Bedog River Arts Festival

The people of Yogyakarta welcome The Javanese New Year 1 Syuro with a ritual called 'topo mbisu' which is to walk around the palace of the Sultan without talking anything. It is to symbolize that people should actually introspect and contemplate as well continuously in order to get better and better to themselves as well as to the nature and environment. This arts performance is actually                                                                                                      to celebrate the relationship between human, nature and the river, held once a year. This year on November 29 to December 1 the performance will be held at a natural outdoor landscape around the river of Bedog in Banjarmili Dance Studio, Gamping ,Yogyakarta. It would be attended by more than 25 performers from Japan, Myanmar, Venezuela, The Netherlands, and Indonesia.

The 'theme' of the 2012 festival is "Connecting Creative Generation in the middle of Diversity" ,

It also will be enriched by photo exhibition/competition, workshop, poetry reading, theater play, music concert, and traditional performances.

Street and Traffic

Upon arrival, visitors especially foreigners would likely feel a bit astonished or, even dumbfounded when witnessing the colorful street of Yogya. You will suddenly be grabbed by the honking horn of hanky-panky motor bikers, which clogging up every space in the street even in an alley.
They move around weaving their way through the traffic snakely almost everywhere. You may also hear strange noises like tok2 or ting2 or probably a musical sounds which come from food sellers, followed by a strong smell of chicken BBQ or fried catfish. Food sellers are almost everywhere with various tastes, you just name it.
While you enjoy food, street musicians will be approaching you and play their simple music, it is not a 'pro bono' action, you may give a charity to them. Like it or not you would also find murals in every space in the city, commercial ads from viagra, cigarettes, cars, homes, not to mention political ads. They're all mixed and vibrate the city of Yogya. Bon Voyage !!!

Royal Wedding of Yogyakarta

England just had its Royal Wedding earlier this year,  and Yogya already made its own history  in October 18, 2011  became the setting for  the second  Java’s own grand royal wedding between Princess Gusti Raden Ajeng Nur Astuti Wijareni, youngest daughter of the Sultan of Yogyakarta, and Achmad Ubaidillah from Lampung , Sumatra, following the marriage of the first daughter of Sultan several years ago. 

The entire festivities will last four days from , with the actual wedding ceremony scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 18 October 2011. The date chosen for this memorable occasion was carefully determined  and calculated through ancient  Javanese rules based on the dates of birth of both the bride and the groom.

Festivities are expected to be rich in royal Javanese tradition and culture which have been well preserved.. 
Prior to the wedding, the bride was knighted and given the name K P H Yudonegoro, and for the groom, her new royal title is G K R Bendoro.

Thousands of residents and well wishers lined along Jalan Malioboro on Tuesday to watch the newlywed
The ceremony was the culmination of three days of rituals and weeks of preparation.
After exchanging their wedding vows, the couple performed the a ritual, where the bride washes her new husband’s feet as a symbol of service and respect.
The groom then carried the bride, with the help of her uncle,  symbolizing patience and responsibility toward his wife.
The royal wedding  also coincided with Yogyakarta’s 255th anniversary celebrations. Congratulation !.

The shocking Merapi Eruption

The people of Yogya and surrounding just got a shivering days in November 2010 where one of the most active volcanos in the world, Mount Merapi, erupted several times which brought casualties and more then 100 people died, burnt by the deadly 1000 degrees centigrade solfatara smoke gases mixed with volcanic materials which run down by 300 km per hour.
It spewed clouds of ash and gas 5 km into the sky for more than an hour on Friday November 5, 2010, its biggest eruption so far in the past 10 days. The latest series of eruptions began last Tuesday. It has produced more pyroclastic flows than any other volcano in the world. It has been active for 10,000 years.

