Social consciousness is inter-connected

I have been following the AWARE saga closely. I am referring to the women civil organization has been hijacked by a group of Christian Right who are conservation and out to push their anti-gay agenda in AWARE.

In fact, a lot of gay men are fired up by what's happening at AWARE as well, and jumping in to support AWARE.

While that is good, what I suspect is that many gay men aren't really concerned about the women issues. The reason they are galvanizing behind AWARE is because the Christian Right is the number one group in Singapore that is propagating hatred and intolerance against the gay people.

I think gay people should be rightly concern about this. In fact, it should not just be the gay people -- everyone in the civil societies should be concerned. As much as we respect that there are always going to be people with different religious views, we cannot accept any religious group hijacking a non-sectarian organization to impose their religious views onto the multi-racial/multi-religious society in Singapore.

However, after dust is settled, I wonder if these gay men who jumped on the AWARE wagon would continue to care what about the issues women face. The truth is, many gay men speak and act as if women do not exists or do not matter (sometimes, not even their lesbian sisters). This is partly why there exists a gap between the gay men and gay women community which needs to be bridged. This is an issue that is somewhat recognized within the community and I know there are both gay men and women sincerely trying to bridge the gap. But I think the community needs to have a greater self-consciousness about this.

In fact, the indifference and apathy is restricted to the women issues. I have seen many gay people mock or ridicule other civic movements or civil societies as well. I am not saying gay people are more so that way than the general population. But I think it's more a case of gay people need to be more sensitive to the civic movement because we have a greater stake in it.

You see, I do believe that social consciousness is inter-connected.

A person with an awakened social consciousness is more likely to socially active, with a genuine care about what's going on and to the people around him/her, and more likely to be empathetic towards others regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, class, or sexual identity.

I believe a person who cares about women issues, welfare of the foreign workers, disabled, animal cruelty, environmental issues, etc, are more like to be empathetic towards gay people.

Likewise, the really anti-gay people who are out to deprive any dignity and living space for the gay people are the same dogmatic people holding a moral high ground and trying to impose their views on other people, from issues ranging from anti-abortion and anti-gambling. (I recognise that there are many people who still can't accept homosexuality. But it's a different matter not accepting, versus going all out to demonise and propagate hatred and discrimiantion against the gay people.)

I am not an expert in this, but when I was living in USA, it was pointed out to me that the gay movement gained the most traction at the same time the feminist movement and the black movement was gaining traction as well. The biggest progress was made when these movements worked together.

At the end of the day, they are inter-related.

So I think gay people do need to be more supportive or concerned about the civic movement and various social issues. I am convinced that something like supporting a movement to promote kindness towards, say, a foreign worker, will come back as bringing more kindness and empathy for the gay people.

What I hope is that the AWARE saga will awake the social consciousness in many people and arouse a genuine concern of the issues affecting the society.

A blind massage

I am not particularly fond of massage.

The reasons:
1. I'm too cheapskate to pamper myself with a massage.
2. I didn't really like the idea of strangers feeling all over me.
3. What for?

But I did have a massage in Yogyakarta the day before flying back. I wasn't keen initially. However, later I decided that I could support a little social enterprise.

You see, the masseurs were blind people.

One of my friend were looking for a massage and there were actually a few spas around where we stayed. Then we saw a interesting tour offered by the Via Via Cafe. It was a tour to the local markets with explanation on how to make traditional jamu & face mask and ends with a massage by a few blind masseurs. (http://www.viaviacafe.com/) We weren't really keen on the jamu stuff. But my friend Sheung thought we could support the blind masseurs.

The staff at Via Via Cafe were kind enough to give us the directions to the massage house even though we did not sign up with them for the package. The girl explained that the massage was run by a old blind lady who taught the other blind people how to massage so that they can be independent and earn an honest living.

So after exploring the Kraton (the Sultan's palace), the bird market and Tamansari (the water palace), we started to look for the massage house.

