May 15, 2011 -- Yogyakarta

DATE:  Sunday, May 15, 2011

LOCATION: Yogyakarta

AUTHORS: Diane Roy & Claudette Galipeau

Today was a religious holiday. We started out with a visit to the Sultan's Palace where we were told the buildings are divided in three sections: the coronation part, the official part and the private part or residence. We also saw the Gamelan pavilion where weddings and receptions take place. The present sultan, sultan #10, has one wife and five daughters. We visited the museum presenting sultan #9's gifts and belongings. He was the Sultan of the sultanate of Yogyakarta and was also a Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia when Yogyakarta was a special territory within the country.

 

Our next stop was the Water Castle built in 1758, but rebuilt 35 years ago. The three first sultans used it as a weekend and holiday residence. There is a large swimming pool for the royal family and a private pool for the sultan. At one time there were also two other pools for the wives and children. There is also a gamelan pavilion.

Water Castle

After visiting the Water Castle, we returned to the Sultan's palace for a dance performance, which was accompanied by the gamelan and singers. The dancers' movements were very slow and expressive and the costumes are quite beautiful.

Traditional Dance at the Sultan's Place

At lunch time, we are hosted by FFI Yogyakarta for a welcome lunch at Dr. Adam Suyadi's son’s home. We are served a wonderful buffet lunch followed by dancing by a group of children, two of whom were Dr. Suyadi's grandchildren. The group was absolutely charming. We also witnessed a batik demonstration by Dr. Suyadi's daughter-in-law and some batik garments were for sale. There was a special ceremony where both exchange directors cut a huge rice cake as a symbol of friendship.

Children's dance performance at Dr. Adam's son's house.

In the afternoon, we visited a Wayang puppet workshop where we were shown how the puppets are made of water buffalo hide held by a stem made of buffalo horn. Each puppet is a character of the Ramayana tale and the puppets move behind a semi-transparent screen while the puppeteer speaks in different voices representative of each character.

Next we visited a silver works factory and store where many purchase beautiful silver jewelry. Our guide then took us to a batik shop and factory. Garments of all kinds and beautiful colors were for sale and again many of us were tempted.

Yards and yards of fabric at the Batik Factory.

Back at the FFI office at Dr. Suyadi's residence we reminisce on another cultural and informative day.