Pusat Dokumentasi Kerajaan Indonesia,Vlaardingen, Netherlands
Illustrated informative site with about 300 Royal Indonesian and Princely dynasties of Indonesia, mainly in the present time.
Whose idea was it to turn Sanur Bay North into a car park for the new Taman Festival? Certainly no-one asked the local Balinese, because on the beach they've been having processions to the sea that terminate in 'explosions' of ceremonial bliss for at least the last 1,000 years. Despite the invention of a new verb for the occasion, "karangisasi" (i.e. to smother a previously beautiful coastline, animal or wetland wildlife habitat with limestone boulders) the Balinese won the day. God bless them and help them (for hell hath no fury like a crossed developer) with the help of the hereditary Cokorda (King) of Kesiman, East denpasar, Ngurah Wardana, who wins this years Golden Garuda for fearlessness.
I knew Ngurah as the quiet crown prince of Bali's nicest Kingdom: the very Byzantine Kingdom of Kesiman. His great-great-great-great-great-grand-father, Cokorda Sakti Kesiman, was a seer who, reportedly, would nightly commune with the spirit of Uluwatu temple, the ancestor spirit of Dhang Hyang Dwijendra, Bali's answer to Joan of Arc. As a young man, Ngurah was a trail bike enthusiast and a bit of a boulavadier - I would see him every few years, standing, impeccably dressed, with the royal dukes in a high pavilion at some palace function or another. He became a King and a father, in that order, and then a member of parliament, without my noticing, and I was thrilled, conservative monarchist that I am, to hear of his victory against the timber barons and the cause of "karangisasi".
The beach is back. Ngurah is a local hero. Long live the King!
2 comments:
Whose idea was it to turn Sanur Bay North into a car park for the new Taman Festival? Certainly no-one asked the local Balinese, because on the beach they've been having processions to the sea that terminate in 'explosions' of ceremonial bliss for at least the last 1,000 years. Despite the invention of a new verb for the occasion, "karangisasi" (i.e. to smother a previously beautiful coastline, animal or wetland wildlife habitat with limestone boulders) the Balinese won the day. God bless them and help them (for hell hath no fury like a crossed developer) with the help of the hereditary Cokorda (King) of Kesiman, East denpasar, Ngurah Wardana, who wins this years Golden Garuda for fearlessness.
I knew Ngurah as the quiet crown prince of Bali's nicest Kingdom: the very Byzantine Kingdom of Kesiman. His great-great-great-great-great-grand-father, Cokorda Sakti Kesiman, was a seer who, reportedly, would nightly commune with the spirit of Uluwatu temple, the ancestor spirit of Dhang Hyang Dwijendra, Bali's answer to Joan of Arc. As a young man, Ngurah was a trail bike enthusiast and a bit of a boulavadier - I would see him every few years, standing, impeccably dressed, with the royal dukes in a high pavilion at some palace function or another. He became a King and a father, in that order, and then a member of parliament, without my noticing, and I was thrilled, conservative monarchist that I am, to hear of his victory against the timber barons and the cause of "karangisasi".
The beach is back. Ngurah is a local hero. Long live the King!
Post a Comment