Int'l gamelan festival

Int'l gamelan festival

From Suara Karya

Watching western women in sarong kebaya and men in blangkon
playing gamelan in the International Gamelan Festival at
Prambanan temple in Yogyakarta recently on television, I felt
myself transported to the future.

"Where is Indonesia?" asks a tourist.

I reply: "This is Indonesia."

"Is it? These are skyscrapers like in Tokyo. That is the
Hollywood Inn, the Thousand and One Night Amusement Center. I eat
sukiyaki, pizza, hot dogs, pears, apples, grapes. I drink Coke,
root beer. I listen to disco music. Where are the rice fields,
the tropical forests prided by Indonesia? This is certainly not
Indonesia but another country."

"It is true, I am not joking. The authentic Indonesia with its
forests is extinct. Now, it is westernized. The blond hair you
see is just dyed. If you want to see the real Indonesia you must
go to ..." and I show him a dot on a map close to the equator.
"There you will find Indonesia in miniature where the original
Indonesian culture is respected and conserved."

I wake up from my dream with a jolt. What if some day we have
to learn our own culture from foreign experts? The authentic
Indonesian tropical forest is no longer but somewhere abroad.
Somebody says: "We have no self-respect."

CHEW G.H.

Central Jakarta