Controversial Pendet Dance

Pendet dance, however this dance originaly from Bali, Indonesia. Have you ever heard other language that posses the word Pendet? It's totaly Balinese. but recently, this term become controversy. And this is when it all begins.


An ad promoting the network's Enigmatic Malaysia, a special series meant to highlight the cultural heritages of Malaysia featured Balinese Pendet dancers. This prompted an outrage from the dancers in Bali, who posted messages demanding that Malaysia apologize over the misinformation, which then sparked a series of street protests. Further demands were made from the local governments, cultural historians as well as the tourism ministry in Indonesia for Malaysia to clarify the situation. The Malaysian government reportedly offered their apologies, which was rejected by the Indonesian tourism minister. However, the Malaysian government denies claims that it was responsible for the ad, and later disclosed that Discovery TV had sent an apology letter to the two countries, clarifying that the network was responsible for the ad.

what i can take as conclusion are, how come such controversial ad be released to public. Do the tv channel gain the permission to view the ad to public? Or, futhermore, Do Malaysia, i mean the government has a censor department that review all the ad and tv programme before they are released? if there are any, why do they don't put attention on this? it's a controversial and sensitive issue. This such issue can ruin the diplomatic relation between this two Country. Moreover, this sort of problem is not the first time. do we learn from our mistakes? both of us. Please, is there peace live on earth? we should think about what we're about to do. Relize every risk of what we do.

Ref. Wikipedia Read More..

Traditional Dance

Indonesia is a country of many islands. that's why, the culture vary from island to island. the culture form could be art, fashion, language, habit, dance, etc. The way of living in one isand is quite different from others. for example the sumatra people will have very diffferent culture from Kalimantan or Sulawesi. Today focus is on traditional dance.

In sumatra, You must ever saw the famous dances, Saman dance from Aceh. the dance perform by numbers of people who sit in rows. I guarantee you also must have heard of Tor Tor, the north sumatra traditional dance. Or, Piring and Lilin dance from Padang. Even The Dayak and Papua have their own dances that are different from other province dances. Talking about dances, You must know Bali. This land of God is quite famous for the dances.

Traditional Balinese dances are the oldest form of performing arts in Bali. Traditional dances can be divided into two types, sacred dance called Wali and entertainment dance called Bebalihan. Wali (sacred dance) is usually performed in some ritual ceremonies only because it has strong magical powers and only can be performed by specific dancers. Bebalihan are usually performed in social events. In addition to entertain, Bebalihan also has other purposes such as: welcoming guests, celebration of harvests, or gathering crowds. Bebalihan has more variations than Wali.

Indonesia is a vast and beautiful country. With different culture. I want to tell you that, nowadays all you know is Bali. Indonesia has more beautiful site. Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Ambon, Papua are the island that worthy to be seen. Try one and I guarantee you'll be back for second visit. because once is never enough.

ref. Wikipedia Read More..

Pendet Dance, the history and controversy

Pendet is a traditional Balinese dance, in which offerings are made to purify the temple or theater as a prelude to ceremonies or other dances. Pendet is typically performed by young girls, carrying bowls of flower petals, handfuls of which are cast into the air at various times in the dance. Pendet can be thought of as a dance of greeting, to welcome the audience and invite spirits to enjoy a performance.

Pendet is the presentation of an offering in the form of a ritual dance. Unlike the exhibition dances that demand arduous training, Pendet may be danced by anyone. It is taught simply by imitation.

Younger girls follow the movements of the elder women, who recognize their responsibility in setting a good example. Proficiency comes with age. As a religious dance, Pendet is usually performed during temple ceremonies.

All dancers carry in their right hand a small offering of incense, cakes, water vessels, or flower formations. With these they dance from shrine to shrine within the temple. Pendet may be performed intermittently throughout the day and late into the night during temple feasts.

The original Pendet dance is performed by 4-5 young girls (before their puberty) in temple yards. Pendet dancers bring flowers in small Bokor (silver bowls for keeping flowers in a ceremony). They spread the flowers around the temple. This dance is a symbol of welcoming God in some ritual ceremonies in Bali. Pendet actually has simple dance movements. These movements are the basic dance movements of Balinese dance. Pendet has undergone later development with variations and now is not only performed in ritual ceremonies but also in some social events. Pendet since has been known as a welcoming dance.

ref. Wikipedia

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Travel to jogjakarta, you’ll never get lost (Guarantee)

Jogjakarta, never ending asia. You’ve heard that slogan. Ya, this city is the only city who still retain the kingdom in ancient time. Keraton Ngayogyakarta hadiningrat, they called the city. If you want to see Indonesia in ancient time.. Jogja is your destination.

You’ll be treated as if you’re a king here.. traditional culture, beautiful places, beaches, ancient temples (candi), and many more..ready to cheer you up. You’ll never find a place where the tradition is practice in daily life..

Why you’ll never get lost? Because this province has provided itself with the information you need. Yup the whole information you need. The jogjakarta tourism board, has prepare four information center (tourism information center) to provide anything you need. Here are the four places :
1. Malioboro street no.14
2. In front of province tourism board at malioboro 56
3. Tugu railway station
4. Adi sutjipto international air port of Jogjakarta.

The information you’ll get include: hotel room (rate, class, and availability), tourism object destination, Cullinary places, shopping center and many more.

If you ever visited Jogjakarta and you satisfied with the service, please inform other. If not, please contact us for better service improvement. Nowadays, the attractive site in jogja is tourism village. It’s a place located in rural area used as tourism. At this village, there’re various activity you could do. You’ll learn how the villager live, local culture attraction (dance, ritual and many more). And you’ll never achieved in the city, the fresh and clean air of countryside….
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Thank you for stealing our cultural heritage…

A little controversial title I made. Yah it’s true. Many of our culture were being robbed by others. Instead of angry, I want to thank them. Why? Big question may appear in your head?hehe.

Here are some reasons for you to know…
By doing that, you make us realize and feel blessed for the great culture we have. You know our people seem not care about this stuff. So. More people get involved in studying and preserving this culture and bringing them to life.
The cultural heritage you’ve claimed is already known as us.. (i.e. angklung, batik, reog, and the latest issue pendet dance). So in my mind, I thank you once more. Only us, who could answer the historical event bound in that stuff. Others may claim, but only us may explain..hehe
You know how expensive it is to make a good promotional ad for tourism? Hehe, thank you. Because with your action, we get free promotional charges to promote our country. For example, when you put batik in one of your country tourism ads, people would see, and immediately remember or our country. So, instead of traveling to your country, they prefer ours.. thanks.

That’s the reasons why I thank you for stealing our culture. Only god knows who’s wrong and who’s right.. or in this case of claim culture thing… who’s first and who’s last. I mean the sooner you register or claim, the sooner the culture will be yours. Haha.
So my country hurry up…and wake up. Read More..

Malaysia never claimed the Pendet Dance as theirs…

Still hurt by the conflict between Indonesia and Malaysia about batik and reog, I feel that I need a good news about this two country relationship. And finally the good news I’ve expected come..

The Malaysian General Consulate in Medan give the statement. Malaysia government has never claimed pendet dance from Bali and Jemur Island of Riau as theirs.
Fauzi Omar the general Consulate in Medan said that the term of Tari Pendet from Bali island and Jemur island or Riau is not true.

He said that the tourism ad that publish this dance was made by private company. “The government of Malaysia has never made or even involve in the process of the documentary film making”, he said.

Further he said, in this ad, indeed there’s pendet dance showed, but there’s no intention to claim the dance as theirs. Later, the Discovery Channel, the company who made this ad, has sent their apology because of this pathetic event.

But what lesson can we took due to this event? Indonesia loves their culture very much, but seem always late in making the certification. And For Malaysian, since our diplomatic relation is not too good right now, Please don’t make any controversial issues. It could make our relation worse. So, I hope, we could have our understanding each other. So, better relationship will be built.

Go Indonesia Go

Go Malaysia Go

We could make our country better.
We have beautiful country..
Introduce the beauty of our country to the entire world,
Surely the world would come to see us..

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Hurray, UNESCO agreed to make Batik as Indonesia Cultural Heritage…..

Yup, this is the article I pick from local newspaper. What a heart-warming news. After a long time of struggle and controversy, finally batik is ours. The news was informed by Minister of Welfare to the president.

According to the minister, the official ceremony will be held in September, 28th, 2009. in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Due to this succeed, the president hopes people in Indonesia willingly to wear batik.

The journey to the acclamation began in 2008. at that time the government has conducted research and surveys involving batik community, batik artist and expert among 19 provinces to nominate batik as cultural heritage in non-things category from UNESCO.

“Batik is not only considered as culture from Indonesia, but also considered as representation of humanity non-things culture”. Aburizal Bakrie, minister of welfare, said. He added, UNESCO regard batik as cultural icon that posses value of unique, symbol, and deep philosophy in human life cycle. As traditional cloth, batik rich of cultural value as traditional art inherited generation by generation.

This success completing the success chain of Indonesia campaign in preserving and get the international world acclamation of our culture. Jero Wacik, Minister of tourism said, since 2003, UNESCO has made Wayang and Keris as Indonesia Culture. In addition he said, nowadays government is still on progress in the struggle to put Angklung and many others as nomination in UNESCO cultural certification.

