Nyobeng Traditional culture

Tags: nyobeng tradition bengkayang mengayau dayak bidayuh kalimantan traditional culture

  Nyobeng from various references is a ritual bathing or cleaning the human skull by the results mengayau ancestors. This was done by the Dayak Bidayuh tribe, one of the sub-tribe in Kampung Sebujit Dayak, Sub Siding, Bengkayang District, West Kalimantan.

BENGKAYANG

MENGAYAU is beheading people, and the skull preserved. Now, the tradition mengayau has not done anymore . The ceremony was quite touching, and lasted for three days. Starting on 15 to 17 June.

Its main activities namely, bathing the skull that are stored in custom homes. As a rule believed to be hereditary. Starting greet guests at the village boundaries. Initially, this was done to welcome members of the group who came from mengayau. Greeter, wearing a sash of red cloth decorated with beads of animal teeth. Comes with chopsticks and destroyed the gun sounded, when the invited guests would enter the village limits. Chopsticks also pointed simultaneously.

Blast from the gun apart, is also useful to call the ancestral spirits at once asked permission for the implementation of Nyobeng ritual. Then, traditional elders threw dog into the air. In saber, the chairman of the party guests have to cut them down. If still alive, should be cut with a saber once fell to the ground. Procession The same goes for chicken. Traditional elders to the group throwing eggs guest. If the egg is not broken, then the guests who came to be insincere. Conversely, if broken, means guests come with sincerity.

White and yellow rice was thrown while reciting mantras. The girls then serve wine from mixed mimic tree bark that has dried pakak. After drinking, the group was escorted to Guest Houses Balug, in the middle of the township.

Houses Balug is a traditional house in the form of houses on stilts and is round. To enter this house, made steps made from bar tree. Approximately 10 meters in width with a height of 15 meters from the ground.

When you sign in place of the ceremony, the group given a splash of water that has been given a spell with anjuang leaf, which serves as a starting reinforcements. The goal, for the guests to avoid disaster. When entering the ceremony, guests must tread gourd fruit placed in the basin is better known as the ritual pepasan.

Together with residents, guests then danced around the house dance Mamiamis while customary. Mamiamis, is a dance to welcome and honor the defenders of ancestral lands, newly arrived from mengayau. While indigenous Elders accompanied by singing songs and reading spells.

Traditional elders rose Houses Balug. Simlog was beaten and firecrackers sounded. The goal is to summon ancestral spirits and also as a sign of the commencement ceremony Nyobeng. Followed by dinner in the House Balug. with rice with fish, pork. Tolerance is too high. For Muslims, provided special diet rather than pork. After dining, guests may leave the area of custom homes.

The choices people can rest at home. At rest, the majority of men in the area through the forest to look for bamboo forests. Diameter of about tens of centimeters.

At the same time, every home makes offerings that dioles with the blood of chicken wings. It also sprinkled chicken blood to the parts of the house and yard are considered sacred.

After that the family and guests back to the traditional house. After the bamboo forest can be searched, the men carried him toward the custom house in a gang. By holding the saber bamboo surrounded as he marched.

Saber who brought a family heirloom. Decoration on the saber hilt made of bone or wood. The ornaments also as a symbol of meaning and specific achievements of the holder in mengayau saber. Proper preparation. Chairman custom cue to start activities. One step forward, opening the saber from the scabbard while slashing saber to a bamboo rod.

In one slash, broken bamboo. This success is a good sign, according to public confidence. After the show was cut bamboo. Ruh was summoned by the head of customs.

The goal is to deliver and apply for permission which has protected to start Nyobeng. Traditional elders later, climbed the stage house. Seven kinds of offerings will be placed on the village boundary. Then, the box located on the pinnacle of custom homes in which stored human skulls and a necklace of boar tusks, taken by the traditional elders and rubbed his hands with a special potion.

Then the topical application of the skull that is in the box. Next Katuas hinga a chicken head cut off. The head and drops of blood smeared on the skull of the chicken. The skull is inserted again in the box and stored. The event was followed by cutting the dog.

The blood that comes out in support poles is swabbed with custom homes, small houses, and statues of men and women who are in addition to the traditional house and sculpture. Houses and the statues are regarded as the origin of their ancestors. Cutting the dog is intended to reject the evil spirits. Some dog meat freshly cut and then brought onto the customs house.

