The Temple of Borobudur

The Borobodur Temple complex is one of the greatest monuments in the world. It is of uncertain age, but thought to have been built between the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century A.D. For about a century and a half it was the spiritual centre of Buddhism in Java, then it was lost until its rediscovery in the eighteenth century.

The structure, composed of 55,000 square meters of lava-rock is erected on a hill in the form of a stepped-pyramid of six rectangular storeys, three circular terraces and a central stupa forming the summit. The whole structure is in the form of a lotus, the sacred flower of Buddha.

One of the ninety-two Dhyani Buddha statues enclosed in stupas

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Mount Bromo National Park - Indonesia

This National Park is one of the most beautiful places of interest in East Java. The beauties of mountain covered, give a special and characteristic green plants, arousing great interest. Tenggerese traditional farming also makes this famous place being more interesting and attractive. In addition, cool and breezy wind always blows freshly giving ever visitor special deep impression a unforgettable memories.

The accessibility has no problem and very reachable (via Malang, Pasuruan, Probolinggo or Lumajang).

Surely, different access give different characteristics scenery landscape. The elevation reaches about 2.392 meter sea level above and the temperature varies from 3 up to 20 degrees centigrade.

Facilities: Star Hotels, home-stays, restaurants, and many others that visitors needed can be found.

The people who live in this area are supposed to be descended from Majapahit Kingdom about six hundred years ago. The belonged to Tenggerese Hinduism with old traditional. That tradition still survives up to now. Every year, they always carry out the traditional and religious ceremonies, and the most popular ones is Yadnya Kasada, an offering ceremony held at the edge of the crater on the top of mount Bromo.

The Story of Offering Kasada Ceremony
Hundreds years ago, during the reign of the last king of Majapahit, Brawijaya, the situation was so uncertain due to the expanding new religion, Islam. At the time, the queen gave birth a baby girl and named her Roro Anteng, later the princess married Joko Seger, a Brahma Caste.

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Obama in The Street

.. Indonesian painter S. Wito puts finishing touch to his painting of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, at his street-side studio in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday. Obama, who was born in Hawaii, moved to Indonesia at age 6 to live with his mother and stepfather, attending schools in the country until age 10, when he returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents...

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Indonesian Serial Killer - Five More Victims

Police on Monday lifted five more bodies from holes in the backyard of a serial killer`s house after recovering four others from the same area in Maijo hamlet, Jatiwates village, Jombang district, East Java last week.

Verry Idham Henryansyah alias Ryan (34) who sparked public horror last week after he was arrested for mutilating a friend, butchering four others and burying them in two holes in the backyard of his home, admitted on Sunday he had battered to death five more people who had previously been reported missing by their families.

The chief of the Jombang Police Resort, Adjunct Senior Commissioner M Khosim, said Sunday, Ryan had admitted that the five people reported missing by their families were among the victims of his killing sprees.

More : Indonesian Serial Killer - Five More Victims

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Serial Killer Also Murder a Foreign Citizen

Mutilation murder suspect Verry Idham Henryansyah, alias Ryan, admitted to police Tuesday that one of the four bodies buried in his yard in Jombang, East Java, was that of a foreign citizen.

Jakarta city police spokesman Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga said Verry had admitted to having killed a male Dutch citizen and burying his body, along with three other victims, in the backyard of his father’s house in the regency.

“We will cross-check Verry’s confession with the Dutch Embassy, but police have yet to receive a missing persons report from any foreign embassies,” Ketut.

Head of the press and culture attache at the Dutch Embassy, Paul Peters, said he could not confirm the identity of the body.

“The examination is still going on. We haven’t been asked by police to identify the body,” he said.

The forensics team is conducting autopsies at the Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Surabaya, following the exhumation of four bodies on Monday. One of the deceased is believed to be Ariel Somba Sitanggang, a Jakarta real estate agent.

