Pilgrimage and tourism<\/p>\n
I'm writing to comment on Dadi Darmadi's article titled
\nSpiritual materialism in the haj pilgrimage (The Jakarta Post,
\nDec. 23) in which he eloquently described the Indonesian
\npilgrims' behavior abroad. He also likened them to tourists,
\nwhich is obviously has a lot of truth in it.<\/p>\n
Generally speaking, Indonesians who have the means to go
\nabroad, whether as tourists (including the above pilgrims) or
\nstudents are bargain hunters and fanatic shoppers. Look, for
\ninstance at such Indonesian tourists in Singapore or Bangkok, and
\none will most likely see them on shopping sprees in the various
\nmalls.<\/p>\n
The same can be seen in Australia or New Zealand. Indonesian
\nstudents (the other side of the same coin, of course) every
\nSaturday and Sunday go out, taking with them addresses or
\nlocations of \"garage sales\", strolling around shopping for used
\ngoods such as electronics, clothing, books, etc. for their
\ncollection.<\/p>\n
Indonesian pilgrims' strenuous habit of spending their money
\n-- after prayer times -- particularly in Mecca's well-known Pasar
\nSeng shopping area, which ridiculously dominates the marketplace,
\nat the very least, shows the real face of Indonesia abroad --
\nthat Indonesians' standard of living, is better than those of,
\nsay, African or South Asian countries.<\/p>\n
Also, whether we are aware of it or not, it could be seen that
\nthey are actually taking the Koran's order to heart, which says
\n\"And when the prayer is ended, disperse in the land and seek
\nAllah's bounty\" (QS 62:10).<\/p>\n
Dadi Darmadi was right when he says that religious pilgrimages
\nblend with tourism and consumerism. However, this is not
\napparently understood by the Indonesian tourism ministry when it
\ncomes to the annual Buddhist Waisak festival, which takes place
\nat the Borobudur and Mendut temples in Central Java.<\/p>\n
In order to help the government obtain more and more foreign
\nexchange from tourism, they should have stepped up promotion to
\nthe Buddhists of the world by tapping into the rapidly growing
\neconomy of China, which has over 2,000,000 tourists who spend
\ntheir holidays abroad. Out of that amount, strangely enough, only
\naround 80,000 spent their holidays in Indonesia last year as
\ncompared to 550,000 Japanese tourists.<\/p>\n
M. RUSDI, Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/pilgrimage-and-tourism-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }