataran temple is hindu temple located in east java indonesia, exactly on the kelud mountain blitar. this is one of biggest temple on east java. this temple build by kediri kingdom and used until majapahit kingdom. panataran temple or in javanese language called by “candi panataran” discovered at 1815 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) the general of england government at that time.
panataran temple
dwarapala statue (more…)
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Thursday, May 13th, 2010 |
Last week, France’s National Assembly voted to return the mummified heads of 16 Maoris from various museums back to their homeland in New Zealand. In traditional Maori practice, the heads of one’s forefathers, often tattooed to the bone of the skull, were kept as totems honoring their spirits. But a macabre colonial-era fascination with these remains led to a lucrative trade, and many of the embalmed heads whisked away to Europe in the 19th century were actually Maori slaves, forcibly tattooed and decapitated by local or foreign opportunists.
At one time, over 500 Maori heads languished in the cellars of European museums; only in the past two decades, following calls from the New Zealand government as well as rights groups, have over 320 been repatriated. “You do not build a culture on trafficking,” said France’s culture minister, Frederic Mitterand, on May 5. “You build a culture on respect and on exchange.” Just three years ago, though, his ministry blocked a French museum’s independent offer to return the lone Maori head in its possession, fearful that it could lead to an emptying of other untold skeletons in France’s closet.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1988719_1988728,00.html#ixzz0nmH19TFp
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Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 |
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Thursday, May 6th, 2010 |
…Gil used to experience Sakura season during his previous Japan assignments and just before the last cherry bloossom petal falls, he wanted to share some of his precious photographs along with this article which he written himself as he reminisce the experience beneath the Sakura.
Two years had passed since I last saw the astounding beauty of cherry blossom also known as “Sakura” in Owariasahi City, Aichi, Japan. And it still brings back the wonderful memory.
Cherry Blossom Up-close:
Strange, I only have two pictures of Cherry Blossom way back year 2004. Maybe I was still in awe during my early stay in Japan that I forgot to bring home with me some nice pictures. (The other pictures posted here were taken in year 2008)
My first picture of Cherry Blossom
This small shrine is located near the dormitory where I stay
Depending on the climate and location, the flowers of Sakura bloom as early as January on the southern part of Japan while on the northern part it bloom as late as May. Along the riverbank in Ibaraki Prefecture (a 2-hours bus ride from Tokyo) where I work, the Cherry Blossom starts to bloom mid-March.
Shiroyama Park, Owariasahi City
The short life cycle of Sakura flowers has been associated with nature of life. It takes about a week for all the flowers to its full bloom and another week until all the petals fall to ground. Strong wind and rain may even shorten this period. For this reason, Japanese and tourists pay attention to when is the best possible viewing days.
Underneath the Tree…
It is customary for the Japanese to hold a flower-viewing party under the Cherry Blossom. The comfortable ambience and the unique contrast of colors (pale pink flowers and brown branches) of this tree not only provide shelter to its guests but also relaxation and enjoyment.
I am not familiar with the varieties of Cherry Blossom as they all look the same to me. Others maybe taller and wider, but once I am underneath and watching the petals as they fall to the ground or touch my skin, the feeling is really indescribable.
Skyward Asahi tower at the back- an astronomical observatory
The start of Sakura signifies the end of winter and the start of spring. Just before the spring ends signals my arrival to Japan from last year onwards since I requested the change of schedule from March-July to July-November so I may spend time with Michelle on her birthday, a more important event of course than my favorite Sakura season.
…As I hope to witness Sakura with her the next time around.
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Friday, April 16th, 2010 |
In Tuban, a village in the East Java province of Indonesia, earth is used to make “ampo” a creamy snack believed to have medicinal properties.
According to Rasima, the ampo cook of Tuban, there is no real recipe to making this bizarre snack. All she does is look for clean, gravel-free soil, in the village’s rice paddies, pound it into a solid block, using a stick, and scrape rolls out of it,with a bamboo dagger. The rolls of soils are then baked and smoked for an hour. Rasima then takes the earthy snacks to the village market, where she earns about $2, to supplement her family’s income.
Tuban is the only earth-eating village on the planet. There are people, around the world, who enjoy eating sand, or kaolin, but not baked soil. Villagers believe ampo is a natural pain-killer, and that it makes babies’ skin softer, if eaten by their pregnant mothers.
