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Indonesian Wonder

Indonesian Wonder (592)

14
March

Minangkabau has a lot of interesting culture characterized by traditions and habits in everyday life. These various traditions contain noble values that must be maintained. One tradition that is still popular and still exists today is 'Malamang' or making lemang (glutinous rice cake). This tradition can be found in almost all areas of West Sumatra province, both in inland area such as in Solok, Payakumbuh, Agam, Tanah Datar, as well as in coastal regions such as Padang, Pariaman and Pesisir Selatan.

 

Lamang, which is one of the popular culinary delights when welcoming the holy Ramadhan month, is also one of the traditional culinary delights typical of the Minangkabau people, such as rendang. This Malamang tradition is usually carried out before certain celebrations like welcoming the month of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, baralek (wedding party), and so on. In several areas in West Sumatra province (Minangkabau), lamang is usually also used as souvenirs from women's families to men's families, or when a daughter-in-law visits her in-laws' house.

 

nowadays, Lamang not only has an original taste made from sticky rice and coconut milk, but there are also several flavor variants such as yellow lamang, namely lamang made from rice flour and turmeric as the main ingredients, sweet potato lamang and banana lamang. Malamang is usually done together by local residents. Original lamang is made from puluik (white sticky rice), cooked with coconut milk and packed in a bamboo container lined with banana leaves, then cooked for approximately 6 hours, by placing it in a row and leaning against the heat of a fire.

 

In the Malamang tradition there are values of togetherness and mutual cooperation because during Malamang, friends especially neighbors, relatives and family members will gather to make lamang. There are some who act as cooks, and others who look after the fire so that the lamang can be cooked perfectly and there are also those whose role is to find and take bamboo blades to make containers for the lamang. Malamang has a social function as a means of gathering and strengthening friendly relations among people.

14
March

Indonesia has various ethnic groups that have their own  cultures. Each ethnic group also has various religions and rituals, including welcoming the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims. One of the ethnic groups that has a ritual to welcome this holy month is the people of Lampung who have the Belangiran ritual. Belangiran is a tradition of taking a holy bath before entering the month of Ramadan. This tradition is an intangible cultural heritage from Lampung province which is held once a year.

 

Belangiran comes from the word “langir” which means bathing. Meanwhile, in the Lampung language, it is called Blangikhan. But bathing here is not an ordinary bath. Belangiran bathing has a spiritual meaning, because it is an effort to purify oneself from all dirt or sins. So, the Belangiran bath is also called a repentance bath. By taking the Belangiran bath, they hope to be physically and spiritually clean before fasting during Ramadan so that they can carry out their fasting worship smoothly and devoutly.

 

In the Belangiran bathing tradition, there are orderly rules, starting from the water used, as well as other mixed ingredients, such as seven kinds of flowers, pandan leaves and also twigs. The water used in this bathing ritual comes from seven rivers close to the location where Belangiran is held. The water  that will be used for Belangiran is usually collected in a bun or jug,  two days before  the implementation of the Belangiran ritual. Then, the water that has been taken is separated according to how many heads of family will take part in this process. Usually, each family is given one dipper which will be divided into as many families as there are. Therefore, everyone in the family would only water their heads.

 

On one hand, the purpose of holding the Belangiran tradition is only as a form of thanksgiving in welcoming the arrival of the month of Ramadan.  On the other hand, this tradition is to maintain and preserve Lampung culture so that it does not disappear over time, because it is a tradition of the Lampung people, which has been carried out for one  generation to generation.

