My Legendary Wonderland

Let’s get lost in another wonderland! Where we go? I bet it is the place that you’ve never been to. But I swear, this stuff may get you the clue. 

Still got no clue? You’ve got to visit Karimun Java Island!

Here is the wonderland in the end of Java Island: Jepara. It is the port of departure to the enchanting island, Karimun Java. For Indonesians, Jepara is best known for its superb craftsmanship in wood carvings and furniture crafts. But the lovely tale doesn’t end there, the folk art hides its legend. And this is what caught me in curiosity to have traveled this place.

When I firstly got here, I found typical place that just made me wondering why this place is flooded with skilled craftsmen in this kind of art that represents an empire state. Though I didn’t find the ambience of kingdom districts like Solo and Yogyakarta, but its folk stuffs take me to the kingdom atmosphere.  

Based upon the historical story of this place, the craftsmanship existed since the fall of Majapahit kingdom in 15^th century that forced many artisans and carpenters from East Java came to Jepara which was the most important trading port at the time and developed woodcarving skills here. Further, the art of woodcarving reached the fame since the reign of Queen Kalinyamat. It was because during her reign, the queen had a military commander named Ki Badarduwung who was a skilled craftsman that taught the locals his style of woodcarving. 

Aside from the history, there is a legend about this legendary craftsmanship. It is said that long ago lived a famous artist named Ki Sungging Adi. He was asked by the king to carve the statue of the empress. It was such a honour for Ki Sungging Adi to take on the job, but unfortunately his workmanship made the king angered since the king was fully aware of carving details on the body shape and face of the statue. The king then throwing away all of the woodcarving’s tools of Ki Sungging Adi fell in the area what is now known as Jepara. I think that is why Jepara’s woodcarvings are expertly detailed.

Above all, there is unique thing that is interesting to know. Unlike Balinese woodcarvings that portray god and goddess in form of human or animal, Jepara’s woodcarvings portray only flowers, leaves, and trees following teaching of Islam.

Balinese woodcarving portrays human form.

 

Jepara's woodcarving portrays leaves and trees.

But nowadays, Jepara produces many kinds of antique stuffs with versatile designs that have spread to international markets.

 

Have a peek for more of my woodcarving collection and get the catalog now!

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Get Lost in My Wonderland!

What if you were getting lost in the middle of nowhere and found these kinds of things overwhelmed the ambience? Have you ever been to that atmosphere? I have! Instead of they make me scared away, they drag my deep curiosity to wander far away!

To me, nothing is wonderful but this kind of something: wandering a hinterland! What I found in that kind of place always gets me marveled since I love something tribal and primitive and they are definitely!

And here are tribal stuffs that you have to keep an eye on!

1. This fragmented wooden sculpture is made of fractured root of Jati wood aged tens of years. Originated in tropical forest of Java. It is definitely my most favorite one in my gallery!

2. This tribal face is uniquely carved following natural shape of cracked wood aged 40 years!

3. That fragmented carving technique reveals its riotous beauty of tribal folks!

4. And this little one is just riotously something cute!

5. This primitive owl made of primitive wood aged over 40 years that has already cracked by its age!

A Thousand Ways to The Wonderland

It's beautiful and I'm about to collect this! Yes, at first glance, this something cute has got me psyched to hunt for since it was launched. I have hunted for it for a long time, and I have finally found it! Well, I just do feel proud of having this on my hand. This limited edition logo is such a scarce thing to find just like an antique stuff. So that, it has got to be a special one for me to put it as part of my gallery as well.

I really do appreciate that Aqua take a bold step to awaken Indonesian cultural heritage through this awesome idea themed 'Temukan Indonesiamu' (Find out your Indonesia) that invites all young people to figure out cultural things of Indonesia they proud of. Love a lot how it takes the youths to its 'wonderland'. It nicely presents Indonesian cultural heritage like wayang, typical Indonesian people, and Indonesia's tribe symbols that are very cutely designed by a young graphic designer, Renata Owen. If you are lucky, you could only find this limited edition of Aqua logo in Java and Bali. And not in another district of Indonesia. I call it doing embracing in nice packaging. Thanks a ton to Aqua!

