HOW TO BEHAVE DOWN UNDER

BTW: No spitting in Sydney or bigamy in Brisbane

Considering Australia for a vacation, study or work?  Prior to passing through avenues of airport scanners you’ll be polishing your English to better interact with the locals and comprehend the culture.

Fortunately advice is available courtesy of a government booklet Life in Australia. The copyright page has a twee symbol indicating the availability of interpreter services but translates more like three beer bottles.  Those familiar with Australian pastimes might consider the image apt.

There are facts about the island continent’s geography; this useful information indicates why walking from Perth to Brisbane via the Simpson Desert is a mite unwise. It also reveals that laws prohibit racial discrimination.  To know more about this advanced legislation ask an Aboriginal person.

There are tips on proper behavior, such as waiting quietly in a queue to be served.  The author wrote this advice after experiencing Soekarno-Hatta check-in counters.

The first queue you’ll encounter at Sydney will be with radar-eyed quarantine officers.  They know with biblical certainty that every wayang kulit souvenir harbors prohibited tropical insects.

Don’t argue – the free speech lauded in LIA doesn’t start till you’re safely beyond the customs hall and can use your cellphone.

Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ is recommended.  Particularly to anyone wearing a Border Force uniform, dark glasses and carrying a gun.  Welcome to Australia.

It’s hard to know whether the section on clothing is meant to entice or repel visitors. The brochure explains that some beachgoers wear ‘little clothing’ and that there are designated nudist beaches. 

To avoid misunderstandings these are defined as places ‘where people may swim without any costume or clothing’.

Tourists keen to get the bare facts about the folks Down Under having fun in the sun should not assume that those showing skin have ‘low moral standards.’  What they often have is melanoma.

Imagine your naughty GPS inadvertently takes you to a nudist beach.  You reluctantly stop to goggle and giggle, then find your emotions aroused.  Take care.  Rant and rage, but don’t spit.  Impolite, says the brochure.

If inclined to sing the national anthem praising a land ‘girt by sea’, the lyrics are provided.  You may need to lend a copy to a local; Indonesians know every word of Indonesia Raya. Australians have problems reciting both verses of Advance Australia Fair.

Two lines read:  For those who’ve come across the seas / We’ve boundless plains to share.  Some have taken these welcomes literally and set sail from Cilacap for the promised land. They’re now sharing cramped detention in Papua New Guinea’s jungles.  Never confuse songs with statutes.

Keen to meet traditional Aussie families?  Take your pick from ‘single parents, step and blended families, same sex couples and couples living together and not formally married’.

No morality alert, but a warning:  Although the arrangements above are legal, having an extra wife is not.  Though gay and lesbian pairings are OK, polygamy is off the marital menu.

The contradictions of cultures are well illustrated: Australians have ‘a deep suspicion of authority’ yet are ‘mostly … conformist’. Sounds like Indonesians.

Understanding the language helps so definitions have been added. The world knows  ‘Barbie’ as a doll. In Australia it’s a barbecue. Get it right:  Grilled plastic is not fantastic.

To ‘barrack’ doesn’t always refer to soldiers returning to their huts.  It might be a verb about supporting a sporting team.

A ‘digger’ is an excavator.  It’s also a soldier. A ‘shout’ is a raised voice, – and an offer to pay for all the drinks in a bar.  I hope this clarifies the situation.

An Okker can be either ‘a boorish, uncouth, chauvinistic Australian’ or someone displaying ‘good humor, helpfulness and resourcefulness.’  No need to fly south to meet either group – the first will be in Kuta, the rest in Ubud.

The other good news is that in Australia ‘all jobs and professions are open to men and women’.  This was well illustrated by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Cabinet: Only two were women.

Now the Republic plans to lure more tourists it’s time for a brochure explaining Indonesian values.  It could point out that President Jokowi’s cabinet has eight women. 

(First published in The Jakarta Post Sunday 20 September 2015)

CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK

Knowledge – your other passport       

  From left:  Kenny Watono, Fachrul Sugiyanto, Klara Dalay, Komang Anita Andriani, Amaliah Fitriah and Angela Roswita Hartono.

               

They are among Indonesia’s most incandescently bright. Their English is accented but close to perfect for non-native speakers.

The tertiary education teaching system they’ve encountered is radically different from past experience.  They’ve had to adjust and make sacrifices.