14
March

If you are on a trip to Kuningan, West Java, there is Cibuntu tourist village that we recommend for you to visit. Not only because the nature is beautiful but this village is also known as one of the tourist villages that often make achievements, including the fifth place in the ASEAN best tourist village for homestay category in 2016. Besides that, Cibuntu tourist village won the second place in the Best Tourist Village of the prestigious Community-Based Tourism (CBT) award in 2017 by the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

 

Cibuntu tourist village, 17 kilometers from Kuningan town center, is located at the foot of Mount Ciremai. The tourist village presents the natural charm of green expanses of rice fields, bamboo forests, and other natural attractions. To enter Cibuntu village, you are charged an entrance ticket of 5,000 Rupiah or about 30 US cents per person. Entering this village, you will immediately breathe in the fresh mountain air. You can start your activities here by jogging or cycling. Not far from Cibuntu village, about 5 minutes of trekking, you can also enjoy the beauty of Gongseng Waterfall. Right under the waterfall, 20 to 25 meters high, a pool can be used for swimming or just playing in the water.

Another exciting thing you can do at the Cibuntu tourist village is visiting the Bujal Dayeuh cultural heritage site. This site is an ancient relic in the form of a stone coffin discovered in 1967 and contained a hand axe.  Other objects are also found, such as stone containers (kelenting) and hand axes from the Saurip Kidul site, which were discovered in 1972. Cibuntu tourist village also has "Cibuntu Offroad Tourism" for those who like challenges. Two offroad packages are available according to your wishes, namely offroad with a distance of 4 km and 6 km. The off-road trip will take a track through the Cibuntu rubber plantation, which covers an area of approximately 4 hectares. Besides off-roading, there is also a tour of the rubber plantation on an ATV motorbike for 20 minutes. To stay overnight, the village also provides campsites and homestays.

06
March

Khayangan Hill

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Published in Indonesian Wonder

Penuh River or Sungai Penuh may not be so familiar to your ears. However, there upon we can find a place called ‘Khayangan Hill’. Sungai Penuh Regency in Jambi Province is surrounded by green hills and the fertile Kerinci valley. It is not surprising that Sungai penuh is a district whose a lot of tourism attractions are interesting to visit. Khayangan Hill is one of the tourism destinations that you can visit. It offers a stunning view of a series of hills, and has a height of around 2000 meters above sea level with temperatures reaching 20 degrees Celsius.

 

This hill, which directly shares a border with the Kerinci Seblat National Park, is situated at Binakarya Village in Sungai Banyak and has quite complete facilities, such as huts, gazebos, toilets, a large parking area and many others. Even though it is far from downtown of Sungai Penuh Regency, this place is a good one for visitors to relieve their fatigue.

05
March

Garut is one of popular destinations in West Java, Indonesia. Garut offers a strong culture, as well as an impressive creative economy sector. This is the main attraction of this city dubbed as Switzerland van Java. If you visit Garut, it won't be complete without bringing home souvenirs from its unique creative economy products. We recommend some typical Garut souvenirs. First, Vetiver Root Crafts. Vetiver root is often used as a medicine for toothache, rheumatism and to eliminate bad breath. In fact, the leaves and stems can also be used as raw materials for crafts.

 

Some crafts made from vetiver include bags, wall hangings and woven root dolls in the shape of sheep. You can buy various crafts from Vetiver Root when you come to Garut. The price of Vetiver Root crafts varies from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of rupiah, depending on the type of craft and the level of complexity of the manufacturing process. Visiting Garut without buying dodol is incomplete. Moreover, this fudge-like sweet made from glutinous rice, palm sugar and coconut milk is indeed a culinary icon of Garut, whose popularity has even earned Garut the nickname "City of Dodol". This typical Garut dodol can be easily found throughout Garut. There are various flavors such as sesame dodol, peanut dodol and various fruit dodol such as pineapple, jackfruit, strawberry and even durian flavor.

 

For the people of Garut, Kuntji's sweet soy sauce, which has been around since the 1960s, is an inseparable part of their culinary delights. The popularity of this sweet soy sauce began when the Tin-Tin company was founded, which is said to have been successful because it started with the tenacity of a married couple, Lie Ma Pan and Tan Soe Ing. As a result of their hard work and tenacity, now the Tin-Tin factory produces not only superior soy sauce, such as Kuntji sweet soy sauce, but also various other types of soy sauce with different trademarks, namely Angsa, Hade, Selera, Sarasa soy sauce, Haremis brand soy sauce, to food vinegar products with the Cabe brand. If you visit Garut, don't miss the opportunity to buy this legendary Kuntji branded sweet soy sauce product.

