The long-distance journey from the international airport to the city of Yogyakarta on Indonesia's Java island has the least benefit of easing jet-lagged travelers through a borderland of rice paddy plains and jungle hills. Then the bustling metropolis closes and everything turns into business and chaos in a hot tropical city. Once known as “Cota Cepeda,'' this city is home to countless scooters.
Of the millions of people who flock to over-touristed Bali, only a few take a detour to Yogyakarta. It's a culturally and intellectually fermented place, run by a respected royal family and packed with universities. It's not easily parsed, which makes it a great city to spend a few days exploring.
The first thing you'll notice after the swarms of scooters are the warungs, a variety of food stalls, from small food stalls to de facto outdoor restaurants. These line almost every street and alley, often obliterating the sidewalks, and tell you that this jackfruit stew (gudegu) has a perfect recipe origin, or that you can eat the “legendary” baby goat satay here. A banner has been put up to boast about this.
I spent over two weeks exploring Jogja, starting with the food, spending several days traveling from warung to warung to restaurant. The person who guided me to them was Tico Scalso (39), who immigrated from Jakarta. He ran Jogya Restaurant until it closed due to the coronavirus, and now he's running something like a pop-up cooking club. In this warung, I had fried noodles (bak mi goreng), and in the next warung, I had fried chicken (ayam goreng kampung) and sweet and spicy sambal. For breakfast at 7am, we found Bu Sukardi's Warung. A vigorous brew of ginger and palm sugar is used to make wobbly and soft tofu (wedang tuff).
One evening, to showcase the more formal side of Jogya dining, Mr. Scalso opened Griya Dahal RB, an ornate Javanese restaurant housed in an elaborate open pavilion with carved teak chairs. He welcomed me there. There we ate classic dishes such as Broncos Tellurium, which is a coconut tree. A milk stew with black-eyed peas, tofu, boiled eggs, and a lemony, bitter herb called melinjo.
“We love peanuts,” Scalso said. “We love fatty sauces, like peanut sauce over gado-gado or rotek.” (Those are salads that often include crunchy tempeh.) Nutty, creamy, fatty , something sweet and fermented. ”
In between meals, I visited museums, many art galleries, a large annual contemporary art show, morning markets, countless barista-style coffee shops offering ice revivers, classical dance performances, and sultry heat on the floor. I went to a drag cabaret at Space. Hamza Batik Store, the most famous batik retailer in the city, sells Muslim clothing. In the classical dance, they made exquisite hand gestures and paused body movements in time with the gamelan orchestra. The drag show was a fun explosion of pure pop camp, with hijab-wearing fans taking selfies with the drag stars.
One of the reasons I returned to Jogja for the first time since the 1980s is because parts of the city will be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023. It is called the cosmic axis. The site was founded in the 18th century by the Sultanate, which still rules the region politically and spiritually. It is composed of structures, details and symbols that are a mixture of animist, Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic beliefs that place yoga at the center of the universe.
Surrounded by the city, this area seems modest, even modest. It includes a small monument, many gates, several fortifications, a low mosque, a beautiful complex of disused baths and gardens called Taman Sari (Water Castle), and two sacred sanctuaries. Contains a banyan tree. The centerpiece is the krathong. This airy and elegant multi-building palace, set in wooded grounds, is partially occupied by Yogyakarta's 10th Sultan and his government. One building displays animations about Javanese life cycles and rituals. Dance and puppet shows are held daily in the open pavilion. The most beautiful of them all is the Sunday morning practice dance. There, performers receive instruction from masters. This is a privileged and intimate show.
When tourists slow down and pay attention to the krathong and nearby Sonobudoyo Museum, one thing becomes clear: That is, the culture of yoga is complex, inward-looking, rhythmic, symbolism-laden and always in need of proper deciphering. The most famous local dance performance is from the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana, but how does this fit into a Muslim country where mosques echo the pre-dawn call to prayer on every block? Hijabs are everywhere, but what do Mecca authorities think of drag show fans wearing hijab?
Two religions, two temples
For breathtaking views, head to the ancient temple complex on the outskirts of the city called Prambanan and Borobudur. Two magnificent structures honoring related religions were built within 100 years of each other by related kingdoms, quickly destroyed and abandoned, then discovered, restored, and now in great care. It is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. .