On the plus side these student members of the Republic’s diaspora in the South Pacific have learned to be independent and disciplined, even to cook.  None reported discrimination.  They’ve overcome communication hassles, alien values and worrying lifestyles.

“New Zealand has legalized same-sex marriage,” said language studies student Kenny Watono, 21, from Malang and who lives in a hostel.  “Seeing couples of the same sex is an eerie thing for me because I come from a country where it’s prohibited.

“Kiwis’ drinking and partying habits are not nice for people who don’t do such things. Now I think: ‘So what?  I don’t care. They’ll move on.’”

There are upsides for people like Amaliah Fitriah, 40, (left) who is working towards a doctorate in development studies.  She brought her husband Rudi Kurniawan and two daughters on her NZ scholarship.

“Overseas studying has changed the way we live,” she said. “Now we have time for quality family life. In Jakarta Rudi and I saw our children briefly as we rushed to work early and came back home late and tired.

“In NZ we are much closer.  We employed a maid in Indonesia; here my husband shares the housekeeping and child rearing.  He’s an engineer but in NZ his qualifications aren’t recognized so works part-time in a supermarket.  I’m so lucky to have such a supportive man.”

Kenny and his colleagues hanker for Indonesian food. For international relations student Fachrul Sugiyanto, 21, from Garut in West Java, the need is halal ingredients.  He plans to work for the United Nations or a non-government organization.

Most miss their friends and families and shiver more than they sweat in the cool climate.  Not all are in a rush to return home after graduation.

Klara Dalay, 20, will eventually be a nurse; her qualifications should help her don a white uniform in most Commonwealth countries and the Middle East.

“I want to work in NZ for the next couple of years and see where it goes,” she said.  “I’m not intending to go back to Indonesia for now.”

Angela Roswita Hartono, 22, also from Jakarta, hopes to get into a NZ –based food manufacturing company.  She’s bought a car, useful in a country where public transport is limited.  Her parents were against her studying in the US because of that nation’s gun culture.

“If your ultimate goal is to get a job here then the NZ government’s skills shortage list [published on the Internet] is a good place to start,” she said. 

Most Indonesians are studying at Massey University; it was founded in 1927 and has a purpose built mosque.  Its main campus is in Palmerston North.

This is a city of 80,000 two hours drive north of Wellington, the NZ capital; it’s the center of rich farmland served by the Manawatu River and an education hub with students from around the world.

At least 80 are Indonesians.  They’ve formed an association to maintain their culture and help new arrivals. 

Of the six who spoke to The Jakarta Post, five have part-time jobs even though NZ has a 5.8 per cent unemployment rate, higher in rural areas.

The work they’ve found has seldom been in the professional fields they’re destined to enter.  They serve in restaurants or do menial retail jobs. Shops close around 5 pm – an annoyance for Asians used to unregulated trading hours, but a boon for staff keen to have an outside life beyond labor. 

The minimum wage is NZ$ 14 [Rp 125,000] an hour, less tax of 10.5 per cent.  “With that amount of salary students can cover their needs,” said Kenny. He wants to teach English, though doesn’t know where.

“We can trust the police because they are usually honest and cannot be bribed. We can sue our employers if they pay below the minimum rate.”

The students said the Indonesian system of school leavers going direct from classroom to campus is flawed because many were immature and uncertain about career possibilities. 

NZ high school graduates often take a gap year, locally known as OE [overseas experience] before returning to learning with a wider knowledge of the world and a sense of direction.

However Bali-born Komang [Anita] Andriani, 21, knows where she’s going once she graduates in international business studies.

“I want to move to the big cities like Wellington or Auckland and find a job in a bank or insurance company,” she said.  “Later I can set up an on-line clothing shop in NZ.”

Amaliah will be heading for Jakarta when she graduates in 2017 to pick up her career with the Ministry of Education and Culture. 

Like other professionals she knows that’s not always easy. Jealous stay-at-homes can block prospects for the glamorous returnees with their higher skills and smart ideas.  Indonesian wages will be much lower and commuting stressful.

Scientists who rely on high-tech equipment may find the gear they used in NZ isn’t always available back in their old labs.

A particular concern is fitting back into Indonesia’s hierarchical status system after experiencing NZ egalitarianism.