05
March

If you are in Yogyakarta, a trip to the beach is one of the right choices. Gunung Kidul, one of the districts in Yogyakarta, has a row of beautiful beaches that are interesting to visit. One of them is Siung Beach. This white sandy beach is quite famous in Yogyakarta, even abroad. Apart from its beauty, easy access makes many tourists visit Siung Beach.

Siung Beach is in Duwet Hamlet, Purwodadi Village, Tepus District, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta Special Region. From the center of Yogja City, you will travel around 77 kilometers or around 2 to 3 hours. Arriving at Siung Beach, you will see many giant rocks scattered to the west and east of the beach.

Apart from being a characteristic feature of Siung Beach, the presence of coral rocks also has meaning in the origin of this beach's name. It is said that the shape of this giant rock resembles the teeth of a monkey or Siung Wanara. That's why it is called Siung Beach. Not only that, if you are lucky you can find several long-tailed monkeys around the beach but today they are difficult to find.

Among rock climbing lovers, Siung Beach has become a spot that must be conquered. Having around 250 rock climbing spots with different levels of difficulty, Siung Beach was also awarded "The Best Climbing Rocks Site in Yogyakarta".

So if you love rock climbing, you need to visit this beach. Besides being able to enjoy swimming and playing in the water, you can climb to the expanse of green grass called Pengilon Hill. Here, you can enjoy the view of Siung Beach from a height.

You can even see a group of other beaches in the Gunungkidul area, such as Wediombo Beach and Watu Lumbung Beach. Try to come in the morning to watch the beautiful sunrise panorama. If you want to spend the night, you can camp on the east coast. Siung Beach also provides adequate facilities, such as parking, toilets, places of worship, and several food stalls serving seafood and several typical Yogyakarta menus.

05
March

Apem Festival

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Published in Indonesian Wonder

Next week, 11  March, Muslims around the world will carry out fasting during Ramadan, which means that they do not  eat or drink for approximately 12 hours everyday  for 30 days. Approaching the fasting month of Ramadan, residents of Ratmakan Village, Ngupasan sub-district, Gondomanan Special Region of Yogyakarta again held an Apem festival, "Ngapem Ruwahan, on Sunday morning (25/2/ 2024). There were three large Apems or food-like mountains (gunungan) at the festival.


Before the event started, all the residents of Ratmakan village paraded three mountains which  consist of two Apem mountains, sticky rice and kolak, and one mountain which  contains vegetables from the land. These three mountains are a symbol of gratitude and forgiving one  another among humans and approach themselves  to God Almighty. When parading the three gunungan, the residents of Ratmakan village who paraded the gunungan, wore traditional Javanese clothing with Gamelan music accompaniment which made the atmosphere of this festival even more festive and solemn.


Another purpose of holding the Apem festival is to bring about harmonization of religious, artistic and cultural elements in the community. But the most important message is actually to remind ones that the Muslims will soon enter the holy month of Ramadan. T
he lesson that can be learned from holding this Apem festival tradition   is  the sincerity to forgive one another. "Afwan" an Arabic word, which means sorry, then becomes Apem. This is all mental preparation before doing fasting in the month of Ramadan.

05
March
For you who want to travel to Malang, East Java, Indonesia, please do not forget to visit  Pujon Kidul tourism village. The tourism destination is  located in Pujon subdistrict, Malang regency, East Java province. At the area, you can play in the village, do some exciting activities and find instagrammable spots. When you visit the Pujon tourist village, come in the early morning. It can be reached by walking around 2.6 kilometers or you can drive for 7 minutes to Nirwana Hill. From the top of hill, you can enjoy the cool air of Pujan village and the beautiful sunrise.
 

If you miss the rural atmosphere, you must visit the Cultural Village. This place is a local settlement that has been transformed into a tourism destination with interesting activities, such as making various dairy products at Pawon Ndeso, or learning to make batik, masks, playing gamelan traditional musical instrument, and learning traditional dances at Rumah Belajar. The written batik at Rumah Belajar is also an alternative souvenir. The most popular types of motifs are dragonfly and bamboo motifs. If you are interested in buying it, the price of  written batik is around 350,000 to 800,000 rupiah or 19 to 50 US dollar. At this tourism attraction, there is also Fantasy Land 4D which is ready to pamper the eyes with a beautiful expanse of garden, complete with statues of animated characters. Of course, there are lots of instagrammable photo spots at the location. Besides, there are also facilities for watching four-dimensional films, such as in a mini cinema.

 

There is also the Roudh 78 in the Pujon Kidul Tourism Village. This destination offers exciting activities such as paintball, water roller games, ATVs, trail motorbikes and swimming pools. After touring the Pujon Kidul Tourism Village, you can have a rest to recharge your energy in a beautiful Sawah Cafe with a green rice fields view and a gazebo or hut as a place to eat. In Pujon Kidul Village, there is also accommodation with complete facilities.

23
February

East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara has a natural tourism spot which is worth visited, namely Tanggedu Waterfall. Tanggedu Waterfall is also often called as the "Grand Canyon" of East Sumba, because of its location between beautiful cliffs. The location is in Tanggedu Village, Kanatang sub district, about 46 kilometers from Waingapu City, the capital of East Sumba. To arrive at Tanggedu Waterfall, it takes approximately two hours from Waingapu. During the trip, the visitors can enjoy beautiful panoramic view. From Tanggedu village, Tanggedu Waterfall can be reached through a 3 kilometre’s trek.

Tanggedu Waterfall is open daily from 08.00 AM to 17.00 PM local time. The entrance ticket price is 5,000 Rupiah. Upon their arrival at Tanggedu Waterfall, visitors will be greeted by the sound of gurgling water flowing from a height of about eight meters. There are two waterfalls from different river flows. The water is very clear and clean, so you can see the blue bottom of the pool. This pool is quite wide and shallow, so visitors can swim or do body raft.

Besides swimming, please visitors can also capture the moment by taking photos. Tanggedu Waterfall provides several interesting natural photo backdrops. Each background provides a unique image. Visitors can pose with a waterfall in the background. The photo angle that is no less interesting is the background of the rock cliffs on the left and right banks of the river. Apart from that, the bathing pool with various coloured rock reliefs around it is a beautiful photo spot. For facilities, a restaurant and bathrooms are available there.

16
February

For those of you who like to travel to museums, during February 2024, several exciting events are being held at Indonesian museums. The first is the God Bless 50 Years Masterpiece Collection Exhibition at the National Gallery of Indonesia in Central Jakarta. It is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an Indonesian music band, God Bless. The exhibition, which runs from February 16 to March 1, 2024, presents a large number of historical collections of the band, including clothes, guitars, basses, keyboards, mixers, cassettes, CDs, vinyl records, and other items that bear witness to their journey in Indonesian rock music.

 

The Indonesian Batik Museum in East Jakarta also presents a temporary exhibition entitled "Upstream to Downstream: Batik Ecosystem". This exhibition focuses on education to provide an in-depth look at the values behind a piece of batik cloth. The values are shown starting from providing raw materials to the manufacturing process, to becoming a complete work of batik used by the people. This exhibition runs until February 29, 2024. The Indonesian Batik Museum invites the public to experience an educational and interactive experience at the museum for free.

 

There is also an Al-Banjari U-19 Students Festival at the K.H. Hasyim Asyari Indonesian Islamic Museum in Jombang, East Java. This festival was organized by KUBAHIRENG (Tebuireng Banjari and Hadrah Group) in collaboration with the museum in celebration of the 8th anniversary of KUBAHIRENG. The event is an opportunity for Islamic students who are interested and talented in Al-Banjari Islamic art to participate in competitions at the national level.

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