ANU STUDENTS JOIN IN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF Esther Sainsbury was in Yogyakarta when the massive earthquake struck.

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1 NEWS FROM THE SOUTHEAST ASIA, SOUTH & WEST ASIA CENTRES, FACULTY OF ASIAN STUDIES THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CONTENTS ANU students join in earthquake relief Esther Sainsbury reports on her recent experiences in Indonesia... 1 Book review George Quinn reports on a new book which makes a much needed contribution to understanding Islam in Southeast Asia... 3 To thank or not to thank in Indonesian Lecturer and linguist, Tim Hassall, on the use and misuse of terima kasih... 4 Kumbhandas Gorva: an uncompromising devotee of bhakti Richard Barz on a plain-speaking farmer and paragon of devotional virtue... 6 The end of the ur-text? McComas Taylor reports on the world Sanskrit conference... 6 The Holy Man of Bamboo Hill George Quinn reports on a popular place of pilgrimage in Central Java... 7 Darmasiswa scholarships: a door into Indonesia Brent Durnan on the main features of the program... 8 THE BHINNEKA TEAM: Editor: George Quinn, Head, Southeast Asia Centre and South & West Asia Centre Designer: Karina Pelling CONTACT DETAILS: T: E: southeastasia.centre@anu.edu.au W: au/wiki/index.php/south_and_ West_Asia_Centre W: au/wiki/index.php/southeast_ Asia_Centre No. 5, August 2006 ANU STUDENTS JOIN IN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF Esther Sainsbury was in Yogyakarta when the massive earthquake struck. Photo by Adelle Neary/ACICIS This report comes to you from Canberra. Of course it should be coming to you direct from across the Indian Ocean, bringing with it an exotic whiff of Yogyakarta where I ve just finished the first semester of my Year in Indonesia. But don t feel cheated. Sure, the report hasn t swerved between customs patrols, dived over fishing vessels and negotiated coral formations in the divide between international ANU student and home campus. But let me at least console you with some oleh-oleh a small cargo of stories from Southeast Asia - even if I am writing them in Canberra. It s been an amazing experience, this Year in Indonesia at beautiful Gadjah Mada University. Many of you will be aware of the drama of recent events in Yogyakarta: the eruption of Mount Merapi and the giant earthquake. But for me, much of my first semester was dedicated to discovering and savouring the more unassuming delights of in-country immersion. I explored the natural wonders of the East Java coast line, observed local festivals and ceremonies, joined in high school excursions, and, when I found time, did some study at Gadjah Mada. I launched into intercultural sporting events, climbed mountains, and of course met many individuals who helped develop my understanding of Indonesia, its culture and society. Amid the excitement of orientation week and meeting other Australian students, not to mention finding a boarding house to live in during the first few weeks of term, I discovered the delights of Yogyakarta. It is a truly lovely city to live and study in. Already known to me as a university city, it is also within reach of religious wonders such as the temples of Prambanan and Borobudur. I also found it to be rich in foods, with amazing variety in its material culture and lifestyle. (continued on next page)

2 ANU STUDENTS JOIN IN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF (cont. from p1) Disparities in wealth are very evident. Yogyakarta is nothing less than a vivid, animated display of many truths about the Indonesian economy and the realities of life amongst the less fortunate the street kids, orphans, manual workers and others. With the first term completed, the second term brought a renewed sense of integration with the academic community of Gadjah Mada and with the community of Yogyakarta as whole. Trips to other cities provided interesting urban contrasts the hustle of Jakarta, the cool of Bandung, while expeditions to more rural places such as Jombang and coastal Baron provided scenic escapes from the busyness of city life. As my appreciation of Yogyakarta grew the city s scenic backdrop was ever changing. Mt. Merapi, the active volcano located 30 km behind Yogyakarta emitted occasional puffs of smoke. As semester two progressed the volcano became so active that many villagers were evacuated from its slopes. Worse, international volcano tourists began to arrive in Yogya eager to witness nature at its mightiest. Photos by Adelle Neary/ACICIS And they were not disappointed. Glowing by night and smoking by day, Merapi became headline news in Yogya for weeks with newspapers giving front-page prominence to its lava flows and precipitation. Although the scenic backdrop of Yogya changed dramatically, life in the city continued as normal as photographers, tourists and locals appreciated the demonstration of volcanic might. Then, just when the city thought it would have to deal with the possible relocation of several thousand people