Here are the dangerous years where Mount Merapi erupted visiously :
2010, 2007, 2006, 2001-02, 1992-98, 1972-90, 1971, 1967-69, 1961, 1953-58, 1948-49, 1944-45, 1942-43, 1939-40, 1933-35, 1930-31, 1924, 1923, 1922, 1920-21, 1918, 1915, 1909-13, 1908, 1906-07, 1905, 1902-04, 1902, 1897, 1894, 1893, 1891, 1889, 1888, ?1885, 1883-84, 1878-79, 1872-73, 1872, 1869, 1865-67, 1862-64, ?1854, 1849, ?1848, 1846-47, 1846, 1840, 1837-38, 1832-35, 1828, 1822-23, 1820-22, 1812-13, 1810, 1807, 1797, 1786, 1755, 1752, 1745, 1678, 1677, 1672, 1663, 1658, 1587, 1584, 1560, 1554, 1548, 7630 BC.

So far the 2010 eruption is the biggest  since 1870. Some big explosions believed had buried  both The Biggest Buddhist Temple in the world The Borobudur as well as the  Mystical Temple of Prambanan as well located about 50 km from the volcano.

Javanese herbs and spices

Indonesia, especially Java has a lot varieties of both herbs and spices, to be used for medications as well as seasoning which make food tasty and delicious as well. Some spices to be used in  both flavoring food and traditional medication, like ginger, garlic, chili, clove, galangal, nutmeg, lemon etc.
Clove itself had already been used for centuries in China and India to heal cough, fever, painkiller, muscle relaxant, and not to mention to escape from bad breath and still a lot more useful things.
While ginger beside to omit the stinky smell of both fish and meat, also to increase the endurance and stamina, avoid colds, headache, fever, nausea etc.
Galangal has almost the same specalty like ginger but the taste is stronger, while turmeric to be used as anti inflamatory, liver problem, skin infections/wounds cure, anti cancer and many more useful things.
So, while you taste a delicious meals, yo also benefit  healthyness as well as heal the disease.
What a wonderful world !
 Thanks God ! Bravo Java.

Yogya's regular events

The dance performance of the wayang story, taken from either fragments of the Ramayana or Mahabharata, held every Sunday 9.00 pm -12.00 noon, at the Meeting Hall of the Yogya Palace.

The peprformance of gamelan orchestra, especially 'Yogya style', every Monday and Tuesday, at 10.00pm - 12.00 n00n, at the Meeting Hall of Yogya Palace.

Wooden Puppets show, this performance was inspired by the epic from Persian, but already adopted to local culture. Every Wednesday 10.00 pm - 12.00 n00n at the Meeting Hall of the Yogya Palace.

Javanese dance and ballet performance accompanied by Javanese gamelan orchestra and song, performed every Thursday 10.00 pm - 12.00 noon, at the meeting Hall of  Yogya Palace.

Javanese poetry recital which described the history of the Mataram Kingdom, the antecedent of both Yogyakarta and Surakarta Palace. Every Friday 9.00 am - 11.00 pm at the Meeting  Hall of the Yogya Palace.

Leather puppet shadow performance which performed the fragments story from both the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Every Saturday 4.30 am - 1.00 pm at the Meeting Hall of the Yogya Palace.
It is actually also performed daily in a shorter version at Sono Budoyo museum, just in front of the Sultan Palace at Jl. Trikora, from 8.00 pm - 10.00 pm

The Puppet Museum

This museum is located at southeast of Yogyakarta, is is about 7 km to the east from the city on Jl Wonosari. Built in early 1990, and consists of 4 parts, they are The Puppet & Mask Museum, The Java Architecture Museum, The Indonesia Culture Museum, and The Museum of Forest Plantation.
The Puppet Museum has a good collection of at least 22 kind of puppets made from leather, wood, cloth, paper, and human doll. The mask collection consists at least 8 kind of different mask to be used in either dancing or ritual purposes. Not only the collection of puppet and mask from Indonesia, but it also houses the collection from China, Japan, Thailand, USA, India, Italy, and Austria.

It is also exhibiting clothing collection to be used in the stage  performance of human dancer in either Ramayana or Mahabharata epic story.