When finally found the place, it was not quite what I expected. I mean, I am not expecting a nice spa. But it turned out to be just a village house. There were no signage. We had to asked around before someone guided us to the house. Facilities inside was basic. (There was only one toilet/shower room. Someone was showering. So we had to pee in the bushes behind the house)

There were four blind masseurs. They spoke minimal English, but enough for you to know if they want you to turn of sit up.

The rooms where small and a little stuffy. There was only a fan. I was perspiring at first but once I relaxed and settled enough, it was ok.

I don't know much about massage. So I can't comment much except that it was painful alright, but my tired and sore legs did feel good after it.

After my massage, while waiting for my friend, I explored the area around the house a little. There was church behind the house. A bit of farm land and a pond. A cow was grazing lazily in the evening cool. A man was prodding around the pond with a strange gadget. It went zap, zap. I thought he was stunning fishes with electric shocks. As we approached him, he showed us what he was catching: frogs.

In any case, I found it a nice side trip -- wandering into a village area of Yogya looking for the massage house. I did not initially wanted a massage. But I decided it was nice to support these blind people who are trying to make an honest living.

The price for the full body massage which was about 45 mins cost Rp35,000 per person. We added a little tip and gave Rp40,000. (It's only about SGD$6 only!).

I felt good not only because it was an interesting experience in itself, but also we also supported in a small way a social enterprise for some disadvantaged people.

It is something I learned from Sheung. When travelling, I do watch out for little things like this. If I could, I would support some of these local projects and enterprises that benefit the local people more directly, especially the the disadvantaged people.

Here's the directions to the massage house for those who might be interested. Be warned, this is no spa. There is no nice air conditioned rooms with candles burning and nice scent of essential oils in the air. Definitely not a place for tai tai's.

The massage house is called Pisat Ibu Wiji (it simply means Mother Wiji's massage). But that's immaterial because there are no signs pointing to it any way.

It's only a little south of the city walls. From Taman Sari (water castle), it's about 15 mins walk (provided you find your way out of the city walls. It can be frustrating walk around the alleys and not able to find your way out). It's in a side road called Jalan Pugeran Barat which runs parallel to the main road Jalan Bantul.

We exited from the West gate of the old city walls, walked south along the main road. Turn east into Haryono road at the busy junction between Haryono and Bantul. Keep to the south side of the road. About 200m to 300m from the junction, turn right into the road Jalan Pugeran Barat (there is road sign with its name). Walk down the lane until you reach the cemetry. Pisat Ibu Wiji is the house on the right.

Jalan Purgeran Barat is an interesting walk itself because turning into it, you will suddenly find yourself in a kampong within the city.

If you are coming from Prawirotaman (one of the backpackers area in Yogya, and Via Via is located there), just keep walking west from Prawirotaman I. From Prawirotaman, the street name changes to Tirtodipuran after you cross the N-S running Parangtritis road. The street name changed to Suryodiningratan after you cross Panjaitan. Watch out for the small Pugeran Barat street on your right as you approach Bantul street. Just follow the Pugeran Barat street until you get past the cemetry.

Have a good massage!

Buddhist Temples Ruins around Yogyakarta

I had not known that there were other interesting Buddhist ruins around Yogyakarta besides Borobudur temple.

It was only after I had booked the trip and began to do some research that I discovered that there were quite a number of other ancient Buddhist temples ruins around Yogyakarta.

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Candi Pawon

Pawon is a small temple about 1 km away from Borobudur. There is nothing particularly interesting about it. But it's a worth a short visit on the way to Mendut temple.

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Candi Mendut

The Mendut temple is quite a large temple. It supposedly has the largest Buddha statue in the whole of Indonesia. What I like about Mendut temple is the very elegant and beautiful statues in the shrine hall. The 3 statues in the shrine hall are very well preserved. The Sakyamuni statue is the center. The other is Avalokiteshvara (Guan Yin). As for the third statue, it seems that there are some arguments over whether it is Vajrapani or Maitreya. What I found unusual was that the statue of the Buddha had what appeared to abdominal muscles and genital bulge. While not unheard of, it is entirely quite rare to see statues depicted with musculature or genital bulge. (Over at museum in Danang Vietnam, I saw a Hindu statue with abs muscles. It was pointed out that it is quite rare to find that.)