in government determined safety zones, an earthquake registering 6.2 on the Richter Scale hit on the morning of Saturday the 27th of May at 5:55am. It was similar to being in a subway and hearing a train coming. A lot of things on my desk were jumping, my ceiling was popping plaster, I was struggling to stand. I headed for a doorway and stood in the frame of the door, supposedly the strongest area of the house. After getting to know and love the student lifestyle the city had created for us during semester one and the many friends I had made over the time spent in and around the university, this enormous natural disaster challenged the bounds of my notions of devastation and created an environment of death, separation and suffering for much of the city s population. Over 6,000 people died and more than 150,000 people are reported to have been made homeless as a result of the earthquake. For those unfamiliar with the ferocity of earthquakes the scale of the tragedy might seem to be the work of days of persistent destructive natural forces. But the time taken to inflict obliteration on areas within Yogyakarta, Sleman, Bantul and further afield was just 57 seconds. (continued on next page) Bhinneka No. 5, August

3 ANU STUDENTS JOIN IN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF (cont. from p2) The immediate reaction from the community of Yogyakarta was one of confusion. Initially many thought the earthquake was a result of Merapi s activities. Later many believed the earthquake had created a tsunami that was headed towards Yogya from the coast. Although Yogya is 30 km from the coastline and the chance of a tsunami reaching the city is very low, the terrible image of Aceh s tsunami impelled many residents to flee their homes and evacuate their families to the north towards Kaliurang and Magelang. Although the people of Yogyakarta suffered greatly during and after the earthquake, the following days demonstrated the true humanity alive in Indonesian communities. Their compassion for fellow sufferers was unlike anything I have ever witnessed. Although a time of desperation, confusion and distress, civil disobedience appeared to be incredibly low in the city and civilians and government officials worked together in many situations to avoid civil disruption and maintain social order. The overwhelming concern for community and family brought many people together during the days of reconstruction following the earthquake. Foreigners and locals alike were involved in the amazing community efforts to stem a tremendous tide of need in multiple areas. ANU students too assisted in the rehabilitation of the city and surrounding areas as well as raising significant funds. Within a day of the quake students were busy taking food and medicines down to villages in Bantul. Those with medical training helped out in local hospitals and others lent a hand in coordination efforts making good use of their fluent Indonesian language skills. There is much that still needs to be provided and repaired in Yogyakarta and the relief efforts will continue on for many months to come. I look forward to seeing the city again in August and witnessing the restoration of Yogya as I pass through to begin the second semester in Malang with the other ANU students. [Additional material from The Canberra Times and ACICIS] A MAJOR CONTRIBUTION TO SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES New book broadens understanding of Islam By George Quinn, Senior Lecturer in Indonesian and Head of Centre Foreign Minister Alexander Downer did the honours at the recent Canberra launch of a major new work on Islam in Southeast Asia. Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia: A Contemporary Sourcebook is compiled and edited by Dr Greg Fealy (Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and Faculty of Asian Studies) and Professor Virginia Hooker (Southeast Asia Centre, Faculty of Asian Studies). The book presents around 200 extracts from documents by Southeast Asian authors (clerics, academics, journalists, politicians, lay Muslims) translated into English. ANU scholars provide comprehensive introductions to the six major thematic categories covered by the book, complemented with short commentaries on each extract. The six themes are: personal expressions of faith; Islamic law; state and governance; women and family; jihad; and interactions with non-muslims and the wider Muslim world. The book looks at the ideological and doctrinal content of Islam in Southeast Asia in all its facets, while also exploring the motivations underlying different interpretations and viewpoints. An interesting features of the book is the attention it gives to lesser known domains of Islam in Southeast Asia: Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines. A portfolio of attractive photographs gives the reader vivid visual glimpses of Southeast Asian Islam. This book will be an indispensable reference far into the future, not only for students of Islam but for all who seek a deeper, and very authentic, vision of Southeast Asian culture as a whole. Bhinneka No. 5, August

