How Rich My Country Is

Society was born from the developing of culture. Culture plays an important role in shaping the characteristics of a society. They have their own value that can be different from one society to others. Besides that they have their own uniqueness, like habit, traditional dance, song, music instrument, and sacred ceremony. All of that things become one in my country. So, here I can say that my country is rich of cultures. Maybe, if everyone knows how rich my country is, my beloved country will be full of visitors. I have studied about my country for about twelve years. Through time I know so many cultures in my country. I think I have known and mastered all cultures. When I realized; I surprised that what I have studied for about twelve years is just a little part of all cultures in my country. Can you imagine how rich is that? I live in my beloved country named Indonesia. Bhinneka Tunggal Ika is its slogan, which means that in different background, Indonesia still stands as a really country. In this paper, I’d like to show you the wealth of culture in my country by giving a lot of proof and examples.

Talking about Indonesia, which consist of 13.667 archipelagos that have been found and named and of course with their different cultures. As a big country, Indonesia has a big duty to keep its region so that there is no one who can break the unity. How can Indonesia become a unity although there are so many differences? The answer is only one that says "because Indonesia is ours and one spirit to make richer of Indonesia by having and keeping a lot of cultures". If we want to look more to Indonesia’s culture, we will be so proud. It is spread from Sabang in We Island until Merauke in Papua Island. There are many ethnic groups such as Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Batak, Balinese, Asmat, Dayak, Torajan, etc. Each ethnic group has their own way on living. For example, on the funeral ceremony, Torajan will be different from Bali. Torajan has a special way on the funeral ceremony by putting the human corpse under a high tree till it changes into bones. His or her family must sacrifice a buffalo in order to say thanks to God so that the soul of the human corpse can be received. They also make statues of their family members who have passed away in order to show a kind of respect. Torajan believe that the spirit of people who have died still stand and live in their home. Then, Bali will be different by its special funeral ceremony. Bali has Ngaben that is sacred and full of mystics. A person who has died must be burned, and then his or her family will keep the ash. Bali and Tana Toraja is the only two examples of so many traditions in Indonesia.

Most of people in Indonesia are Javanese who live mainly in Central and East Java, constituting 45 percents of Indonesia’s population. It has been widely known that there are a lot of social ethnics, which cannot be found in other places, that people consider as sophisticated. Some of them have been vanishing, but some others still be exist up to now. Javanese itself will be different each others especially on the way they speak. It is exactly still Javanese language, but they have different way on speaking. Each region has their own uniqueness. Many people say that a small city named Solo is the central of the cultures in Central Java. We may look at the history when Java was under the authority of The Mataram Palace. Then, it was divided into two palaces, which was located in Solo and Jogja. Solo became the central of culture while Jogja became a city that was busy by its administration case. From the history, we can see that Solo has a big influence on Javanese culture. From this small city, so many traditional dances like Gambyong, Srimpi, and Bedhaya were born. If we study just about cultures in Solo, we will be confused because of Solo’s wealth, both in the way of living and the things that Solonese have produced. We can compare and think again, Solo is a little part of Indonesia. Can you imagine once more? How rich is Indonesian’s culture and tradition?

I feel very happy living in Indonesia. It is really a beautiful and exotic country. Here, I would like to give you one example about a little part of Indonesian’s culture. Fortunately, I live in a beautiful city named Surakarta or people usually call it as Solo. It does not mean that I only elaborate more about my region and be chauvinism. My purpose is that to show how rich my country is. By talking about Solo, it means that Indonesia as a country is richer and richer.
Surakarta, which is known as Solo for its name, is a small city that is full of cultures and traditions. In this city, I study about how to be a good Solonese who is popular with their soft-spoken. Its language is very complex. It has different way on speaking between the elder and the person who has the same age or position. In speaking with the elder we have to use a polite language called as krama inggil. It will be different when we speak to a person in the same age, which is called as ngoko. For example, the word "eat" should be said dhahar when we speak to the elder or a person who has higher position in order to show a respect. But, speaking to friends who have same age, that is no problem to say mangan or we can say nedha for more polite. Although that is very difficult in using, I and other Solonese try to practice it. Using Javanese language well of course can be very complicated because of the sophisticated grammar; because if we have mistakes in the diction, the meaning can be very impolite sometimes. The usage of this language is still be exist in modern era. However, because of the modernization, which triggers the culture to disappear, whether it goes fast or slowly, modern Indonesian teenagers prefer Indonesian language in their daily life, although still with their own unique traditional accents. But we should remember that it is an ancient heritage that should be held out. We have to remember that we have our own feature as Indonesian, although it can be different each others.