Morning birds off the coast of Brazil

I love the mornings. Hours before anybody else I stand on deck and watch the world. Today a flock of birds accompanies us. I know they see me, but their interest goes after the fish our bow scares up. I don’t know what birds they are; they look like gannets but I recall that gannets don’t occur in South America.

We’re rounding the eastern most point of Brazil. The sun rose warm and the ocean is blue and smooth. The birds take turns diving down, then they glide along side us. I’m sure they’re looking at me, like I am looking at them. For one brittle moment we belong together. Then they go back to diving, and I return to work.

Morning birds off the coast of Brazil

A gannet, perhaps?

A bird flying over the ocean

Bird over water, seen from above

Bird over water

Two sea birds flying toward the sun

Tour Guides – take along for guiding

What do you usually take along with you while guiding? Tour guides need to get prepared when meeting your travel clients. One preparation is your take-along materials. There can be two categories of things to bring – the necessity and the value-adding.

The necessity refers to the basic things that help you complete a tour. Pick-up sign with client’s name, sightseeing tour itinerary for the day, guide license, water supply, mobile phone for communication, rain coats for the weather, etc. If you are showing a big group, microphone is needed to make sure all travelers can hear you. A flag may also be necessary to lead the group forward.

Depending on the different natures of guiding, tour guides can create your own list of necessary take-along. Mountain guides may need supporting equipments. Adventure trip requires medicine preparation. Take a torch if you will process in the dark.

The value-adding things assist tour guides to practice his work more vividly and successfully.

Some materials help to explain what you see. For example, a map of the area so that you can offer a geographic idea of the tour coverage. Pictures for vivid explanation of certain history or cultural backgrounds. As we are entering an information era, electronic products now allow tour guides bring more information than they can carry.

Carry something with your company logo. It can be your bag, hat, T-shirt… The sign helps your clients to recognize you during the tour. Moreover, it reminds your clients of your company in a subtle way. By doing this, you are also a walking advertisement while guiding. Small complimentary gift of the visited spots is also a good choice.

What other things do you carry when you guide the tour? Share with us.

Fortaleza, just north of the eastern-most point of Brazil

A small but beaming man stands on the dock arrested in a half-dance. “Welcome, welcome!” he shouts when the first lines are cast through the pelting rain. “Welcome to Fortaleza!. It rarely ever rains here!”

We Dutch are no strangers to rain but rain like what’s falling on this city of millions, notorious for its drought, is powerfully at odds with our sense of moderation or justice for that matter. It’s really denser than a shower, raising a deafening racket from the roofs and decks and the water around us. During our approach we saw the sun-bathed skyline of Fortaleza rise like a tsunami on the horizon, but as soon as we reached the breakwaters, the sky turned black and the city disappeared behind a sheet of frosted glass.

We’re in with a group. It’s always a bit strange to see other ships so close. At sea encounters are deadly and are avoided with zeal. In ports we carefully drift together, forgiving and needy, like clumsy nomadic creatures during mating season. Directly to our stern a Panamanian vessel is loading. Off the pier are tankers, rubbing like whales. Crews stare at each other, wondering if life is the same, better or worse on the other ships.

Landlubbers have no idea about life at sea. Even the passengers of the great white cruise ships can only guess. Sometimes an apprentice turns into a writer after a few months of sailing, but very rarely a true veteran - a true ancient mariner – remembers enough of land-life to be able to convey the slings and arrows of sea-life. We stand on the aft deck and look silently at the men standing on their own. Someone ought to go tell them, we think. Let them know where we are.

Approaching Fortaleza, Brazil

Ships in the harbour of Fortaleza

A ship in the harbour of Fortaleza

Fortaleza, Brazil

Tug boat in the harbour of Fortaleza

Out to sea again

Nightfall over Fortaleza

Fortaleza by night

Panameaian vessel loading

Spicy Porridge

Spicy porridge made from finely ground rice call oseng, then given flavor such as onion, garlic, black pepper, sere, bay leaves, do not forget the salt and sugar. finely ground flavor except sere, bay leaves, of course, then make it oseng as well as pounded rice . Then the spices put into boiling water which we fill with meat or bone tetelan cow, along with mashed rice.

After the rice and seasonings mixed into the beef broth, then we give a variety of

vegetables such as kale, leaf fern, the corn which has being pipil  , potato, turmeric leaf and leaf kesum (for leaf kesum may exist only in West Kalimantan) leaves this kesum make typical spicy-scented porridge but if too much is also felt uncomfortable spicy porridge has been cooked the porridge later. If the spicy ready to serve along with crackers, fried peanuts, sweet soy sauce, chili sauce and fried onions, and also  add lemon juice .