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Candi Sewu


Candi Sewu is within the Prambanan complex. It is north of the Prambanan temples.

It seems that most visitors visiting Prambanan temple missed the Sewu temple. While Prambanan was very crowded, Sewu was quite deserted.

Sewu is not a single structure. Rather, it is a temple complex. It's a big temple surrounded by many small shrines. However, most of the shrines are in ruins. I think it would have been very impressive if the shrines are intact.

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Candi Plaosan



The Plaoson Temples are also known as the twin temples because there are 2 almost identical temple next to each other. It is about 3km away from the Prambanan temples. However, most people do not know about it. Most tour itinerary to Prambanan do not include Candi Plaosan.

I could only enter the south temple as the north temple was barricaded. There are 3 shrine halls in the temple. The statues in the temple are beautiful as well. Unfortunately, they are not as well preserved as those at Mendut temple.



What I really like about Plaoson temple are the lotus motifs found on the temple walls. On the temple walls, there are many reliefs of devas holding lotus flowers. The lotus flower motifs are varied and beautiful. Some are in bud form. Some open like a sun flower. Some are like the usual lotus seat. Some are in half bloosom.

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Candi Kalasan



The Kalasan temple is dedicated to Tara, hence it is also known as Candi Tara. (Apparently Candi Kalasan is a misnomer. When the temple was discovered, people thought it was the Kalasan temple found in some record. It was only later that people realize this was a different temple from the Kalasan temple in the records.)

It is a relatively big temple but quite badly damaged. Most of the wall reliefs are gone except for the southern face. Some reliefs of Tara can still be found.

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There were a few more temples ruins which I did not visit, such as Candi Sari.

The website Yogyes has quite a comprehensive list of the ruins around Yogyakarta. http://www.yogyes.com/

Most tours going to Prambanan do not go to these other temples. So you do need to book your own vehicle. And since most tours do not go to these temples, you do pretty much have the place to yourself.

I do recommend booking your own vehicle. Candi Kalasan, Sari, Parambanan, Sewu, Plaoson are all along the Yogya - Solo road. The rate of a car booking was about Rp 400,000 (Apr 2009).
If you are alone, I would recommend booking a tour with Via Via Cafe (http://www.viaviacafe.com) on a motorcycle. It's about Rp100,000 per person.

It's well worth the money if you have an keen interest in the Buddhist ruins.

A little adventure outside Borobodur

I first spotted what looked like a temple from the terraces of the Borobudur temple. Then while we were heading out to visit the Mendut temple, I saw that it was just across the padi fields from the Manohara hotel. We decided to go and check it out. Rather than following the paved roads, we decided to cut through the padi fields.

It was an interesting walk through the padi fields. The scent of fresh manure was in the air. Grasshoppers scattered ahead as we walked through. Dragon flies danced around us. Ducks waded across the fields. The farmers greeted us with amusement.


The structure of curiosity turned out to be a Tibetan Buddhist temple, called the Padmasambava temple. The main hall was spacious with bare adornment. I asked the care taker if there were Buddhists in the village of Borobudur. I was told that there were none. There were no monks or lamas either. The rinpoche would come once in a while and the temple is used mainly during Vesak.

The caretaker lead us up to the roof top of the temple to show us the "sleeping Buddha". That turned out to be a outline of the distant hills that looked looked like the profile of a face.
	The roof top has a nice view of the surroundings and we could see the Borobudur temple as well.

It was definitely an interesting side-trip.