“I experienced some culture shock, such as how straightforward Kiwis are to each other,” Amaliah said. 

“Indonesians tend to be more subtle.  Students here call senior lecturers by their first names, while in Indonesia we use honorifics like Sir and Madam.”

All urged others to travel to learn.  Because Massey is multicultural the Indonesians say they’ve formed bonds with people from countries apart from Kiwis.

“Studying overseas has forced me to be more independent and responsible,” said Klara. “I know I’ve grown so much as a person.”  Added Anita:  “Knowledge is your other passport to the world.”

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(First published in The Jakarta Post 14 September 2015)

HINDUISM IN INDONESIA: STATIC OR ACTIVE?

No faith in figures                                                  Duncan Graham / Lumajang

Hinduism is the fourth largest official religion in Indonesia with more than 4 million adherents, according to the census.  But those who practise the faith of the Majapahit dynasty  claim double that number.  Data juggling – or a seer’s predicted resurgence?

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The headscarves worn by goat-milk distributor Novi and her five sightseeing friends wandering the temple courtyard made one thing clear: The women were not at the East Java Mandara Giri Semeru Agung complex to worship.

“We’ve just tourists and have come to look,” she said.  “We’re curious. We are Muslims, but that’s no problem. Why should there be?”

Indeed.  The women just walked through the unguarded red brick candi bentar [split gate] and started smartphone snapping, unaware the interfaith situation hasn’t always been so relaxed.  According to cultural anthropologist Martin Ramstedt in the 1950s the Indonesian government declared the Hindu Balinese as ‘people still without religion’ and ‘targets for Muslim and Christian proselytizing.’

Yet a decade earlier Hinduism had been recognized in the foundation of Indonesia. The national emblem features the Garuda, a mythical bird-beast that carried Lord Vishnu, one of the religion’s three supreme deities.

Indonesian law requires citizens to be monotheistic, while traditional Hindus worship many gods. The impasse ended when a translation of Hindu scriptures settled on the term ‘undivided one’ as essence of the belief.

Despite this it was not until 1962 that Hinduism officially joined Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism and Buddhism as an approved religion.   [Confucianism was de-listed in 1978 and reinstated in 2000.]

Mandara Giri is the center for Hindus in East Java.  It was built in the village of Senduro on the eastern slope of Mount Semeru and opened in 1992. There’s nothing secretive - it’s a massive construction that looms over the main street

“There are at least 7,500 Hindus just in and around Lumajang [the closest city],” said Ngatemin, a juru mangku [temple priest].  “They worship here though most come from Bali.  On holy days and on full moon nights hundreds participate.”

Even during normal weekdays car loads of pilgrims come to pray before a shrine so weathered it looks authentically ancient; at the bottom is a giant turtle – at the top an image of Acintya, the supreme god of Indonesian Hinduism.  The Sanskrit word translates as ‘the inconceivable one.’

Families dressed in white sit together on the grass before a small pavilion where the priest rang a bell and chanted prayers. Flower and food offerings were made.

Hinduism probably arrived in Java about 1,900 years ago. Until the 16^th century it dominated the island though often mixed with Buddhism and local traditional beliefs.

Islam appeared in the 13^th century and spread rapidly, often through the faith change of a feudal ruler like Madura’s Sultan Pragalbo.  He switched to Islam on his deathbed in 1531 so his subjects had to dump their own beliefs.

Islam is now Indonesia’s major faith though legally the Republic is secular; there are more Muslims here than any other nation, and more than all the Middle East countries combined.

According to government census figures only 1.7 per cent of the population is registered as Hindu.  That’s about 4.25 million.  Most live in Bali.

Like other minorities, Hindus dispute these figures.  They allege the discrepancy is because Islam is the default religion used by officials when confused or indifferent citizens are registered.  Finding a factual figure is next to impossible.

Said Wayan Swardhani Wiraswastiningrum, a Brawijaya University cultural studies lecturer:  “It’s important to understand that there are two groups of Hindus; the Bali Aga, or original Balinese people, and the Javanese Hindus, descendants of the Majapahit kingdom.

“Some of the Bali Aga descendants have moved to Java and of course they want to practise their faith.”

(Breakout)

Losing faith

It’s one of Indonesia’s many great mysteries:  Why and how did a religion that once flourished widely almost disappear – and so rapidly?