• tetel :residual meat attached to the bone (a mixture of meat, muscle, fat, etc.) that has been exfoliated from bones and cut into pieces
• pipil : remove corn kernels from the cob

Not Time To Celebrate Yet, Economic Experts Say

For a lot of Australian visa applicants, the country's economy is definitely one of the biggest reasons to move here. Indeed, the previous year saw the rapid growth of Australia's economy. And this has a lot of immigrants quite hopeful for 2011.

The start of 2010 was definitely the best one for Australia in the past few years. Coming from the wake of the world financial crisis, the country was slowly able to regain its footing. And by the middle of that year, Australia is well on its way to full recovery, much faster than other countries, such as the United States and Japan. Australia's quick recovery was considered as a good sign that it would be having a great economic year.

Indeed, Australia managed to pull off a big one last year. In fact, the Australian dollar has been showing a great deal of strength in the past few months, closing in at almost par with the US dollar in December. This, in turn, also contributed greatly in the rapid growth of the country's industries. The mining and information technology sectors are just to of the several fields that has experienced a significant boom last year.

The economic boom last year also brought a significant amount of growth in the jobs market. Since the middle part of last year, Australia has opened up a lot of opportunities for many foreign workers. Industries like the mining and engineering fields have actually double the amount of workers that they will be needing for this year. And some business groups are hopeful that this growth will continue well into this year.

However, economic experts cautioned the public from being too optimistic about Australia's current economic growth. They said there are still a lot of things that can affect the Australian economy. One of these that they have pointed out is the recent floods that hit the state of Queensland from December last year to early January. While analysts do agree that the disaster is unlikely to make a significant dent to the Australian economy, they argue that its effects would still be felt in the next few months.

Indeed, Australian stocks dropped a bit in the wake of the floods. Tourism in the country also suffered as many tourists opt to cancel out of their travel plans. This one is felt the most in Queensland, where tourism is considered to be one of the biggest industries. The cost of rebuilding after the disaster is also likely to take its toll on the governments finances.

Thus, economic experts urged the country to be well prepared for this in the next few months.

Image Source

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Crossing the Equator

It’s always a bit of an adventure, crossing the equator, and although I’ve crossed many times before, crossing the equator never ceases to instill a certain other-worldly feeling in me. Crossing the equator brings us as much to another world as is possible. We will spend the next few weeks in the southern hemisphere. It’s summer here. Ocean currents and thermal winds go the other way and we are aliens to whoever we meet.

The equator is exactly 1296000.000 (that’s six raised to the power of four followed by a bunch of zeroes) nautical miles long, which may seem a miracle in an Intelligent Design sort of way but is far from it, in any way. One sea mile is defined as one arch-second of the equator. Since the equator, like any other circle, covers precisely 360 degrees, and every degree consists of 60 minutes, and every minute consists of 60 seconds, the length of one mile equals the circumference of the earth at the equator, divided by 360 x 60 x 60. When the mile was standardized, the equator was thought to be 2400192000 meters long, resulting in a standard length of the sea mile of 1852 meters.

Pushing mile after mile behind us, we’re headed for Antarctica. It may be the last time I see that great continent. In an emailed newspaper we read that international shipping agencies have decided to no longer allow larger vessels access to this great wild continent. That’s probably better for all of us, I must confess, but I’m glad I’ve been one of the very few who’s seen it, and will again, once more.



Crossing the Equator



TRAVELLING TIPS

P
lanning a trip was very enjoyable, especially supported by adequate facilities. In fact, every trip can be an unforgettable life experience, There are a few tips you can use for the journey becomes more enjoyable if you want to tour through a travel agency (BPW):