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Serial Killer Also Murder a Foreign Citizen

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Indonesian Serial Killer

Police have found four bodies buried in the backyard of a house belonging to Verry Idham Henryansyah (Ryan), who was arrested last week for a mutilation murder.

His first victim found at Ragunan, Jakarta, has been identified as Heri Santoso, 40, a salesman at a steel company in Bekasi, West Java. (Monday, 07/11/2008). Hery Santoso has been mutilated by Ryan.

The other victim’s bodies were found in two separate holes in the backyard of Ryan’s house in Jatiwates village in Jombang, East Java, director of the Jakarta Police general crimes division, Sr. Comr. Carlo Brix Tewu said.

It is estimated that one of the bodies was buried about one year ago.

The bodies were intact and not mutilated. Although all of them had already deteriorated, they are all in different conditions, possibly because they were buried at different times.

He said police were still waiting for the results of autopsies on the four bodies.

“We have brought them to Bahayangkara hospital in Surabaya for autopsy,” he said.

Antara reported that one of the bodies was that of a woman. The female body was found with two male bodies in one hole in the backyard, behind the kitchen door of the house.

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Indonesia, a Nation in Transition

Although hundreds of ethnic groups have been know as the indigenous of Indonesia for hundreds and thousands of years, Indonesia did not exist in its present form until the turn of the 20th century.

Of the so-called natives of Indonesia, archaeologists have speculated that the first people to populate Indonesia migrated from mainland China some 1,000 years ago and inhabited a stretch of islands along the equator, later known as Nusantara.

Over the centuries they built and refined their statecraft in the form of kingdoms and principalities. Sharing similar characteristics with other Southeast Asian kingdoms, these Nusantara kingdoms based their conception of state more on people than on space or territory. But intercourse with the western world changed the course of history in Nusantara.

In 1511, the Portuguese conquered Malacca, located on the Malay peninsula, which was then still an inseparable part of Nusantara. The Dutch followed in 1512 and landed on Banten shore in Java. At first, the Dutch came more as traders under the trading umbrella of the Royal East Indies Company (Vereniging Oost Indische Compagnie, VOC). For the next two centuries, the Dutch conducted business with the natives, although in many cases the trade was not on equal terms. Often, trade was accompanied by violent pacification processes.

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Jakarta to Bali the safe way

Q : I will be in Jakarta and intend to take a seven-day break while in Indonesia, to Bali. I am traveling independently, so can you advise which is the cheapest and most reliable airline that I should book with, and should I book the ticket now, or when I get to Jakarta? And how about hotels? -Peter Morton, Newcastle upon Tyne

Sunday Times travel expert Richard Green responds:

There have been a spate of air crashes in Indonesia over recent years, and the situation has got so bad that the EU has added all Indonesia-based carriers to its banned list - see
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/list_en.htm. It means that the EU aviation authorities feel the airlines there all fall short of acceptable safety standards.

Source: AskIndonesia.com

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Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia

This National Park is one of the most beautiful places of interest in East Java. The beauties of mountain covered, give a special and characteristic green plants, arousing great interest. Tenggerese traditional farming also makes this famous place being more interesting and attractive. In addition, cool and breezy wind always blows freshly giving ever visitor special deep impression a unforgettable memories.
The accessibility has no problem and very reachable (via Malang, Pasuruan, Probolinggo or Lumajang).
Surely, different access give different characteristics scenery landscape. The elevation reaches about 2.392 meter sea level above and the temperature varies from 3 up to 20 degrees centigrade.
Facilities: Star Hotels, home-stays, restaurants, and many others that visitors needed can be found.
The people who live in this area are supposed to be descended from Majapahit Kingdom about six hundred years ago. The belonged to Tenggerese Hinduism with old traditional. That tradition still survives up to now. Every year, they always carry out the traditional and religious ceremonies, and the most popular ones is Yadnya Kasada, an offering ceremony held at the edge of the crater on the top of mount Bromo.

