Seren taun Festival, the community gratitude expression to God

Paddy towards granary

SerenTaun is an annual festival held by Sundanese community in Kampung Sindang Barang, Bogor District, West Java Province, Indonesia. It was held in 15th January 2012. The meaning of Seren Taun is the community gratitude expression to God for what they have been receiving for their livelihood from paddy, agriculture, and their enterprise. The original meaning of Seren Taun was to put harvested paddies to paddy granaries. However, in the mean time, not only paddy to be brought to the festival and it was added by cultural exhibition and performances.

It was interesting. I met Lisbet on the venue. She is from Denmark and she was awarded – Batik Scarf with Special Sindang Barang design from the community elderly due to community appreciation onto her valuable contribution to provide continous support to Kampung Sindang Barang Community and also to promote the Sundanese culture especially within her community. She said that she loves Indonesia especially Sundanese culture and did want to stop her effort to support the Kampung Sindang Barang Community. She founded the Indonesia Heritage Society in Denmark and she spoke Bahasa Indonesia (almost) fluently. Bravo Lis.

Below are photos that you can enjoy with:

Music from paddy mortar to start the venue

Paddy on the way to the venue

in Alun-alun (village quad)

Dancing while bringing paddy to make a sound from bamboo-yoke

the more the merrier

dongdang padi (Father and Mother paddy bier)

The first paddy to be inserted to paddy granary

Paddy Granary

water from 7 different springs

Traditional music

Incense for refreshing the venue

Dongdang (harvest-yoke)1

Harvest-yoke2

Harvest-yoke3

Harvest-yoke4

Struggle to obtain harvest from dongdang

Jaipong dance

Jaipong dancer

Parebut seeng (traditional vessel for steaming rice-fighting)

Dragon dance (originally from Chinese culture)

Gondang (song and dance drama)

Community enthusiasm1

Enjoy watching the festival

Empty dongdang after being shared by community

Lisbet (right) after receiving community appreciation

Colouring your life

My son and his creation1

Reflect to my son’s hobby at the current time, colouring drawing books, it showed me that people need to colour their life to by themselves. Not waiting to other’s help nor blaming others. I believe with the wise word that I have ever read: ‘destiny is what you make of it’. It is not in opposition to the ‘hand’ of the Great Creator. It is parallel.

The point was on how you coloured your life, not the result.

Like my son, he was happy with what he was doing, did not care whether it was beatuful or not (according to others).

Thanks for you my son to reminding me.

What do you think?

My son and his creation2

the creation

Situ Gede – a small lake in Bogor

Located in Bogor Barat sub district, Situ Gede (Situ means a small lake and Gede means big in Sunda language) was well known as well as Hutan Dramaga (Dramaga forest/research forest – government forest, manage by FORDA, Indonesian Ministry of Forestry Indonesia). I and family had a chance to visit Situ Gede in December 2011. It is a nice place to visit, especially in holiday season. However,  despite the famous, the beauty and the favorite place for visit, I found some minus points such as: less information to reach the destination, less information on the location (i.e. information to explain what Situ Gede is, the history of Situ Gede, the size of the lake, tree species surround the lake, etc), less garbage bin and the presence of small warungs (parlours) for visitors inside forest – make it a bit ‘dirty’.

Below some photos of Situ Gede

Situ Gede1

Situ Gede2

Situ Gede3 (research forest on left side)

Situ Gede4

Catamaran on the lake

My Mom and my Son on the Duck boat

My son on the way to the lake

Big trees on the forest pathway1

Big trees in the forest pathway2

Big trees in the forest pathway3

Trees in a nice look

Nice for fishing too

Warung in the forest

Hello world!

Welcome to matabugi.wordpress.com.  Enjoy my posts, enjoy the beauty of God creation.

Cheers,

Bugi