Now, it's time to ask ourselves. What we have to give to esteem cultural heritage? You don't need to wait for being a tourism ambassador or minister of culture and tourism to preserve cultural heritage. It's not that difficult to do. Just love it and you will go for it! Just meet it up with what pops in your mind. If you're a fashion lover, you can simply mix and match your outfits with something hilarious like Batik, just like what our celebs do, namely Jessica Alba, Nicole Richie, Reese Witherspoon, Heidi Klum. If you're a designer, you could do like Renata Owen with her cute graphic design. If you're a traveler, you could make your own travel tale with the amazing heritage site like a phenomenal site Majapahit in Java and whatever else you do, you definitely could take a part of cultural heritage preservation acts! And these are stunning things that may draw inspiration on what to do the acts.

1. Jessica Alba wore batik parang dress. Looks amazingly beautiful on her!

2. Heidi Klum layered her top with batik pesisir. Sophisticated!

3. Renata Owen's graphic design for Aqua limited edition logo. I'm falling hard for her illustration designs. Absolutely!

4. This cultured sports car definitely sweep away everyone's attention on the road!

5. This car has got the cutest of batik!

6. Who wouldn't refuse to ride this kind of cool thing? Sure. I can't help my self!

7. This is just the cutest train I've ever seen. Meet Sancaka and take your trip with Gatotkaca!

8. Beautiful batik wallpaper inside compartment of the train. Doesn't matter it takes a long long trip, it definitely would be a nice trip!

9. Hollywood movie takes historic site of Candi Borobudur as a movie set. This adorable heritage site is described as 'a land of beauty'.

And oh, what about my self? Whatever I do, I love traveling and it always copes with my passion on job I get fired from. This hobby takes me to wonder by wonder visiting places that get me closer to everything relates to cultural heritage. And it's absolutely something I'm overwhelmingly crazy about!

Wherever I travel, as long as it's kind of historic place, I would belong there. I always adore to visit museums, heritage sites, places where folktales come from, colonial Dutch buildings, and anything else like that.

Traveling is something always makes me tracing. Places and things I meet during my trip just make me curious to trace stories behind them. Thus on end, this makes me deal with the ancients and leads me adventuring old building, museum, heritage site, in which every story begins. Well, I just find everything has its own history. So that, the more I travel, the more I learn history of things. It's surely worth the while by coincidence! (I'm not even an archaeolog, historian, or that kind of someone). There is just something accidentally lands me there: my hobby, traveling!)

The Wonder Messages from The Wonderland

I am really fond of any heritage stuffs for they contain historical value. And what is more essential of it, to me, is cultural message inside them all. As well as wayang symbolises main character of heroes, relief carves the tales of people or place histories, Batik’s pattern gives symbol  and philosophy to its wearers. It all is more than adornment, it tells a lot! Therefore, you would learn lots of things from it.

It would be a great pleasure as you learn the Mahabharata epic behind those heritage stuffs. They would help you find your own proverb of life instead. Take my chevaliers, like Wayang Arjuna that symbolises elegance of prince charming, Wayang Kresna that symbolises intelligence of war lord, Wayang Rama that symbolises faithfulness of love, and Wayang Gunungan that symbolises the start and end of life that contains philosophy of ‘sangkan paraning dumadi’ (the provenance of life) as it is used at the beginning and end of every shadow play theather. The last one attracts my curiosity deeply to know more about the essences of it.

What I learn a little from the maven is that Gunungan commonly used to represent a mountain, trees, water, a lake, sea and fire is a symbol of cosmos. It has three sides: the good (positive) side, the evil (negative) side, and the shadow. The good (positive energy) side is described as the mountain reveals at the base a number of steps leading up us to two temple doors. While the evil (negative) side is described as the mountain centred by a huge demonic face with its horrible sight reveals consuming flames and fire that represents energy turned negative. And the third, the shadow side which means spirit energy describes as we are the ancestral spirits returned to earth to be experienced on a cosmic plane.

One of my most favorite collection, Balinese Gunungan (called Kayon in Bali), symbol of spirituality. 