Full Article

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The Temple of Borobudur

The Borobodur Temple complex is one of the greatest monuments in the world. It is of uncertain age, but thought to have been built between the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century A.D. For about a century and a half it was the spiritual centre of Buddhism in Java, then it was lost until its rediscovery in the eighteenth century.

One of the ninety-two Dhyani Buddha statues enclosed in stupas

The structure, composed of 55,000 square meters of lava-rock is erected on a hill in the form of a stepped-pyramid of six rectangular storeys, three circular terraces and a central stupa forming the summit. The whole structure is in the form of a lotus, the sacred flower of Buddha.

Borobudur full article

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Scuba Diving in North Sulawesi

North Sulawesi is known as The Land of Smiling People and lies in the very epicentre of the world’s marine biodiversity in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. It offers more than 100 different dive sites, all rich with tropical marine life, with diving all year round. It is also very easy to get to, with direct flights from Singapore 3-4 times a week, depending on the season.

There are three dive areas to choose from. The first area is the clear waters of the Bunaken National Marine Park which was voted the global winner of British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award in 2003. The amazing walls of the park teams with thousands of different fish species, with huge sponges and beautiful hard corals, and countless number of fascinating critters.

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Elephants Attack Plantations Due to Lack of Habitat

“It is hard for the elephants to get food now,” said Arid Data Kesuma, a staff member of the Heart of Borneo World Wide Fund for Nature Indonesia, in a press release which Tempo received yesterday.

The human-elephant conflict has increased during the past five months, with the elephants’ habitat being changed to oil palm plantations.

Arif said that this has caused a reduction in the Kalimantan elephant population and, based on the last survey, there were only 60-70 Pygmy Borneo elephants left.

More: http://www.askindonesia.com/elephants-attack-..

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Indonesia: Media to Create Peace Between Religions

Because of information limitations, he said, the media is often provocative. He continued to say that there was much information concerning the Muslim communities in Iraq and Afghanistan which are not balanced with peace-seeking information.

Rustam suggested that the media be involved in international religious forums, as the media played an important role in creating world peace between religions.

The head office of Muhammadiyah had invited 110 international and 120 national figures in finding the solution to fight against cultural and religious violence. The Rp.5 billion forum was held for two days at the Sultan Hotel starting from June 24.

More: http://www.askindonesia.com/media-to-create-peace-between-religions/

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Art education crucial for schoolchildren

Many people argue that art education for children, particularly in primary school, is not as important as mathematics and natural science. Some point out there is no choice, for whoever wants to fight in the future must deal with mathematics and science. I agree to some extent; however, saying art education is not important is also hasty and unreasonable.

Art education holds a strong position in developing children’s skill and creativity. Many parents do not recognize the tremendous potential and are unaware how important it is to educate their children in this field in addition to other disciplines in school. Children are sometimes forced to take courses relating to science such as mathematics, biology, physics and statistics without being asked whether they like the subjects.

More : http://www.askindonesia.com/art-education-crucial-for-schoolchildren/

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Indonesian Young Scientists Uncover Styrofoam Waste Treatment

Vici Riyani and Adrienne Trinovia Sulistyo, second-year and third-year students at Santa Laurensia senior high school in Tangerang, have found a waste treatment solution for styrofoam.

Through a series of simple research and experiments they conducted at the school’s science lab, the two students proved that orange peel extract could be used to dissolve styrofoam.

The young scientists’ discovery even brought recognition to the country when they won a silver medal at the 2nd International Environmental Project Olympiad (INEPO Euroasia) held from April 1-6 in Baku, Azerbaijan, beating out 35 other entries.

More: http://www.askindonesia.com/indonesian-young.....

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Bandung, The World in a City

Globalization is not something abstract; it is concrete. Globalization is not out there, but here, and now. While the consequences of globalization are obviously uneven, this does not mean that globalization leaves people powerless. Fatalism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy: The feeling of powerlessness can block action and end in a lack of power.