As for the taste of ampo, “it’s nothing special, it feels cold in my stomach” says one of the Tuban locals, who has been eating ampo, ever since she was a child.
sources : www.kaskus.us
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Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 |
Gamelan music is the sum of diverse foreign influences. Pitch relationships from China, bronze instruments from southeast Asia, drums and modal practice from India, bowed strings from the middle east, and even military styles from Europe contributed to the traditional music we hear in Java and Bali today.
The First Gamelan
Among the earliest evidence of gamelan instruments is a series of stone relief carvings on the Borobudur Buddhist temple in central Java (ca. 800ad).
Borobudur shows the world’s first record of a bar percussion instrument. It appears to be a gambang style “xylophone” with ten wide bars resting over a trough resonator. We have no way to tell, but the bars were most likely made of wood or metal. The instrument is shown being played with two sticks with large, presumably padded, balls on the ends (see Kunst, “Hindu Javanese Musical Instruments,” fig. 21). Cymbals resembling Balinese ceng ceng kopyak used in modern processional music can be seen as well as two-headed hand drums which appear to be of both Javanese barrel shape and Balinese conical styles.
The reliefs of Borobudur and other central Javanese temples of the period, including Prambanan and Candi Sari, depict many other instruments including zithers, lutes, harps, vessel drums (gatam), and transverse flutes. Most are extinct in Indonesia today and may have never really existed on the islands, possibly carved from memory by mainland artisans. Only the bar instrument, cymbals, and drums remain. Notably absent from all reliefs of this period are gongs.
The First Gongs
Gongs first appear in the carvings of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, among temples of the Majapahit Hindu empire. These depictions show small gongs, often mounted in pairs on a stick or hanging singly from a cord in the hand and played with a padded mallet. Also evident are significant advancements in bar instruments since the time of Borobudur, including four-mallet gambang style xylophones of a type still used in Bali for cremation rites. Suspended bar gangsa and gender as well as saron with resting bars can be found. The earliest evidence of tuned acoustic resonators, bamboo tubes which amplify the sound of the bars, also appears in this period.
Notable in the east Javanese reliefs are images resembling sitar and other gourd resonated plucked string instruments like those used today in India. Many drums depicted in this period also strongly resemble Indian mridanggam and pakawaj. These instruments became extinct in Indonesia, and again may have never existed, but their presence indicates a powerful foreign cultural infusion.
Gongs most probably did not originate in Indonesia. There is no evidence of the development of bronze gongs in Indonesia before the thirteenth century. They simply appear in the record as highly refined instruments, complete with an embossed center and deep shell. Mainland Asia, however, displays a much wider variety of bronze gong styles, including shallower shells, flat faces, and a clear developmental lineage.
Ancient literature suggests that gongs may have been known and used in Indonesia as early as the ninth century. Their original use may have been as instruments of battle, a sound used to encourage soldiers as it instilled fear in their enemies. But, their absence from the earliest stone record suggests that they were either relatively uncommon until that time. Perhaps they were not an instrument of the ruling class, or had no religiously important purpose.
Majapahit is where all the primary elements of modern gamelan came together. Bronze gongs combined with Indian and southeast Asian influences and the “indigenous” music and instruments of the central Javanese cultures which built Borobudur make east Java the birthplace of gamelan as we know it today. Influence of the Majapahit was strong throughout Indonesia and the southern Philippines and reached deep into the mainland of southeast Asia.
Bali and Java Split
In the fourteenth century, people from the middle east introduced the religion of Islam and the fall of the Majapahit empire began. Those who wished to remain Hindu were exiled to Bali, where they remained relatively isolated for hundreds of years.
The gamelan we hear in Bali today is a direct, almost pure, descendant of the music of the Majapahit period. Many instruments in Bali are exactly the same as those recorded by stone carvers in east Java over six centuries ago. But, while the tools of the trade have remained similar, the music has changed and developed. Every generation of musicians in Bali puts their personal stamp on the music. An added variation here, a new section there, or another composition for a particular ritual, add up considerably over six hundred years. Changes in popular taste also had an effect.