4 TO THANK OR NOT TO THANK IN INDONESIAN By lecturer in Indonesian, Tim Hassall On my first trip to Indonesia twenty years ago, I arrived in the village of Ubud in Bali and was sitting in my losmen. Two young hotel maids came in, and started making up the beds. I said, Terima kasih. One of them mimicked mockingly to her friend in an irritated tone, Terima kasih, terima kasih. The message, it seemed, was Thank you, thank you that s all these foreigners ever say. Even since then I ve noticed how hard it is for Australians to thank properly in Indonesian. The form is easy you can just say terima kasih, or more informally, makasih. The big problem is knowing when to do it. And most Australians do it too often, causing awkwardness or even offence. How often do Indonesians thank? Indonesians use terima kasih and makasih only sparingly. One Indonesian explains: Indonesians do not express their thanks in every occasion explicitly. Indonesians expression of thanks only appear if they explicitly ask other people to help them. This will be clear in a situation like borrowing books in the library or buying goods from the market or getting off the bus. Indonesians feel that they do not need to say thank you to librarians or merchants or bus drivers because it is their duty to serve the customer. (Soenarso, 1988, p. 31) Librarians? That surprises me a little. But certainly I ve noticed the basic truth of this. When someone performs a routine service for someone else, they are often not thanked for it. And I have noticed at least two situations where Indonesians seem never to thank: when the conductor in a city bus hands them their ticket and change, and when the petugas at the supermarket swaps their belongings for a security pass as they enter and leave. So in such situations, if you feel tempted to say terima kasih, you should try to replace it with some other way of acknowledgement, such as a nod. Why Indonesians thank sparingly This seems to be linked to traditional values. Most Indonesians, especially Javanese, have a firm sense of social hierarchy and of status differences. So they are unlikely to thank a person of lower status in many everyday situations as they regard that person to be simply carrying out his or her social obligations. Also important is the great value placed upon group membership and communality. It creates a feeling that you should do certain things for others without receiving formal acknowledgement, simply because you all belong to the same group. And so thanking someone you know well can at times seem aloof and create offence. At which times? Unfortunately it s hard to say. You have to feel your way here, and might sometimes choose to convey your gratitude indirectly, for example by expressing pleasure or relief, rather than by uttering the formula terima kasih. Thanking among Australians Australians thank each other a great deal in everyday situations. It makes little difference who has the higher status or whether the service is big or small we just thank anyway. And often we even do it repeatedly, so that a routine encounter between a shopkeeper and customer turns into a litany of murmured Thank you... Thanks... Thank you... This is probably to do with cultural values as well. Australian society has a strong egalitarian ethos so striking that one observer, Anna Wierzbicka, calls it super-egalitarianism. It makes us feel that people are not obliged to perform services for us by virtue of their social position or rank. As a result, we tend to explicitly acknowledge everything that is done for us by anyone, by thanking them. What s more, we tend to transfer these habits into Indonesian. Thanking is on the rise Indonesians are starting to thank each other more often. This is especially true among educated city dwellers. And, as George Quinn has remarked, it seems to be due to Anglo-American influence. For one thing, the traditional values that work against thanking are losing their sway. Social relations are becoming less hierarchical, and at the same time are becoming more impersonal. This is especially so among the highly educated, urban elite. As these people become more like Anglo- Americans in their cultural outlook, they have started to adopt western thanking habits. (continued on next page) Bhinneka No. 5, August 2006