Borobudur 10-11 April 2009

Borobudur is the biggest Buddhist monument in the world and I had always wanted to visited it. Finally, I organized a trip over the Easter weekend. It was a pilgrimage for me. Most people visited Borobudur as day trip from Yogyakarta. However, I wanted to spend time at Borobudur. So I stayed at the Manohara hotel which is within the park compound. I found a very good deal on http://www.travelindo.com and paid about SGD$60 for 2 nights (after splitting among 5 people for 2 rooms). The price is inclusive of the entrance fees (which is about USD$11 per entry) and breakfast. It was a fantastic deal. On the first day, my friend Sheung and I spent the afternoon looking at the panels on the lower terraces of the monument. It took us quite a while to identify the panels of scenes from the life of the Buddha. That was the only series which I could make much meaning out of. It was cloudy in the evening and we could not see much of sunset. The monument close at 5pm which was before the sunset. Later, I found out that we could stay till 6pm if we pay Rp150,000. But it would not have worth the money. I must admit that I was actually pretty distressed after my first day at Borobudur. What happened was that Borobudur actually sees far more domestic tourists than foreign tourists. It is no longer a living temple. The authorities disallowed religious ceremonies on the temple and even Vesak celebrations have moved to the Mendut temple 3 km away. Borobudur was very popular with the local Indonesians. It was like park for a weekend fun. Families, couples, groups of school students visited the park. They have picnic in the park. They climbed all over the stupas to take photos, ignoring the signs that say "do not climb". The loud speakers constantly blast out messages telling people not to climb on the stupas. Loud laughter and chatter destroyed any peace that could be found on the temple. It was like an amusement park. I could not find the solemnity and religious feeling at the temple at all. I was distressed to the point that I could not do any homage. I watched on as a group of Thai pilgrims circumambulated the main stupa amid the chaotic noise in a hasty pace. That was the only group who gave any indication that this was a monument with religious significance. I could understand that the Indonesians, being Muslims, would not see Borobudur with the religious significance a Buddhist would. However, I found it disturbing that they are not respecting it as a historical heritage either -- it seemed that they do not care if they would be breaking the monument at all as they climb all over it. That evening, I was a lost pilgrim. The Borobudur park opens from 6am in the morning. However, the sun would have risen by then. But the Manohara Hotel has an Sunrise Package which allows you to go up the monument at 4:30am to watch sunrise. Hotel guest pay Rp150,000 (about SGD$20) while non-guest pay Rp300,000 (which is another reason to stay at the Manohara Hotel). Early morning on the monument was different. There was quite a number of people -- but not as bad as the crowd in the day. Perhaps it was because of the morning quiet, people spoke in hushed tones. Most of them just sat and waited for the sun to rise. I had thought through the night and finally found my peace. I realized that faith and piety is within me. It should not matter what other people was doing at the temple. The temple should be within the mind -- the physical structure is just as structure and in spite of its historical value and significance, would still one day succumb to decay. As I headed up the stairs, I decided that regardless what other people were doing, I would do my pilgrimage. When I got up to the upper terraces, I did my usual morning puja (Veneration to the Buddha, Taking Three Refuges and Five Precepts) and started to circumambulate. I did 3 rounds at each terraces. When I was done, the sky was brightening with the first lights. The eastern sky was glowing red. The distant volcanic Mount Merapi could be seen against the red sky. It was a beautiful sunrise. I took a few pictures. But I decided that instead of snapping pictures away, I should really just appreciate the beauty of the sunrise. I found a corner and sat down. At one point, I closed my eyes briefly, starting to meditate. But when I opened my eyes just a few seconds later, the red glow was gone, replaced by grey blue hues. It disappeared so completely and suddenly that I was struck by a strong sense of anicca I never experienced before. Then I settled into a peaceful meditation. Later, as the crowd started to arrive at the temple, the carnival atmosphere and noise was back again. But I had found my peace. I had done my pilgrimage. I decided that even if the Indonesians friends had not given the respect to the monument that I had expected, at least they are not destroying it. They were genuinely enjoying themselves on the temple. Their interaction with the temple could perhaps later be the connection for them to have more understanding and familiarity with Buddhism. I was back at the temple several more times, wandering among the terraces and stupas before heading back to Yogyakarta after staying 2 nights there. For Buddhists who really wanted to experience Borobudur, do not do it as a day trip. Stay at the Manohara Hotel and spend time to experience the monument. It's worth it.