The obvious answer is a war with the losers fleeing, but historian Wayan Legawa, father of Wayan Swardhani Wiraswastiningrum, disagrees.

“There was no clash, no battle between Islam and Hinduism,” said the Malang State University academic.  “The exodus to Bali was more political.  It involved disputes in the royal family of the Majapahit kingdom centered on Trowulan in East Java.

“Some of the priests went further east as the families fractured and the people followed.  They included the descendants of the ancient households, like the Tenggerese now farming the slopes of Mount Bromo.”

The Tenggerese population is reported to be about 600,000, though some have converted to Islam and Christianity.

Not all made it across the Bali Strait. The Osing people in Banyuwangi on the far south-east coast of Java also claim Majapahit ancestry.  The population is around 400,000 though not all are Hindu.

A supporting theory is that the decline of Hinduism and Java’s Golden Age began after the 1364 death of the Majapahit Prime Minister Gadjah Mada.  His Machiavellian political and military skills helped the empire conquer and control the archipelago across to Timor, and lands beyond Java, into present day Malaysia and the Southern Philippines.

Once Gadjah Mada’s funeral pyre had cooled civil wars weakened the kingdom allowing vassal states to recover their independence and embrace a new religion.

Dr Wayan believes there are around eight million Hindus in Indonesia.  Outside Bali most live in East Java. 

“The position of Hindus in Indonesian society is that there’s been little change socially, though in dealings with authorities the situation has improved,” he said.

 “Relationships between the faiths deteriorated after 1974 when the Soeharto government banned mixed-faith marriages. That’s still in place and it has affected all religions.”

 (Breakout)

On the way back?           

This is the question that’s usually whispered rather than shouted such is its potency: Is Hinduism on the way back? 

The 12^th century Javanese soothsayer Joyoboyo predicted a return; if it’s underway the pace is pedestrian and the evidence patchy.  Measured against the strides of Islam and Christianity, Hinduism seems almost stationary.

Even if eight million  is accepted that’s still below five per cent of the Muslim population.

Outside Bali the world’s third most followed religion has its best toehold in East Java with shrines, temples and primary schools in places like Gresik, Kediri and Surabaya.  Santika Dharma, a small high school opened five years ago in the forest outside Malang.  It caters for around 120 students and is still the only one in Java.

Principal Ketut Sudhiartha, said getting building permission had taken a long time though few people lived nearby.  The school is close to the well-hidden Pura [shrine] Luhur Dwijawarsa on the western side of Semeru, the highest mountain in Java and an important spiritual landmark.

Luhur Dwijawarsa was built during the late 1950s. It was hit by arsonists following the 1998 fall of President Soeharto. At the time churches were also burned.  Outhouses were destroyed but the community has rebuilt and  not pursued action, preferring to let the issue drop for the sake of religious harmony.

After Majapahit’s collapse temples like the world-famous 9^th century complex at Prambanan in Central Java, and the 12^th century Penataran in East Java, fell into disrepair.  They were looted and overgrown till rediscovered in the 19^th century.

Not all old temples are suitable as many have become tourist sites, so Hindus have been building new. In 2006 a temple 11-meters high, claimed to be the tallest in Java, was opened in the village of Karangpandan near Malang, in an area where most follow Islam and mosques are common. 

A Hindu primary school runs behind the temple.  Kampung Topeng, the village next door, is the center of East Java’s mask dancing and carving – a tradition which pre-dates the arrival of Hinduism.  If there is fundamentalism and hostility to pluralism it’s not evident here.

(First published in The Jakarta Post Sunday 13 September 2015)

DAKON - SEEDING THE CHILDREN

Getting rich, getting burned: Playing with our heritage                            

At first glance they look like models of the fearsome Viking longships, though minus the sails and oarsmen. 

Or maybe a Maori waka the huge war canoes that carried skilled navigators across the South Pacific to make a new home in Aotearoa – which is now New Zealand

But what have Norse raiders who invaded and plundered Northern Europe 1,100 years ago, and Polynesians of about the same era got to do with the world’s largest archipelago?

Step closer to the sideboard and be rewarded.

Dakon boards are impressive artefacts and works of art, much loved by modern home designers keen to add a touch of local culture to their minimalist décor.  They are not boats but ancient games that many Indonesians raised before smart phones knew well.