In Java, the new Islamic Mataram empire began and music and instrumentations changed considerably. In Bali, we still find primarily homogenous ensembles of bronze, iron, bamboo, etc. But, in central Java, this diverse instrumentation was combined into a single orchestra. Also combined were the two scales, slendro and pelog, which had remained exclusive to certain ensembles and rituals in Majapahit times. While scales and even melodies may have remained the same, theories behind them were amended to create the Javanese “patet” modal system.
The Javanese Mataram empire is responsible for advancing bronze foundry techniques to produce the very large gongs which have become a staple of modern Javanese and Balinese gamelan. The village of Semarang on the north coast of central Java became the new Indonesian center for gong making, supplying instruments to most of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Borneo, and surrounding islands.
The use and purpose of gamelan music in Java was also revised by Mataram. Originally, gamelan was played in outdoor temples for religious rites, to inspire trance and to invite ancestral spirits. But, in Java religious worship was redirected to the royal courts and the old Hindu and Buddhist temples were left to decay. This change of environment gave rise to many of the aesthetic differences between Balinese and Javanese musical styles. Music in Java moved from open air temples to large roofed platforms within the royal court. Mallets were softened to allow the instruments to reverberate within the space in a more pleasing manner. Forms were also slowed down and elongated to take advantage of the new acoustics and lend austerity to the court. Music became largely a cerebral pursuit of the aristocracy and musicians became servants of the courts.
The Twentieth Century
The last hundred years has brought great changes in both Balinese and Javanese music. Older Balinese musicians speak of times when tempos were slow and variations less intense. Older Javanese musicians relate stories of now rare grand court events and lost compositions. Balinese kebyar style is a product of this century, as is the bonang imbal and kembangan playing techniques so typical of today’s Javanese sound.
Gamelan music continues to change and evolve in both style and purpose. Government performing arts schools are the new patrons driving the future. Students in these institutions are required to create new music and dance, expanding the scope and popularity of gamelan both at home and around the world.
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Friday, March 12th, 2010 |
dayak tribe are one from many tribes in indonesia south east asia, some called them as a head hunter. but the girl from dayak tribe are very very beautiful, take a look on the photo below
we will collect another beautiful culture from dayak tribe another time, or if you had experience about dayak tribe, you can share your information here.
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010 |
The natural wonders of the state of Yucatán are innumerable and some of the most important and unusual are the cenotes, or sinkholes. In the Yucatán there are over 3000 cenotes, with only 1400 actually studied and registered. The Mayas called them dzonot, which the conquering Spaniards translated as cenote.
Geraldo Díaz Alpuche was a military commander in the 16th century who was greatly impressed with these underground caverns and pools, and he tried to explain the meaning of the word cenote in the Spanish language as meaning “deep thing”. The Motul dictionary, a dictionary of Mayan hieroglyphics, defines dzonot as “abysmal and deep”.
Cenotes are magical, enigmatic and unique in the world and were once the only resource for fresh, sweet water in the local Yucatecan jungle. (more…)
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Friday, March 5th, 2010 |
this is wallpaper on my desktop, very awesome isn’t it? just click to the picture to enlarge this wallpaper and then you can save it on your personal computer and make it as your desktop wallpaper. this wallpaper reminds me of the last samurai movies and download the last samurai wallpaper and put it on my notebook as desktop background
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 |
The word “batik” is Indonesian in origin, even if the concept was known by Egyptians and Indians. It is known to be more than a millenium old, and there are evidences that cloth decorated through some form of resist technique was in use in the early centuries AD in several West African, Middle-Eastern and Asian communities.
The word Batik is originally an Idonesian-Malay word and means to dot .This art of textile is spread in the hindu and malay world, but Indonesia is certainly the heart of the Batik.This way of painting and coloring textile has reached its higher degree of excellence in the Island of Java , in cities like Solo, Yogyakarta, Pekalongan or Cirebon. From Java this ‘batik’ cloth was exported to other islands of the archipelago and to the Malay peninsula.
On the 17th century, the Javanese sultanate of Mataram accorded important ceremonial functions to the Batik clothes. Sultan Agung of Mataram is known to have dressed in white cotton decorated with Indigo blue, and his court dancers wore kain kembangan colored with a red organic dye.
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