Eclipse brings scientists, tourists to Indonesia

Eclipse brings scientists, tourists to Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): It was a school holiday yesterday in Tahuna,
North Sulawesi -- the only place in the archipelago from which
the total solar eclipse could be seen clearly.

There were two minutes of darkness at noon in the town, which
is in the Sangihe Talaud regency. A great number of foreign
tourists and scientists were in Tahuna to see the eclipse and the
two minutes of darkness were greeted with enthusiasm by all.

In Surabaya, East Java, mosques held khusuf prayers, specially
taught by the Prophet Muhammad to greet solar eclipses.

In Bandung, West Java, Antara reported that prayers and
special sermons were also conducted. Budi Darmawan, a lecturer at
the Bandung Institute of Technology, gave a speech on the natural
phenomenon and provided specially-made eyeglasses to enable the
worshipers to watch the eclipse.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported from Cambodia that the 12th
century Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious structure, was
shrouded in darkness yesterday as the solar eclipse cast a rare
shadow across a swath of south and southeast Asia.

The shadow, about 100 kilometers wide at most, then flitted
over Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, before racing across
Vietnam, northern Malaysia and Indonesia. The central point of
the eclipse fell just north of the Angkor Wat temple.

Interest in the rare phenomenon was heightened by
superstitions and forecasts by Asian soothsayers who warned the
eclipse could bring doom or disaster.

At Angkor Wat, where thousands of locals and foreigners
gathered with chanting Buddhist monks and dancers to witness the
event, the eclipse was deemed to bring good luck.

In Thailand's northwestern town of Mae Sot, groups of Buddhist
monks and throngs of schoolchildren wearing special protective
sunglasses peered into the sky as a ring of bright light circled
the moon for the brief one-and-a-half-minute eclipse.

Hotels overflowed in Mae Sot on the eve of the eclipse, with
those unable to find rooms camping out in tents on front lawns.
Restaurants ran out of food and petrol stations ran dry.

In India, the eclipse disrupted life as millions stayed away
from work to dodge the event's legendary ill effects.

Streets in the Indian capital New Delhi and other cities were
deserted and shops remained shuttered as the moon's shadow raced
across a 1,800-km-long band stretching from the Thar desert in
the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east.

At the Taj Mahal, in the northern town of Agra, which
experienced a partial eclipse, about 2,000 tourists watched as
the pearly marble of the Moghul mausoleum took on a steely tint.

But heavy rain and clouds robbed millions of Filipinos of a
view of the eclipse. Especially in Manila, people contented
themselves with watching live television coverage of a partial
eclipse of the sun over the Philippine cities of Davao and Cebu.