Go Indonesia GO….

ref. Kompas Read More..

West Java, the homeland of living Goddes...

Do you ever see the beautiful indo gals in Indonesia tv shows?

Yup, i can tell you. Most of them are Sundanese..

Even for me myself is confusing? Why they're all pretty? Haha..

That's not what i want to say though. hehe, so what am I trying to say?

Since I'm focusing on promotion of indonesia, I'll completely show you indonesia.. mostly from the cool, cozy, and worthy places to travel..

I'm a newbie, and since I'm new, I'm eager to learn.. learn to find what's good in my country..

West Java.. What cross your mind when you heard that?

i could say..pretty lady (always number one hehe), angklung (traditional music instrument), wayang golek (traditional 3D puppet), jaipong (traditional dance), and also deicious cullinary..

here i told you a little about this place

west java is located at java island..next to jakarta (or i can say surrounding jakarta). people here also known west java as Bumi Parahyangan. we call the people sundanesse (hehe, don't know what's the relation to sundae..ehmm, yummy). the culture of sunda can be separated from this place, from the unique language, famous jaipong dance, and not unique but also famous puppet show. not forget to mention the traditional musical instrument made of bamboo called Angklung. last time i check, claimed by malaysian but i told you, they know nothing..this things definitely indonesian. there's a lot of tradition, meanings, philosophy, and history bound to this music. i can tell you the whole story at the next session..so be patient ya..

here are some pics of this gorgeous place........

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Various batik motifs from different region in Indonesia

Batik cirebon

the cirebon style batik is known as batik pesisir (pesisir is a region which located next to the sea). They use bright and contrast colors. The popular motifs of cirebon batik are mega mendung which is affected by the palace or cirebon kingdom. The other motifs are the combination of mega mendung, pesisiran, the shape of flower, and also birds. These motifs are known as reformation motives. Most of the motifs are symbols which are praised by the people which show the power, and courage and even aggressiveness, and guidance to promote a country which have been so long abandoned. The region of cirebon whose batik is so popular is Trusmi. From this region, various models and motifs of cirebon batik are created.

Batik cap

This material is added to fabrics in a variety of ways, in addition to being used as yarn and cotton. Cirebon decorated fabrics, known as Batik Cap with botanical patterns. The Batik Cap is called botanical patterns because consists of flowers, leafs, and stalks and if be clustered to become beautiful wreath. In addition to applying old green, yellow, white, and red to textiles the Cirebon are skilled exponents of the art of painting cloth.

wadas singa

The motif of wadas singa is a painting of a horse cart of Singabarong kingdom from Kraton kasepuhan cirebon.

Batik tuban

This batik comes from Kerek, Tuban. This batik is the result of modification of batik gedhog. Two phoenixes with wings spread wide open as the main motif, makes this batik looks very beautiful. The motif of flower even makes it more beautiful. The color used is blue with dying technique. This motif can be used as clothes or skirt materials.

Batik kembang waluh

Kembang Waluh is one of the gedhod, batik motif of Tuban, East Java. This kind of motif shows up in three colors, dark blue, red, and white. The main motives consist of leafs, flower and phoenix. The motives of leaf and flower are arranged in a curly and artistic shape. Generally, it’s hard to differ where flower or leaf, the phoenix motif appear to fill the blank area between the stem.

Batik sogopipit

Batik Sogo Pipit is Tuban traditional batik. The combination of the colors is impressive. From the color we simply know that it use synthetic color. The motifs made from flowers, leafs and phoenix. In this motif we could also find the animal and flower whose form just like larva in steliren form.

Batik lampung

Cotton, supplementary weft weaving from Lampung, Sumatra. used as a hanging in family ceremonies such as weddings, the ship symbolizes life's transitions and recalls the days when huge trading ships sailed the waters of Indonesia.

Batik pekalongan

The color of sarung batik Pekalongan is a natural color. Like brown or red of bricks. Differ from today pekalongan batik whose color more dynamic, and various. They use bright color and generally people call it gejreng. Some of the motifs is influence or have the same motifs as European. Batik Pekalongan is used as daily clothes. The motifs and colors represent the society expressions which is strongly dedicated for business.

Batik tiga negeri

The complexity of hand batik making process is nothing compare to the history of batik tiga negri (three country batik). This motif is a combination of three original motif from Lasem, Pekalongan and Solo. In the collonial time, the province with self government is called country. If we talk about the motif combination, it’s a simple and ordinary things, but if we look at the process, we could realize that this kind of batik is the state of the art of a batik. It’s known that the water quality affect the coloring process, and it’s possible happen because every region has diffrerent mineral constituent due to different geographic profile. First, the batik cloth is made in Lasem with red spesific color, like blood red color, after that, the cloth is takento Pekalongan and is painted in blue color, and at last, the cloth is taken to Solo to be painted in brown sogan color which is the original of Solo. Considering the transportation means in that time, we could say that this batik is a masterpiece.