1. Plan your trip carefully, it's worth making a reservation or booking four months in advance, before the day of departure. Plan a trip far more profitable for the previous day BPW usually give diskonyang quite interesting.
2. Be careful in choosing a travel agency and select a quality. Not all travel agents are able to provide the things needed by the customer, for that you must be smart to choose a highly credible.
3. Consider carefully the tour packages offered by travel agency (tour and travel agents). Do not fall asleep with the lure of cheap prices. It's good, you noticed kesuaian between price and facilities that would be obtained.
4. Note also the entire contents of the package tour that will be purchased. Is it in accordance hotels, planes, and the place has to offer.
5. In order for your trip can be more fun and you do not need to bother anymore thinking about events in destinations, consult your wishes because the travel agency is usually ready to assist the purposes of the A to Z.
6. Prior to travel, especially abroad, need to equip themselves with travel documents, travel guide books, clothing, adjusted for temperature or season, local state and of course enough pocket money.
7. Keep your body to keep fit. For example with a comfortable bed when I travel. If necessary use an eye patch and my ears so your sleep is not disturbed. If possible tidurkan seat as low as possible so you can sleep more comfortably.
   In addition to map alternate routes, especially provisions that should be prepared for travel back and forth Lebaran can safely and comfortably?
8. Net-efficient manner.
   If you want to save, prepare a cloth napkin or clean towel. In addition to dry towels, napkins ready damp (wet the cooking water, then wring it out), fold, store in plastic bags. Stay safe without smelling up to 12 hours of travel. Useful for hand washing. In emergency conditions, can be used to wash the face or bathing.
9. Of course, if you want to practice we must replace it with wet wipes and dry wipes. But consequently, we are contributing to the waste of environmental resources.
   Water should not Iupa.
   Cooking water or bottled water is a multipurpose stock. Its main purpose is as a drinking water, but in a state of daruratbisa really used truly an emergency can be used for multiple purposes outside the body, such as washing or washing raw foods. Select bottled water clear and colorless, contains no foreign material that hovered, the base of the inner bottle is not moldy. Most important, buy a brand that is well known, the lid sealed, and not sold in a direct sunlight.
10. Bringing Personal Medications currently on holiday
    When you are traveling far, or go travel of comfort and salvation itself must be maintained. One way is to bring medicines that are large is for you. Especially for those who do have a certain disease should get immediate treatment. The following tips should you do if you have a problem with health.
11. Enter your medications into a bag that goes with you everywhere. This avoids the loss of baggage in the middle of the journey.
    Bring medication in its original bottle or packaging complete with a letter of testimony for the purposes of the security service.
12. Travel documents you'll need at any time while traveling can be placed in a bag smaller than the suitcase or backpack. In addition to the documents, this bag should contain:

• Identification, can be a KTP (for domestic travel) or passport (for travel abroad)
• Wallet
• Driving Permit
• Insurance cards or letters used in the insurance
• Credit card
• Traveler checks
• Coupons you want to use
• Airline tickets, cruise travel tickets or train tickets. Place where you find it fast
• Any information required in the itinerary. Confirmation numbers and addresses and phone numbers where you will stay
• Travel brochures and maps
• Little money for tips

East bound on the Amazon

It takes us days to follow the Amazon river east out to the Atlantic ocean. And all the while the ship is enveloped in the thick smell of rain and jungle. We cut through showers so thick that we have to slow down blinded, then speed up again beneath towering cumuli, crying out in amazement that the Amazon has beaches like Greek islands.

Whenever we stop – to disembark a pilot, to wait for something that the captain knows about but the engineers can only guess at – canoes pull off the banks towards us. Four kids approach us slowly. Shouldn’t you be in school? we shout in English first, then Portuguese, but the kids stare at us silently. Two men come in from behind and try to climb on board through the bunker break. We ward them off. The kids stare and say nothing.

The coasts diverge and fall away but the yellow mud is still around us. Geographically we’re on the Atlantic again, but the water we drift in is still that of the river. Then the ship gets picked up by the swell that rolls in freely from the east. We head south towards the equator and the water turns to glass.

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Felipe Lettersten at the Palace of Justice in Manaus

Have we heard of Felipe Lettersten? asks the kind lady who guided us through the museum of the Church of Immaculate Conception in Manaus. Draga and I confess that we haven’t. Well, that’s an outrage then!

We follow her to the Palace of Justice, just down the street. The exposition is closed, explains a nervous young man at the entrance but the kind lady wags her head, unclips ropes and pushes us past the ticket counter. Shouldn’t we pay something, I try, but the lady urges us to keep moving.

Felipe Lettersten appears to be a sculptor of Scandinavian descent but raised in South America. A text explains that  he’s learned his skills in various places in the world – hyper-realism in the Netherlands, I proudly learn – and now uses it to depict South American natives in full sized sculptures.

His work is nothing short of amazing. The exposition covers several rooms and everywhere we’re met by the dreamy, other-worldly stares of real people that were alive just a minute ago, their movements arrested in their frozen times. It’s probably as close as an uninitiated observer can ever get to these people without turning them into tourist attractions. Draga and I stroll like invisible angels through an ancient village, feeling like we’re truly treading holy ground.

