'Dancing Cop' Asked to Entertain His Colleagues

Jakarta Globe, April 06, 2011

First Brig. Norman Kamaru, the Gorontalo Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officer
who gained online fame after the video of him lip-synching and dancing
to a Bollywood song went viral on the Internet, at the taping of 'Bukan
Empat Mata' at the Trans7 studio in Jakarta on Thursday. The episode
is expected to air at 9:45 p.m. on Friday. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)

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Indonesia’s National Police chief says he can see the funny side to a wildly popular YouTube video featuring a uniformed officer dancing to a Hindi song but insists disciplinary action was still necessary.

Gen. Timur Pradopo, speaking at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday, conceded that First Brig. Norman Kamaru had “good creativity” but said “the sanctions would serve as guidance for him.”

The video featuring Norman, a member of the Gorontalo Mobile Brigade (Brimob), lip syncing and dancing to Hindi song Chaiyya-Chaiyya” has already attracted more than 500,000 views.

Timur, who laughed as he was questioned by journalists, said he would let Gorontalo Police determine the punishment.

“It is funny,” he said. “If the public consider it as good, it means he’s creative. But he was on duty, so we will let the police chief guide him, meaning to direct him to express his creativity while he is not on duty.”

Norman, meanwhile, told Metro TV that he had accepted his reprimand and vowed not to repeat his actions.

He admitted that he took the video himself but said he did not upload it to the video-sharing Web site.

Gorontalo Police, however, do not seem to concerned about the controversy.

Norman said one of his superiors had asked him to perform the song in front of his colleagues.

One of Norman’s fellow officers said Norman had a love for Bollywood music and film.

“He sings and dances to entertain us, he makes us laugh. He’s a star,” the officer said.

Experts said police had other, more important things to concentrate on.

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Bali profits from business of soul-searching

Google/AFP, by Angela Dewan (AFP), March 31, 2011

Bali is an obvious hub for yoga fanatics

UBUD, Indonesia — Being a Hindu yogi once meant renouncing worldly pleasures for a life of solitary meditation, wandering the jungle in search of union with god.

Today, new-age yogis wander the globe from one retreat to another, stay in luxury hotels and preach to the converted masses through a headset microphone.

Yoga industry in the United States alone
is valued at almost $6 billion a year

At the Bali Spirit Festival last week, yogis sold their take on life -- along with complementary DVDs -- as visitors from as far afield as the United States, Australia and Europe lapped up expensive yoga apparel, mats and mala beads. Just stepping through the festival gates cost $100 a day.

"I bought a gold pass for $500 and I find it hard to get $100 worth of yoga a day. At the same time, all the classes have been amazing, so in the end, I?m happy to have paid that," said Australian Jean Cameron, 39.

A 2008 study published by the Yoga Journal valued the yoga industry in the United States alone at almost $6 billion a year, with some more recent estimates for the global industry rising to $18 billion.

Bali is an obvious hub for yoga fanatics. The Balinese are Hindu, the Indonesian island is rich with natural beauty and the government supports spiritual tourism including temple tours and visits to traditional healers.

Demand for such experiences spiked recently with the publication of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir "Eat, Pray, Love" -- a romantic journey of self-discovery featuring a mystical encounter with a Balinese soothsayer.

Uma Inder, a Hatha yoga teacher, has witnessed the radical transformation of yoga in Bali. She moved from England to the island 22 years ago, spending her first seven years practising yoga alone in the jungle.

This year, around 4,000 people
participated in the Bali Spirit
Festival

"In those days you didn?t talk about yoga and no one really knew about it. Nowadays, it?s a social buzz. It?s now talked about, it?s paraded and it?s very much about entertainment," Inder said.

Festival organiser Meghan Pappenheim makes no apologies for the commerciality of the event, and sees it as a positive way to draw more people to yoga.

"I?m the first to admit I?m an entrepreneur, I?m a capitalist. This event has a target market, and those are the people with the money who can go home and make a difference," she said.

"My philosophy is that you make money and then you give it away. You make enough to buy a phone and a nice car, and you give the rest away."

Only four years old, the festival itself is yet to turn a profit. But Pappenheim and her Balinese husband, Kadek Gunarta, say they have used the yoga boom to raise $36,000 for charity through various events.

The festival has a sponsor, Fiesta condoms, which donated $25,000 for an HIV/AIDS outreach programme for Balinese high school students.

So far, Pappenheim and her husband have funded the festival from money they make from a small empire of businesses, which include a yoga centre, an art gallery, an eco-friendly furniture studio and a cafe.

Pappenheim is optimistic that the festival too will become profitable as attendance numbers double annually. This year, she estimates 4,000 people participated.

Good over evil

The Jakarta Post, Ubud, Bali | Sat, 12/18/2010

Balinese Hindu devotees bring flowers as ritual offerings at the Pule Village Temple, Ubud, Bali, on Saturday. The ritual is part of the Galungan Festival, also widely known as Kuningan Day, which, according to Balinese Hindus, is the day when good (dharma) conquers evil (adharma).

Interfaith Food Fight Brings Lombok’s Muslims and Hindus Closer Together

Jakarta Globe, Fitri R. | November 23, 2010

Mataram. A war between the faithful of two religions is never a good thing — except in Lingsar village in West Lombok district, where an annual tradition serves to promote rather than quash interfaith harmony.