Besides that Solo has its own attractive ceremony, which is held every year. These ceremonies are held by Surakarta Palace that is known as Keraton Surakarta Hadiningrat that has two kings right now. Most of these ceremonies are still full of mystics and sacred that can be seen from the rituals. Solonese or even Javanese still believe that there are strong powers though science and technology have been developed. At those time, I will be afraid because of its scary but I can see the wealthy of Surakarta’s culture as one part of my country, Indonesia. These annual ceremonies consist of Pasowanan Kirab Pusaka by its holy buffalo named Kebo Kyai Slamet, Grebeg Maulud by its party known as Pasar Sekaten, Pasowanan Tingalandalem Jumenengan by its sacred dance called as Bedhaya Ketawang, and many more. Every ceremony, especially on the ritual is always followed by the beautiful sound of "gamelan" (a set of Surakarta’s traditional instrument). According to the Solonese tradition the playing of music on such occasion placates the "danyang" or territorial spirit that inhabits the palace. Those kinds of ceremonies absolutely can attract so many tourists, both domestic and even overseas. By the way, it will open a new field on raising the money for the citizen, the Solo itself, and generally for Indonesia. It means that differences are a fortune and Indonesia really raises a lot of advantages because of its wealth.

Based on the history, Indonesia had been created a high-level culture that had been admitted by many countries in the world several centuries ago. It had been proven by the story, which was shared by some adventurer who came from other country, such as Fa-Hien, Marcopolo, and I-Tsing. They said that they had gone to an area that had a complex-culture. For example, Fa-Hien who had gone to Tarumanegara, which is located in West Java, told about his journey. On his book, he shared that in Tarumanegara, there was a structured-society with its king who really understood his citizens. Fa-Hien also said about the making of a canal named Bagasasi that showed how high the culture in Tarumanegara. Right now, it still leaves many ancient heritages, such as epigraphy, temples, etc which are valuable for Indonesia itself.

Indonesian’s culture contains of so many different cultures and traditions. But actually, if we want to look deeper we will find one or more similarities among regional cultures. Sundanese and Javanese are different ethnic groups, but there are some similarities in language and traditional instrument. For example, the word "you" will be said anje by Sundanese and panjenengan by Javanese. Both of those words have a similarity on the sound and the letter. Sundanese has an instrument called as gamelan, which uses dha-mi-na-ti-la as its tone. While Javanese also has its own gamelan which uses Slendro and Pelog as its rhythm. Basically, both of those two instruments are same, although there are also little differences. From that example, we know that some cultures in Indonesia come from the same root. Even with other neighbor countries we also have some similarities, like West part of Indonesia and Malaysia, which are almost the same both in language and in some certain rituals and traditions.

Culture is not a static thing. It will develop through time. So do cultures in Indonesia although some of it just has a little developing. It will follow the developing of the era. Many artists in Indonesia try to make Indonesian’s culture to be modern without leaving the value of traditional cultures. For example, the developing of batik in our country that grows rapidly. Batik is a beautiful material that can be made for cloth by its artistic motif. It still attentions on the traditional side and fortunately many people in Indonesia or even in other countries really like it. Many companies, such as Danar Hadi and Batik Keris can raise a lot of profit because of producing beautiful batik. Actually, batik is an ancient and traditional cloth, but it can be received as a formal cloth in the modern time right now. We as Indonesian should be proud because of that. We live in a country, which is full of complex cultures and traditions.

Once again I want to say that Indonesia is rich for everything related to the culture and tradition. Thousand traditional instruments, like gamelan, tifa, sasando, kulintang, and so on belong to Indonesia. Hundreds traditional songs and dances are created in Indonesia. Indonesian designs so many beautiful traditional cloths, such as kebaya, baju bodo, beskap, and kejawen well. Many artistic and wonderful buildings like Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple, Keraton, Monumen Nasional (Monas) are built by the Indonesian with their own ability and high spirit of art. Is it enough to prove the richness of Indonesian’s culture? It’s like a circle that will not be finished on elaborating.

The traditional cultures in whole Indonesia will involve the national culture and of course it is very valuable. They become a unity, which cannot be separated anymore. We have to remember and look back to the Sumpah Pemuda, which shared a spirit to make all differences become one in Indonesia. It said that all Indonesian have one nation, one country, and one language as a unity language known as Bahasa Indonesia. That is a must especially for the teenagers to keep this nation to be long lasting. Indonesia’s culture is different, but we are one. Whatever the shape and the feature that Indonesia has, Indonesian’s cultures still be one and strongly stand in Indonesia. Long life Indonesia!