Find Felipe Lettersten on Facebook

 

Sculpture by Felipe Lettersten



Sculpture by Felipe Lettersten



Sculpture by Felipe Lettersten



Sculpture by Felipe Lettersten





Sculpture by Felipe Lettersten





Sculpture by Felipe Lettersten



Sculpture by Felipe Lettersten - close up

Sculpture by Felipe Lettersten

 

The Church of Immaculate Conception in Manaus, Brazil

It takes crossing a few noisy, filthy streets to reach the park around the Church of Immaculate Conception in Manaus, but any crossing is worth the effort. The church grounds are converted to a haven to stroll or sit or admire the ancient trees that tell of the jungle that once was here. In the middle of it rises the white and yellow sanctuary; low, horizontal, with two pivotal belfries over its main entrance.  At night, well-aimed lighting transforms the building into an almost elfish haunt, like something out of a story; baby blue, perhaps to recall Mary’s royal color, and an ochre in complimentary contrast.

We enter through its massive main doors and are immediately arrested by the dramatic altar piece, showing an enraptured Mary, probably ascending, amidst cherubim and standing on her signature lilies. The backdrop is heavenly blue and illuminated to ultimate effect.

Draga masters Portuguese and while I’m trying to figure out who the effeminate angelic figure in the pink robe might depict, she engages a kind lady who’s obviously involved in the church’s goings on. We should really check out the church’s museum, insists the lady, and we follow her to an adjacent chamber. She points at a kind of wooden throne.

“This is where the pope sat,” she whispers, pointing at the picture of John Paul II on the wall, and explains that the wall is a remnant of the original church that stood here. It burned down and the present white cathedral was build in its place in 1850. Some of the artifacts in the room are from the earlier period.

A striking Lady of Sorrows stands facing a rather unusual sculpture of the Deceased Christ, laying horizontal and covered in a death shroud. Against the back wall He falls under the weight of His cross. Priestly garments hang behind glass. In a cupboard against the opposite wall are manuscripts and antique Bibles.

As we walk out of the church I realize what great comfort I draw from finding any kind of church, or even any kind of fidelity to the great mystery of who we are. Whoever walks this planet baffling at the great differences that seems the divide us, will find ultimate kinship in religious expressions, but only when he remembers that these images reflect questions, never answers. 

Tree in the church yard, Manaus, Brazil

The Church of Immaculate Conception in Manaus, Brazil

Marian altar piece of the Church of Immaculate Conception in Manaus, Brazil

Pink angel shielding a child



Pink Angel - close up

St. Jospeh, I'm guessing

The chair that once held JPII



An unusual depiction of Christ; deceased and covered with a shroud

Our Lady of Sorrows



Our Lady of Sorrows - close up

The cool Tawangmangu waterfall

Tawangmangu, an area at the foot of Mount Lawu, about 30 kilometers east of Solo. An area of nature tourism is pretty much visited by tourists both locally and internationally, as well as a transit place for nature lovers who want to make the climb to the mountain Lawu.
What can we find in Tawangmangu?
Tawangmangu area is also famous as a tourist area with a waterfall attractions named Grojogan Sewu, which when translated means Seribu Waterfall. This area is also near a swimming pool with a tour called Balekambang. Tourists can surround the road that was there either while walking or riding a horse who rented there while enjoying the scenery or look at souvenirs are sold there.
One of the special attractions Grojogan Sewu, it was a refuge for tens or even hundreds of monkeys that still inhabit habitats around the waterfall. Apes are sometimes ignorant of this most happy if given food or drink by the visitors, but do not try nosy, these apes can turn into a super fierce.
The most famous food in Tawangmangu is rabbit satay. These foods can be enjoyed in restaurant or eating-house there is lots of street vendors around Grojogan Sewu.
One more famous than Tawangmangu is typical of mountains that cold air, though now no longer as cold as earlier times, and carrot harvest activities we can see and can direct us to eat at a place after being washed from the many springs found there.
One thing that might be a bit annoying when traveling in Tawangmangu we are in the market and a terminal that looks a little shabby and there are some places that famous as a place of adventure for a philanderer. But, in terms of the most common, Tawangmangu still can get listed in a tourist destination if you're traveling to Solo.

In areas that are still included in this Karanganyar regency, we cas also found some relics of the temple's history. One of the most famous is Sukuh Temple, a Hindu temple located just below the Tawangmangu. This temple is famous mainly because of a phallus-shaped sculptural reliefs and yoni which is a symbol of the male penis and female.