5 TO THANK OR NOT TO THANK IN INDONESIAN (cont. from p4) Indonesians are heavily exposed to Anglo-American thanking practice as well. For example in American TV dramas and movies, the characters say thanks and thank you to each other constantly. This is translated faithfully in the subtitles each time as terima kasih, so the Indonesian viewers see characters saying terima kasih to each other constantly when they watch TV. This also helps to change people s speech habits. The idea that not thanking people is traditional behaviour, while thanking is modern and sophisticated, reveals itself in literature. Witness this extract from a story about a young rural servant girl: Berikan apa saja padanya yang akan menyenangkan hatinya barang sedikit, dan ia akan berseri-seri. Tapi ia tak biasa mengucapkan terima kasih. Dalam pergaulan keluarga-keluarga orang sederhana di kampung kami, kata terimakasih masih asing. Hanya seri yang memancar di paras jua ucapan itu mendapat jalan. If she were given anything at all that pleased her, her face would light up. But she did not normally say terima kasih. Among the simple folk of our village, the expression terima kasih is still uncommon. The happiness reflected in the features is sufficient substitute for those words. ( Inem by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Translation is by Johns, 1981, p. 176, modified.) Here, not thanking people is portrayed as a habit of those who have not yet acquired modern ways. That neatly complements an episode in a story by a different writer, A. A. Navis. In that story a young Indonesian returns to his home town after living for years in Europe. He fascinates his old friends with his new sophistication, including his new habit of saying terima kasih when a friend lights his cigarette for him, a trait which he tells them is European etiquette, and which they mockingly imitate. Conclusions Yes, thanking is becoming more common in Indonesia. But Indonesians with traditional cultural values still do it quite rarely, and even educated city dwellers do it a good deal less than we do in Australia. So learners must be sensitive to the risk of over-thanking people. For learners who feel nervous about this, here is a cheat ploy. Thanking with the word thanks tends to get a very good reception in Indonesia, perhaps because people feel flattered when you speak English to them. And when you say thanks you are temporarily behaving in a foreign way, not an Indonesian way, so your thanking is not judged by native norms. That means that however silly terima kasih would have sounded, your thanks probably won t bother a soul. Of course this strategy has a drawback: it simply sidesteps the important task of learning to use terima kasih in an appropriate way. But as a back-up strategy for difficult moments it can be useful! Sections of this article appeared in Do learners thank too much in Indonesian? by Tim Hassall, in Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL), 2001, Vol 24, No. 2, pp They are reproduced here with the kind permission of the editor of ARAL. References Apte, M. (1974) Thank you and South Asian languages: A comparative sociolinguistic study. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 3:67-90 Coulmas, F. (1981) Poison to your soul : Thanks and apologies contrastively viewed. In F. Coulmas (ed) Conversational Routine. Mouton, The Hague. Johns, Y. (1981) Bahasa Indonesia Book 2: Langkah Baru. Canberra, Australian National University Press Navis, A.A. (1964/1990) Orang dari luar negeri. Reprinted in A. A. Navis, Hujan Panas dan Kabut Musim: Kumpulan Cerita Pendek. 1990, Jakarta, Penerbit Djambatan Quinn, G. (1996) The Indonesian Way: Readings and Wordlist. Canberra, Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University Soenarso, L. (1988) Developing social competence in complimenting behaviour among Indonesian learners of English. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Canberra Wierzbicka, A. (1991) Cross cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter. Congratulations to Tim Hassall and Yasuko Kobayashi on the birth of their baby boy. The staff and students in the Southeast Asia Centre and South & West Asia Centre wish all three of you the very best of everything. Bhinneka No. 5, August

6 KUMBHANDAS GORVA: AN UNCOMPROMISING DEVOTEE OF BHAKTI Richard Barz on a Hindu devotee Senior lecturer in Hindi, Dr Richard Barz, took his expertise on bhakti devotion to the 16th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia at the University of Wollongong between June 26 and 29. In a paper on fundamentalist devotee, Kumbhandas Gorva ( ?) he observed that in the hagiographies of the Vallabha sect of Vaishnava Hindus, Kumbandhas is depicted as both a straightforward, plain-speaking farmer and a paragon of devotional virtue. The down-to-earth side of his disposition has made him attractive to those members of the Vallabha sect who would find the exaggerated saintliness of other model Vaishnavas unattainable and discouraging. At the same time, the fearless and unyielding loyalty to Krishna which Kumbhandas displays gives him the character of the archetypal bhakti fundamentalist. He was, Dr Barz argued, an exponent of an uncompromising and harsh aspect of bhakti which is basic to Hindu devotional religion but which is often overlooked in academic discussion. Dr Barz expressed his gratitude to the Faculty of Asian Studies for financially supporting his attendance and that of other Faculty members at the Conference. THE END OF THE UR-TEXT? McComas Taylor, lecturer in Sanskrit, reports on the World Sanskrit Conference 380 Sanskrit scholars from all over the world enjoyed a smorgasbord of papers at the 13th World