What we have to note here, that Wayang Gunungan is trying to portray our good and evil side. That good always triumphs, although evil is never destroyed as both sides are necessary parts of the whole and must exist in equilibrium. It is interesting to me. Makes me think that this kind of performing art is far more than mere entertainment, it teachs us morality and cultural messages.

But not only wayang that makes me psyched to go hunting. Relief is also kind of folk stuff that would flood my gallery since I adore how relief tells the ambience of place, the way of life of the locals, the story of the past, and how it draws the signature of its origins. It leads me to experience of tracing the phenomenon hidden within every carving shape. You may have often seen kind of ancient reliefs carved on temples that crack and fade by centuries. Now, you don’t need to go through the time machine to get them. No need to lift tons of stones to bring them home. Here are unique reliefs that make me fight to hunt for them! They have three dimensional shape and are nicely carved on wood by craftsmans that got their folk skill from their ancestors hereditarily.

Three dimensional wooden relief in miniature size (155 cm x 96 cm) tells a story about Rama hunting golden deer for her wife, Shinta.

Look more closer! Though it is carved in miniature size, detail complexity of Ramayana three dimensional wooden relief is expertly carved:

Rahwana, an evil giant, king of Alengka, who kidnapped Shinta:

This relief is actually a philosophy of our life. Shinta who was very interested by the golden deer asked her husband Rama to hunt it, is the representation of a woman allured with shimmering estae and Rama that portrays a man who would do everything for his someone he loves (it describes the faithfulness of husband to his wife). But, unfortunately his abundant love for his wife leads him to the perverted way, it is described as Rama pursued that golden deer till he found the danger. It is just like a reflection of our case nowadays that men pursue money for his beautiful ones by doing bad business that endangers his own life.

This story continues on Shinta that sent Laksmana to help her husband as her husband didn't go back ever since. Laksmana refused to leave Shinta since he had been asked by Rama, his brother, to save Shinta. But, Laksmana finally granted Shinta's entreaty and in order to save Shinta from evil, Laksmana encircled Shinta with a circle that protected her from evil and forbidden Shinta to not go out of the circle during he leaved her. Rahwana who wanted to kidnap Shinta, made a camouflage becoming a beggar, so that Shinta moved out the circle. In the end, Shinta was abducted by the evil giant.

Could you grope what this allegory is trying to tell us? Yes, you guessed it right. It is about a woman that breaks the rule, the circle! It is quite a real thing in our beloved planet nowadays that women go out of that circle for the shake of obsession that is portrayed as golden deer.

Javanese Primitive Wooden Sculptures

Forget away typical sculptures that you have often seen. This kind of wood sculpture is just unusual I ever seen. I found this kind of folk art when I was on my way out of getting lost in the middle of tropical forest of East Java named Alas Roban, about 3 years ago. At haphazard, things which are unsual and unique stole my attention. They are now my most favorite stuffs ever in my gallery. I got psyched to have found them! I really do love them for they are unusual, deep expression, figurative, and allusive sometimes. 

What kind of thing is this, exactly? It is made up of fragmented aereal root of Jati wood aged 40 years old! Jati wood is known for its durability. It's usually used as high quality construction material. There are many Dutch buildings in Indonesia of the past centuries that used Jati wood still stand sturdily up to now. This high-valued wood could only thrive in tropical forests and it gets scarce nowadays. That is why it becomes one of hard assets of my beloved country. It makes Jati wood’s product always be good investment as well. But, how about root of Jati wood?

The folks around Alas Roban tropical forest of East Java have caught their creativity! That kind of material seems not necessary to use to. Nonetheless, the creativity proves the contrary. Through their wonder hands, it becomes adorable thing. The roots of the strong wood that is the strongest material ever due to their age and quality are the perfect wallboard for the folks to carve the magic on. Those durable goods will go along way through the centuries.

Here are some that I can share meanwhile. You could enjoy many more on my upcoming posts. I would like to surprise you! So, stay in touch on my blog:)

(I'm trying a tiny bit of my photography work using my iPhone camera by the way. I just  enjoy really the ritual of capturing anything that way, instead of taking pics with DSLR camera:))