Muslims and Hindus carry offerings for the ‘Ketupat War’ at the
Lingsar temple complex in Lombok. The participants fling
rice sanctified with holy water at one another. (JG Photo/Fitri R.)

For the war that takes place here is no more than a food fight, and is called Perang Topat (Ketupat War), after the steamed rice cakes that participants hurl at one another.

The warring factions are the village’s Hindu and Muslim communities, who face off during the full moon of the seventh month of the ancient Sasak calender, which this year fell on Sunday. The battleground was the Lingsar temple complex, which uniquely houses the Hindu Gaduh temple and the Kemaliq Mosque side by side.

Following a series of processions and elaborate rituals, capped with a mass prayer observed by both Hindus and Muslims alike, the fun begins.

Appointed village youths climb the temple walls and prepare to unleash piles of ketupat that have been soaked in holy water and blessed with Hindu and Muslim prayers, which residents then rush to collect and bombard the “enemy” with.

The battle lasts no more than half an hour, to the accompaniment of cheers from the crowd and the participants.

The tradition, which has been observed for generations going back at least 200 years, is practiced every year to strengthen ties between the members of the two religions.

Suparman Taufik, an elder from the Kemaliq Mosque, said the mock battle celebrated the warrior traditions of always doing good and forgiving past grudges once the fighting was over.

Local historian Jalaludin Arzaki said that while the tradition pitted Hindu and Muslim communities against each other, its origins were not religious. It was adapted from earlier rituals of ancestor worship and kindness.

He said the roots of the tradition went back 350 years, when the pagan Sasak ruler of the area built Kemaliq as a holy place open only to those of high virtue.

The Gaduh Temple was built later by officials of the expanding Balinese kingdom, and in 1759 the Lingsar temple complex was formalized.

“Both buildings brought together Sasak and Balinese traditions, and the people here have since lived together in harmony,” Jalaludin said.

He added that while the Perang Topat was influenced by both the Hindu and Muslim communities in Lingsar village, the tradition had a heavy Sasak influence and was practiced by Sasak communities elsewhere in the province as well.

“At the heart of it all, the Perang Topat is an agrarian folk tradition through which the people express their hope for a successful harvest and good fortune in their lives,” he said.

But the celebration has now also become a highlight of the tourist agenda in the district.

Robijono Rastijanto, head of the West Lombok Culture and Tourism Office, said the tradition was unique in that it uses the theme of war to foster peaceful coexistence.

“It’s always something that the locals look forward to every year, and it’s a potent symbol of peace for both the Hindu and Muslim communities,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Perang Topat differs from regular food fights in that the ammunition doesn’t go to waste.

After the event, all the ketupat used is collected once again and used as an organic fertilizer in rice paddies and vegetable gardens across the village.

ANOTHER DAY PASSES: Muslims from a variety of backgrounds enjoy fast-breaking meals prepared by the Indonesian-Chinese Muslim community and local residents at the Cheng Ho Mosque in Surabaya, East Java. (JP/ID Nugroho)

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Ancient texts hold Bali’s past

Alit Kertaraharja, The Jakarta Post, Singaraja | Mon, 09/27/2010

Staff members at Gedong Kirtya, the Bali’s largest repository of lontar manuscripts, held a special religious ritual Saturday to celebrate the knowledge stored in the ancient scrolls.

Kirtya is the only government-run museum devoted to the lontar manuscripts — ancient religious texts engraved on the fronds of the lontar palm. 

A similar institution exists in Leiden, Holland, housing a collection of around 1,700 sets of the

manuscripts.

In Kirtya, the ceremony was officiated by IGB Suduasta, who is also an accomplished lontar writer and painter.

“[The ceremony] was organized in conjunction with the celebration of Saraswati day that falls today,” Gedong Kirtya head I Ketut Suharsana told.

On Saraswati day, Balinese Hindus across the island present offerings of books, which are considered the throne of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and the arts. School students wear traditional costumes and join in mass prayer at their school’s shrines.

Assisted by the Kirtya’s staff members, Suduasta placed offerings on the wooden boxes containing the lontar manuscripts as well as on old books on Balinese culture.

“The manuscripts and books contain important information on various aspects of Balinese culture and spirituality, from literary verses of kekawin, genealogical treatises of many clans, theological discourses to traditional medicines. We have also had in our collection lontar manuscripts from Java and Lombok,” Suharsana said.

He estimated that around 2,000 sets of lontar manuscripts are still in the possession of individuals, temples and Brahmin families in Bali.

Built by a lontar lover and former resident of Bali and Lombok, L.J.J Caron, Kirtya was officially opened on September 14, 1928. It was named Kirtya Lefrink-Van der Tuuk after Dr. H.N. Van der Tuuk, a Dutch historian who donated his land and house for the museum. The name Kirtya, which was derived from the Sanskrits’ word for effort, was bestowed by the then King of Buleleng, I Gusti Putu Djelantik.

The lontar manuscripts in Kirtya played a critical role in Professor P.J. Zoetmulder’s decade-long research to compile the seminal Dictionary of Ancient Javanese Language.

Victory over evil

The Jakarta Post | Sat, 05/22/2010 1:36 PM

Balinese pray to celebrate the Kuningan Festival at Sakenan Temple in Denpasar, Bali, Saturday. The festival is a holiday and is celebrated by Hindu Balinese people. It represents the good triumphing over the evil. JP/Zul Trio Anggono