Sanskrit Conference held in Edinburgh July last. Six or more consecutive panels ran from nine in the morning until six in the evening on themes ranging from the Vedic phonology to contemporary pedagogy and digitisation. The most interesting papers were those that showed an active engagement with broader scholarship in the humanities, anthropology and critical theory. Some presenters called for a re-examination of the ways in which we read Sanskrit texts. The traditional philological approach in the West has been to weed out interpolations and contaminations in an attempt to find the Ur-text. It was pleasing to see a move away from this approach to a more nuanced, holistic reading which recognises a text as a standing, complete cultural artefact in its own right. The conclusion is that by and large we have been reading texts the wrong way. The conference may not have outshone the Fringe Festival but it was deemed a resounding success by all who attended, especially the strong Australian contingent of eight. One of the highlights for me was catching up with old friends from the Helsinki conference in 2003, and making new acquaintances among the new generation of emerging scholars. Bhinneka No. 5, August

7 THE HOLY MAN OF BAMBOO HILL George Quinn reports on a popular place of pilgrimage in Central Java In July last year I visited the tomb of Raden Santri on the outskirts of Muntilan about 30 kilometres north of Jogjakarta, not far from the famous Borobudur temple monument in Central Java. The tomb is in a mausoleum towards the top of a hill tufted with clumps of bamboo (pring in Javanese) that give the place its name Gunung Pring or Bamboo Hill. Passing through a roofed gate at the foot of the hill I joined crowds of pilgrims jostling their way up a long concrete staircase. Left and right there were shops and stalls selling clothes, religious souvenirs, fruit (especially the locally famous snake-skin fruit or salak) and handicrafts. We had to step around donation boxes (making small donations at each of them) and push through a fairly large number of aggressive beggars, mostly women and girls. It was a quiet Sunday morning at Gunung Pring but already there were six or eight big tourist buses in the parking area at the foot of the hill. At the entrance to the mausoleum, wheezing a little from the exertion of the climb, I removed my sandals and left them among the heaps of similarly abandonned footwear in the doorway. Like the pilgrims in front of me I respectfully checked in with the site custodian (juru kunci) seated on the tiled floor behind a shin-high table. On the wall of the reception pavilion I noticed graphs and pie-charts reporting that between 20,000 and 35,000 pilgrims roughly a thousand a day come to the site most months of the year. The main mausoleum is spacious, about 20 metres square. It has a high pyramid-like joglo roof without an interior ceiling. It is open on one side, adjacent to the reception area. Here, before entering the mausoleum, pilgrims can wash their hands and feet (if they want to) with cups of water from two large clay urns. Under the airy roof there are at least a dozen holy graves, most of them crammed into four small wooden houses called cungkup. Each of these interior structures has a sloping roof made of wooden slat tiles. The sides of the houses are partly open or have glass panels in them, and inside they are lined with lace drapes. The graves themselves are made of glossy tiles with Islamic-style headstones at each end. The main figure buried here is Raden Santri, also called Prince Singosari (Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Singosari). People believe he was the brother of Panembahan Senopati, the semi-legendary figure who founded the great Central Raden Santri s cungkup in the mausoleum at Gunung Pring Javanese state of Mataram some time in the 1580s. The story goes that Panembahan Senopati wanted to appoint Prince Singosari commander of an outlying district in the newly established state. But the prince defied his brother, choosing instead to disguise himself as a student of religion (santri) and teach Islam to the still partly Hindu-Buddhist population. Calling himself Raden Santri he wandered from village to village, ultimately settling near Gunung Pring in a hamlet still known today as Santren. From time to time Raden Santri secluded himself in religious devotion on the nearby hill, initiating a tradition of piety that is still strongly in evidence there today. Eventually relations were re-established with the palace of Mataram. Raden Santri s son, Kyai Krapyak, was summoned to the place by Panembahan Senopati s great successor Sultan Agung. The sultan was so pleased with the meeting that he gave Kyai Krapyak a mosque. According to local tradition, the Kyai wrapped his new mosque in a handkerchief, put it in his sleeve, and transported it back to Santren where, almost 400 years later, the small, ancient, much-loved building still stands. On the first of Muharram, the Islamic New Year s Day, Gunung Pring is jammed with thousands of people from near and far commemorating the death of Raden Santri and one of his descendants, Kyai Jogorekso. Throughout the preceding night the mausoleum thrums with prayer, tahlil chants and reading from the Qur an. On the following day there is a procession through the streets of Muntilan and out to Gunung Pring. Pride of place in the procession is given to a squad of functionaries (abdi dalem) from the Jogjakarta palace dressed in their traditional Javanese finery. (continued on next page) Bhinneka No. 5, August