Batik wayang

This batik is from JogJakarta. This batik is a modification inspired by the puppet tale of Jogjakarta. Despite the motif which makes this batik special, the color also makes it more special, which is modification of brown (pale brown, dark brown, reddish brown, yellow brown) an light green.

Batik parang

The Parang design consists of planting rows of thick knife like segments running in parallel diagonal bands. Parang ussualy alternated with narrower bands in a darker contrasting color. These darker bands contain another design element, a line of lozenge-shaped motifs call mlinjon. These are many variations of this basic striped pattern with its elegant sweeping lines, with over forty parang designs records. The most famous is the "parang rusak" which in its most classical form consisting of rows of softly folded parang. This motif also appears in media other than batik, including woodcarving and as ornamentation gamelan musical instrument

Batik sarong madura

While their menfolk were at sea, madurese women made batik at home; this is the familiar story about Madurese batik. Despite its uniqueness, Madurese batik is less popular than that of other regions, probably due to a lack of promotion. Madurese batik cannot, however, be separated from Madura's culture and geographical nature. This small island east of Java is a vast, barren land of white limestone rocks with a notoriously hot climate, often held to blame for the traits associated with the Madurese of coarse language and up-front manner. These are somehow shown in the boldness of the batik colors and the directness of the motifs. Madurese batik-makers are also known for their free style when drawing motifs. They rarely use templates or fixed pattern, so in the process they have developed unique detailing. The motifs are descript an expression of fauna like birds, and flower-like coffee blossoms. The motifs are also a description of things like flower bouquets they knew from the Dutch, or a banal object like a piece of fermented shrimp paste. The batik usually incorporates strong colors like vibrant reds, brown, deep greens and matte black. Batik Madura is displaying beautiful, hand-painted batik produced by villagers from Tanjungbumi in Madura, a famous batik area in the island.

Indonesian batik sarongs are sought after because of its ethnic nature. This is a versatile piece of wraparound skirt which is easily matched with any plain top. These features are this brown and dark green batik sarong is printed with intricate floral pattern. This is also a lapas sarong (free style).

Hand batik (tulis) in Madura known for the rich reds at the turn of the century. This is a beautiful peace, perfect condition, rich color, from the early twentieth century

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BATIK, INDONESIA ORIGINAL ART OF FASHION

BATIK painting technique has already existed for more than 1000 years ago. This art grow as the development of human knowledge. But why batik has a very strong relation with Indonesia? Or why international world would agree the fact that batik belongs to Indonesia?

Here are short and simple explanation which I thought would give you a little understanding of that fact……….

The term “Batik” has been internationally accepted. This word can be found in many international dictionaries. It means that even there is many and various painting and drawing in cloth media technique, Batik remains individual, special and unique technique that can’t be regarded same as those techniques. The term “Batik” itself was originated from Javanese language “amba” and “titik”.

Batik can’t be separated from every single historical event happened in Indonesia. There’s strong tradition and beliefs in Indonesian Batik. For examples, in visiting or attending the funeral one should wear batik with special motif, and also if one attend the marriage ceremony, the motif differ from daily or other activities wardrobe. This gives the understanding that batik is not ordinary clothes, not only an ordinary painting or drawing cloth, but also has an aesthetic value and tradition bound to it. This kind of matter didn’t exist in other “Batik” from or claimed by any other counties around the world.

The motives of Indonesia traditional Batik have limited variation and forms, and several motifs are wore by special or classified people such as king (sultan) or kraton members. The traditional batik preserved their motif and still wore in certain ceremonial events because every motif and symbols have their own meanings and philosophy. Parang Rusak motif for example, this motif actually is a sacred batik motif an only can be wore in Keraton environment and the color of this motif can be used to determine the origin of the one wearing it, whether from Keraton Solo or Jogja.

Indonesian batik represent the history of Indonesia. Therefore from batik we could traced back the historical moment of Indonesia. For example, the arrival of traders from across the world and the conqueror country. The bright color like red color is affected by Chinese, who also introduced the Phoenix motif. The European countries also interested in Batik, and the result is the unknown flower motif such as tulip and also the goods carried by them, such as skyscraper, and horse cart, including the color such as blue.

That’s why, I could assume that batik is original Indonesian Stuff. This is fantastic, beautiful and precious art of fashion Indonesian belong.

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