Creativity is the Source of All Knowledge

Saturday, May 23

Got up at 3am to depart at 4 for a return visit to Borobudur at sunrise.  This time we entered via a hotel near the temple (a different approach than yesterday's).  Due to the early hour we walked to the temple in the darkness using flashlights.  By the time we'd climbed to the top of the temple the sky was just beginning to lighten.  There were quite a few tourists waiting patiently to photograph the sunrise.  No one spoke.  It was lovely to be able to enjoy the moment in quiet and calm.  We weren’t able to see the colors of the sunrise because of clouds and mist on the horizon, but what we did see was lovely.  I walked completely around the eighth level to photograph relief carvings and Buddha statues in niches and perched on the edge of the temple.  When the sun rose the temple was bathed in gorgeous golden light which was marvelous for photos.  We stayed until 6:30 am and then returned to the hotel.  Given the early hour, we encountered little traffic and got back in time to freshen up and have a leisurely breakfast.

We left again at 9am, this time for the village of Kota Gede to visit Brahma Tirta Sari (the name means “creativity is the source of all knowledge”), the studio and gallery of Nia and Agus Ismoyo.  They are well known batik artists who have had many gallery shows and who have worked on collaborative projects around the world with indigenous artists from Australia, the US and Africa.

The artists gave a talk about their artwork in their gallery space.  We were all moved by Ismoyo’s words as he read a prepared speech because he said that his English was so poor.  He spoke about the dying art of batik and how important it is for him to carry on this tradition because it symbolizes the history and tradition of the Javanese people.

We drove on through gorgeous green countryside full of rice paddies, coconut and banana trees.  This area was heavily damaged by the 2006 earthquake.  People live in extremely basic homes – some reminded me of houses in Burma with exterior walls made of woven palm rattan. 

Our next stop was the small village of Imogiri where we saw women painting designs for batik using wax (a process called “tulis”).  Many were painting completely freehand.  Our hostess arranged for us to have a fabulous lunch served in a traditional Indonesian structure.  We made a few more batik stops before returning to the hotel late.  After a quick clean-up we headed out for dinner and performance of traditional Javanese dance.