8 DARMASISWA SCHOLARSHIPS: A DOOR INTO INDONESIA Asian Studies student Brent Durnan, recipient of a Darmasiswa scholarship, sketches its main features. The Darmasiswa program aims to promote interest in Indonesian language, culture and performing arts by offering scholarships to students from all over the world to come and study in Indonesia. It is funded by the Indonesian government, and several scholarships are offered annually to Australians wishing to undertake one year, nondegree programs at a tertiary level in Indonesia. Attracting approximately 100 students from more than 30 different countries every year, the program is divided into two different streams. The first is a language stream; giving students who have never studied Indonesian before an opportunity to learn first-hand, or helping those who have a solid grounding in Indonesian (such as Ex-ACICIS students) expand upon what they have already learned. Students can choose to study at universities in a number of cities all over the country, including Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Malang and Bandung. The second stream is aimed at students with a background in dance and music, giving them an opportunity to study traditional Indonesian dance and music at arts institutes in Yogyakarta, Solo and Denpasar. The scholarship also provides a modest yet feasible living allowing of one million rupiah per month. To apply for the Darmasiswa program applications can be attained from the Education and Cultural Section at the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra. Applications must be submitted before the end of November, and participants will be notified of their acceptance in June/July of the following year. The program commences with an orientation for all participants in August. For further information and contact details you can look up the Darmasiswa program on the Indonesian Embassy website at THE HOLY MAN OF BAMBOO HILL (cont.) Although pilgrims venerate Raden Santri, an equally popular grave, under an adjacent cungkup, is that of Kyai Haji Dalhar. Dalhar was a revered teacher of religion at the nearby Darussalam pesantren school in the village of Watucongol. Today his work is commemorated annually in the Islamic month of Syawwal. There are public readings from the Qur an and a formal pilgrimage procession to the teacher s grave on Gunung Pring. It would appear that Gunung Pring is well established on the itinerary of pious pilgrims in Java, especially those from rural places. On the day of my visit, as I sat cross-legged with my head bowed before the grave of Kyai Haji Dalhar, I fell into quiet conversation with pilgrims in a group of around 100 people from Banyuwangi at the far eastern end of Java. Gunung Pring was their last stop on an island-wide pilgrimage, they told me. Consisting equally of men and women, with a number of children too (perhaps because it was currently a school holiday period), the party had been on the road in two buses for seven days. They had visited several holy places in Madura before taking in the tombs of the Nine Saints (wali songo) along Java s north coast and calling also at the tomb of Sheikh Abdul Muhyi at Pamijahan near the south coast of West Java. I chatted with Pak Junaidi Yaqub, a trader in the market at Tegal Dlimo, Banyuwangi, asking him what he could tell me about Raden Santri. With a nervous laugh he told me that Raden Santri was an interesting figure because he put devotion to Islam ahead of obedience to his elder brother and king. For Pak Junaidi, Raden Santri was an slightly troubling illustration of the idea that the interests of Islam and the state do not always coincide, and when they collide Islam must come first. One of the women interrupted, complaining that they had tried to visit too many places in a short time (just one week) and there was no chance to stay in any one place, to take in the atmosphere and to commune with God without being cut short. She had no idea who Raden Santri was but clearly appreciated the sacred aura of Gunung Pring. In fact she seemed to imagine Java and Madura as a pastiche places that were sacred but didn t have much connection with history. For her the hill brought her closer to the Almighty. At the same time it brought her closer to the friends and neighbours in her group. The strengthening of community cohesion was a prime reason for undertaking pilgrimage, and the process happened in the context of Java s timeless sacred geography. Bhinneka No. 5, August