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.

Affandi 'The Master'

Affandi Museum is just located at Jalan Solo, at the west bank of the river of Gajah Wong, where you could enjoy at least 300 paintings by Affandi himself. He is a famous and very talented person in painting who has a unique way to do his paintings, using only his fingers.
He never attended the arts school, his talent is a gift from God, since he was very young, where he uused to express his ideas through his paintings. When he got an idea he will then put it in a canvas using his fingers on his hands, just like a person on 'trance', and he will finish his job very soon.
Most of his paintings are 'ultra expressionist', probably one of the only small numbers of painters of this kind in the world.
He was a simple man, always wearing a T-shirt and 'sarong', a Javanese style clothing for leisure time. His great talent inherited by his daughter Kartika, who now become the owner of the museum as well as the curator

The Royal Wedding

The old centuries ceremony which is actually the harmonic combination between Islamic and Hindu, influenced by the Javanese Royal Family culture, will be accompanied by the mystical sound of Javanese percussion orchestra or 'gamelan' reverberated throughout the sprawling ornate Yogyakarta Sultanate Palace, where the royal wedding was held last time.
Both the bride and the groom dressed in specially designed and made motif batik clothes, then a special traditional dance which was created by the late Sultan himself long time ago, also performed by nine female dancers from the royal family who is still virgin.
According to the wedding committee, at least two tons of various flowers primarily roses of different colors and jasmine utilized during the ceremony.
To allow the resident of Yogyakarta to witness this rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Royal Coupled , there was also a parade featuring horse carriages which was pulled by six horses, where the bride and the groom crowdaround surrounded the palace.