Nature festival to be held soon

Nature festival to be held soon

JAKARTA (JP): A unique festival featuring potted plants as well as other plants, natural artistic stones, wild chicken and bamboo products will take place at the Senayan sports stadium in Central Jakarta early in June.

The festival, the first of its kind in Indonesia, is being jointly organized by five different groups: the bonsai lovers, the suiseki (natural artistic stones) lovers, the flora lovers, the Ayam Bekisar (wild chicken of phasianidae family) lovers, and the bamboo society.

Honorary chairman of the organizing committee, former minister of justice Ismail Saleh said President Soeharto or First Lady Tien Soeharto is expected to open the nine-day event on June 3. Government officials, public figures and diplomats will be among the honorary guests during the opening ceremony, he told a press conference yesterday.

Ismail expressed the hope that the festival, called Salam Nusantara '95, would help improve the people's appreciation of nature and arts.

Ismail, who owns a suiseki shop in South Jakarta's Pondok Indah Mall, said that in view of their artistic value, bonsai and suiseki could be quite invaluable.

"You can buy bonsai or suiseki for as low as Rp 25,000 a piece, but there are many which sell for up to Rp 20 million each," he said.

The best local suiseki is found in West Sumatra, Ismail said, adding that the stones are black and harder than those found in other places in the country.

Suiseki is very popular in Japan and Korea, and have been collected by people for centuries. The Japanese and Korean governments have banned stone-hunting activities in those countries because suiseki have become rare, according to Ismail.

"Now, they start to eye Indonesia, where the artistic stones are still abundant," said Ismail.

Former minister of environment and population Emil Salim, who is a patron of the Indonesian Bamboo Society, was also present at the press conference.

The unique festival will be held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Indonesia's independence. (sim)