Megawati's bracelets tell stories

Megawati's bracelets tell stories

JAKARTA: Trendy President Megawati Soekarnoputri's trademark, it appears, is a number of different bracelets she wears on her right wrist.

Megawati swears she is not a bracelet collector but says that each of the bracelets she wears has its own particular story.

"These three were the ones that my mother wore until she died," she said, showing three thin silver bracelets in a rare exclusive interview with Antara on Tuesday.

But the bracelet that Megawati admires most is the one that she believes were made by artists from the Majapahit Kingdom around the 13th century.

She described the silver-colored bracelet made of unknown metal as "very beautiful and stunning".

"They (the artists) could make such beautiful coils with only this single string," she said.

She would not tell how she obtained the bracelet but admitted she had never taken it off since she first got it.

Then she showed off a silver bracelet she received from Papuan tribes people while she was on her first visit to the eastern- most province.

She insisted she wears all the bracelets because she likes them not because she believes they have magical power.

"I wear them all the time because it would be cumbersome to have to take them off and put them on again all the time," she said. --Antara