A dakon board is usually a long and substantial hunk of carved hardwood with two parallel sets of holes or cups gouged along the top.  These hold small cowrie shells or seeds, often tamarind, though anything small and smooth will do. 

The finest are made by backyard craftsmen, though smaller mass-produced portable fold-up versions are now being sold in gift shops.

The idea of playing the game by ‘sowing’ the seeds [See Breakout] and acquiring storehouses suggests links with agriculture, maybe a diversion when it was too hot to work the fields.

The game is not exclusive to Indonesia and may have come from North Africa where archaeological evidence goes back to the sixth century AD. There are records of similar games in Europe but it seems they were not as popular as chess, which probably originated in India about the same time.

Other names are sungka [Philippines] and congkak [Malaysia].  Scientists, who like to classify everything, have labelled dakon as a mancala game after the Arabic word naqala, meaning ‘to move’.  The easiest definition is that dakon is a ‘count-and-capture’ game.

Some dakon boards are plain and functional, but many have been elaborately carved and painted to show off their splendid lines and Janus-like heads of birds or dragons.  In some versions, like those from Madura, the heads can be removed and turned around.

 The late Dutch curator Jan Thomassen à Thuessink van der Hoop, an authority on Indonesian design, suggested some figures represent the Panakawan, the comic characters in Javanese wayang [shadow puppetry].

  Because of their weight and dimensions dakon boards fit just fine on the top of a buffet where they’ll become the talking point to impress guests.  They are not associated with black magic or religious rites so there’s no chance of causing offence.

 “There’s a long and complex provenance here that’s firmly rooted in Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular,” said cultural analyst Ismail Lutfi, a senior lecturer in history at Malang State University.

“I learned to play dakon as a very small child when I grew up in the small village of Klaten in Central Java, not far from the kraton [royal palaces] of Yogyakarta and Solo.

“My strong assumption is that the game was played by the nobles’ children and then passed on to the ordinary people.  If they didn’t have a dakon board they improvised by using floor tiles or just scratched out a pattern in the dirt. There are references to the game in Sir Stamford Raffles’ The History of Java.

“The game was also played by diplomats; because many knew a version they had something in common with their foreign counterparts.  This helped establish relationships.

“It was a common pastime which provided a wealth of learning.  Dakon which is also known in Java as dhakon and congkak [or congklak] teaches mathematics, the logic of strategy, morality and self-control.  It’s also about the consequences of cheating.”

Lutfi said that in the past parents and other adults in the family used dakon to train children to manage their lives so they could enjoy prosperity.  It could also be seen as a war game with the opponent as an enemy who had to be overcome.

“This is why words like bedil [rifle] are used when you destroy an opponent’s seeds,” he said.

“Anyone who thinks this is a kids’ game, or just something for the girls, is sadly mistaken.  This is part of our intangible heritage.”

How to play

Normally two people play, usually facing each other  either side of the board which may have up to nine holes, or cups on either side.  These are often called anak [child] with a larger one at either end known as Ibu [mother].  These are the storehouses.

The plan is to fill your storehouse with more seeds than your rival.

Seven seeds or shells are placed in each anak, though five may be used on smaller boards. One gamer starts by scooping up the contents from an anak and dropping them one-by-one in each cup and the player’s own storehouse.

The distribution includes the opponent’s anak though not their storehouse. The players work their way clockwise around the board.

The idea is to get the last seed to drop into your storehouse.  This entitles you to keep going by recharging your hand from another one of your anak.

However if the last seed drops into an empty anak the player is entitled to seize his or her opponents’ seeds from the cup opposite and drop them into their own storehouse. Then it’s the other person’s turn to play.

A seedless anak gets ‘burned’, or as some say in East Java, ‘shot’ and is out of play.

Winners have good memories, can calculate the number of seeds accumulated in any anak and know where they’ll be dropped. Modern economists call this ‘forward planning’ and ‘resource conservation’.

There are You Tube clips on the Internet of children explaining the game. Some are more confusing than others.

A video game developer in South Kalimantan has a dakon app which can be used on android devices.  There’s a free version and another which costs Rp 12,600 [US$ 1.0].  Reviews have been mixed.

First published in J-Plus, The Jakarta Post 6 September 2015