Members of the creative industry in Bandung do not let globalization rock their lives. They translate bits and pieces of world views into their own lives. This is a complex, dynamic and ongoing process that is done in piecemeal fashion.

More : http://www.askindonesia.com/bandung-the-world-in-the-city/

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The Javanese of Suriname

Perhaps few people in Indonesia know that there is a large community of people of Indonesian descent living in the north of the continent of South America. Over 70,000 ‘Javanese’ live in Suriname, a former Dutch colony and vibrant multicultural country located north of Brazil on the Caribbean coast. Although they have been there for several generations, many of them still identify as Javanese, even though very few have ever visited the island of Java or maintain family connections there. But they speak a creolised version of the Javanese language, Javanese names crop up at all levels of society and elements of Javanese culture (such as cuisine) have influenced this Caribbean nation’s culture

More: http://www.askindonesia.com/the-javanese-of-suriname/

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Education in Papua

Dubbed the black pearl of the archipelago, Papua sprang a surprise in 2004 when one of its teenagers won a prestigious international scientific award.

The prize, Poland’s First Step to a Nobel Prize in Physics (FSNPP), has so far eluded students in the far more developed areas of Indonesia.

This unprecedented achievement repeated itself the following year when another Papuan student won the prize, showing the rest of the nation that the poverty- and illiteracy-ridden province has plenty of scientific talent in store.

Both Septinus George Saa and Anike Nelce Bowaire represent a paradox of the country’s education system.

Read Full Article about Education in Papua.

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Orang Utan, An unique species from Indonesia

Orangutans are with an ability to reason and think. This large, gentle red ape is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of the same DNA as humans. Indigenous peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia call this ape “Orang Hutan” literally translating into English as “People of the Forest.” In times past they would not kill them because they felt the orangutan was simply a person hiding in the trees, trying to avoid having to go to work or become a slave.

Orangutans are unique in the ape world. There are four kinds of great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Only the orangutan comes from Asia; the others all come from Africa. There are two separate species of orangutan – the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus

Full article: http://www.askindonesia.com/what-so-special-about-an-orangutan/

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Komodo National Park

Although famous for its unique land-dwelling Komodo dragons, Komodo National Park features one of the world’s most biologically diverse marine environments. Coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds provide habitat for more than 1,000 species of fish, dolphins, dugongs, and sea turtles.

Established as a national park in 1980 and declared a World Heritage Site, the park still faces threats such as overfishing, tourism growth, pollution, and destructive fishing practices.

Read more about Komodo National Park here.

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Batik, an Indonesian Art

Although the process of decorating cloth through the process of batik is found in several regions in Africa or India and even in some South East Asian countries, the batik of Indonesia is unique and unequaled.

Indonesian Batik is made in several regions, but the center of the art is Central Java, in cities like Yogyakarta, Solo, Cirebon, Pekalongan and Indramayu. The pride of Indonesians to wear batik till the present day has preserve this art of textile.

The beauty of Batik is a tribute to the patience, creativity of the woman of Java, the main island of Indonesia. Credit should be also given to men who prepare the cloth and handle the dyeing and finishing process.

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Batik in Java

What is Batik? Batik is both an art and a craft, which is becoming more popular and well known in the west as a wonderfully creative medium. The art of decorating cloth in this way, using wax and dye, has been practiced for centuries.

In Java, Indonesia, batik is part of an ancient tradition, and some of the finest batik cloth in the world is still made there. The word batik originates from the Javanese 'tik' and means to dot. To make batik, selected areas of the cloth are blocked out by brushing or drawing hot wax over them, and the cloth is then dyed. The parts covered in wax resist the dye and remain the original color.
This process of waxing and dyeing can be repeated to create more elaborate and colorful designs. After the final dyeing the wax is removed and the cloth is ready for wearing or showing. Contemporary batik, while owing much to the past, is markedly different from the more traditional and formal styles...
Full Article: http://www.askindonesia.com/batik-in-java/

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