Prambanan is a huge collection of volcanic stone Hindu structures dating back to the 9th century. Climb up the largest temple, surrounded by relief carvings, and enter a room housing statues of Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha, Lord Durga, and more. Most of the site was destroyed shortly after its construction, probably by the nearby still-active eruption of Mount Merapi. Of the original 240 temples, only a few of the central temples were rebuilt in the 20th century, and the site is littered with piles of rubble from smaller buildings. It is where the universe of human creativity confronts the creative destruction of the earth itself, if not Shiva the destroyer.
Even closer to the volcano, 30 miles away, is Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It was also most likely built in the 9th century and abandoned several hundred years later due to the decline of Buddhism and the rise of Islam. As the Berkeley-educated Buddhist scholar Hudaya Kandajaya told me, this is a “Mountain of Dharma,” meaning it was created more as a teaching than as a form of worship. It is approximately 400 feet square and 10 stories high. Visitors admire carved panels from the lower levels about earthly temptations before climbing to the unadorned top representing enlightenment. It has three tiers surrounded by 72 large bell-shaped hollow stupas from which you can peer into the image of the Buddha.
After Axis and Temple, I got lucky. I met Siti Adhyati (72), a famous artist with local royal lineage. When I asked her about the cosmic axis, she invited me to her home. Adiyati is a social activist who led a rebellion against the Indonesian Academy, a prestigious art school in Jogja, in the 1970s.
She was drawing a giant infographic on a whiteboard in an outdoor pavilion on her large property. Here was Clayton and its cosmic appendages, including eight gates with symbolic meaning. Notice how the axis points north to non-temperate Merapi, she said. To the south lies the open sea, home to the goddess of local mythology. Adhyati also painted mandalas such as Borobudur, which is shaped like a mandala. There were cartoons of human bodies related to gestures of Hindu and Buddhist origin, which Adityati learned as a student of Javanese dance in her youth.
“This is me,” she said with a laugh, waving at her intricate work. It also meant her city.
village within the city
As artist Ranga Purbaya, 48, explains, drinking coffee near the giant banyan tree at the Jogja National Museum one afternoon. The Jogja National Museum is a contemporary art space (the old spelling of the city name is used). name). “But you can go far in a group.”
Mr. Purbaya's photographic-based art often depicts the victims of the 1965 anti-communist mass killings, many of them from Central Java, and is partially created by a group of artists. He described the city's community spirit, exemplified by the city's community spirit. He manages one of them.
Many argued that Jogja is a slower, more communal city than it appears to be, avoiding scooters. “I think it's a lot of work,” said Nona Ioannisara, a 32-year-old artist who works on the side to improve AI output for an American company. That's not true. It's a small town, but in a big way. ”
You have to walk through the kampung to feel it. These are villages within cities, clusters of houses arranged in a maze of narrow streets. Kampongs should be walked without a destination. There are well-fed wandering cats, chickens foraging for insects, songbirds in delicate cages, beautifully colored walls and doors, and countless potted plants.
One of my favorite kampungs is the area east of Water Castle and Pasar Qassem Market. Although this area has a few tourist-oriented shops, it is still a beautiful area with a diverse architecture that bumps into old royal walls and buildings. The other is a kampung near the Masjid Gede Mataram Mosque in the Old Town area of Kotagede. Built in the 18th century, this city's oldest mosque is notable for its gate and wall architecture, which incorporates Hindu motifs that have long influenced Javanese design.
Then walk east and south through a cluster of houses. Kampungs start off with an affluent vibe (try the premium coffee at Longkang Kotagede Café or seek out the funky Legian Café in the shade of a banyan tree), then drift south, evoking trees, animals, and a timeless rural village. It flows into an area of dilapidated common spaces. .
Once you've toured temples, sampled warungs, walked kampungs, and imagined the cosmic axis, you're a certified yoga visitor. “Tourists who come to Jogja will come back,” said one local resident who travels the world and has lived in places like Sacramento and Chiang Mai in Thailand.
It is the universe of Jogja, we just visit there.
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