Javanese New Year at TMII

Javanese New Year at TMII

JAKARTA (JP): Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII), the Indonesia miniature park, is organizing a series of events in conjunction with the Javanese new year, which falls on Wednesday.

A ritual procession will be held on the eve of the new year, starting from 7 p.m. A troop of approximately 1,000 soldiers, from the Yogyakarta and Surakarta palaces, five elephants and two white buffaloes, as well as people carrying heirlooms from the palaces, will take part in the procession.

The procession will be highlighted with traditional dance performances from East Java, Cirebon, Bengkulu and Bali. Following the procession, its participants and the public will have the chance to sample the 70 tumpeng (traditional dishes of yellow rice in cone shapes), to be carried during the parade.

An all-night Javanese wayang kulit (leather shadow puppets) show will be performed, on the eve of the new year, at the Museum of Heirlooms in the Taman Mini compound. On the same night, the West Java pavilion will present a wayang golek (wooden puppet) show, while the Jakarta pavilion will show a Betawi wayang kulit performance.

On Tuesday morning there will be a discussion on traditional health treatments at Taman Mini, featuring three experts in the field: Romo H. Handoyo Lukman from Purworejo and Prof. Hembing Wijayakusuma and Retno Widati from Yogyakarta.

People can meet the experts from May 31 to June 11, when they will hold consultations at Taman Mini.

Another discussion, on keris and heirlooms, will be held on June 12.

Other events organized for the new year include ruwatan (a ceremony to drive away evil spirits), scheduled to take place on Wednesday May 31, and Sunday June 4; a dangdut (Arab-influenced music) show by the El Hawa female band on Wednesday; and wayang kulit shows performed by children on June 4 and June 11. (sim)