Maya, Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Rebecca Henschke, Marco Werman, The World (PRI)
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| Sacred practices enhance intimacy (in-to-me-see), union with partner (Tantric Yoga). |
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| Next let's visit sexy Gunung Kemukus? Asian Muslim tourists at Borobudur (TrevThompson) |
"Eat, pray, love" the American Elizabeth Gilbert famously advised.
She had just come back to the U.S. from Hedonistic-Catholic Italy and Hindu-Buddhist India and Bali (Indonesia).
But Islam now dominates the massive island nation. Its remaining traditionally Theravadan Buddhists will gladly tell anyone about it from Southern California (visit: Facebook, DhammaCakraTra.org).
In Indonesia, people seek "salvation" at shrine to anonymous sex
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| Housewife Fitri has come up to the mountain for a good Friday night
out. She hooked up with Ishlam, who is here to improve the fortunes
of his small business (Rebecca Henschke). |
(PRI) Every 35 days, Muslims from across Indonesia flock to a hilltop Islamic shrine in central Java. They come to find blessings and good fortune -- through a ritual that involves adulterous sex.
When they arrive at the shrine, known as ["the ritual of the hill"] Gunung Kemukus, they offer prayers and flowers at a sacred grave. Then, they find a stranger for anonymous sex.
- Question: Didn't this "sacred [sex work]" happen in ancient Greece? In Corinth, Delphi, in Athens and even Sparta, with The Oracle (the living Goddess Pythia, like the virgin Kumari of Nepal) and the temple priestesses, who were the Greek-version of Geishas called Hetairai? The Old World knew how to live better than our Puritanical shame and guilt about sex allows us to live now in a world saturated with porn.
When I arrive there, darkness is
starting to shroud the hillside. By candlelight, people are sitting on
mats around sacred dewadaru trees.
- [These are not the American deodara/Asian devadaru trees, both of which are favored haunts of woodland fairies or dryads called devas in Buddhism and Hinduism, a Sanskrit word (cognate Latin deus, dīvus, Spanish dios, French dieu, Proto-Indo-European deiwos), a term at the root of our English diva, deity, and divinity].
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| Siddhartha and deva-like maras under Bo tree |
And they are sitting amidst the twisting roots of
massive fig trees [like the Buddha sat under a sacred fig, Ficus religiosa or peepal, that became the Bodhi tree]. There are lots of women standing by themselves and
lots of men in groups.
Pak Slamat is one of the men. He is balding, has a moustache, wears a
leather jacket and glasses, and is reading from
the Koran [Muslim Bible]. He's
married, but hasn't told his wife he is here because she wouldn't let
him
come. [
Ehem.] She thinks he has gone somewhere to pray [but he's really here to eat and love or just love].
"In all the rooms around here
there are couples," he says. "They are small-business people, and, if you
ask them, they say it works -- that before business was slow and now
it's good. This is the work of Allah, through our traditional ways. I am keen to do the ritual; it's just a matter of finding someone who wants the same thing."
AUDIO (The World)
History of infidelity
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Pilgrims on stairway to "heaven" (Ali Lutfi)
|
Like tens of thousands of others,
Slamat has come to be blessed in a ritual that dates back hundreds of
years.
The ritual's origin is a legend about a young royal, Prince Pangeran Samodro, who was raised in the court of Demak, a Muslim sultanate on Java’s north coast. He fell
in love with his stepmother, Nyai Ontrowulan. The two ran off to Gunung
Kemukus [this hill, with stairs leading to the shrine], where they were discovered by soldiers from Demak and slain.
Their bodies are supposedly in a grave at the shrine.
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| Ancient romance on walls |
According to some versions of the story, the couple didn't finish
having sex before they were discovered, so the ritual sex completes
their union.
In another version, the ritual helps minimize the shame of
their act by offering a more shameful act to [to compare it with? After all, no one brings a stepparent, taking instead an anonymous partner]. Regardless, many believe that
coming to Gunung Kemukus provides a blessing that can boost one's
fortune -- an incentive that seems to have special appeal for needy
workers, like bus drivers, farmers, or small-market traders.
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| I'd do it, I'd totally do it! How much? lol |
Ibu Winda is a grandmother in her
early 60s and is dressed in a gold jacket with flowers, a short
mini-skirt, and leather jacket. For makeup, she wears bright red lipstick
and has powdered her face.
She runs a small food stall in her hometown and has been coming here for ten years. "Ever since I have come here, business has been good and life has been easier," she says. "Praise be to Allah."
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| I love both of you; that's why it tears me apart! Borobudur (TrevThompson/flickr.com) |
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| Lois, my leather jacket is too tight (Family Guy) |
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| Sexy figurines of Borobudur |
This ritual [is Islam but] isn't Islam as most
would recognize it. It is a mix of Islam with earlier Hindu, Buddhist,
and traditional [animistic] beliefs -- something that is typical in Indonesia, and
especially Java.
"Indonesia is amazing because
whatever religion comes into Indonesia, it changes its color," says
Kunijoro Soeparno, a professor of sociology who’s been researching these
traditions for decades.
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| Into me see, see into me. Now it's your turn. |
"The Islam is not just Islam like
it is in Arab countries. Hinduism is different here to what it is in
India. Buddhism is different from China. The Catholic Church is
different from in Rome," he says. [It's just like Gilbert said -- Rome, India, Buddhist Asia -- all of the ingredients to eat, pray (ecstatically meditate), and love!] More
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| The most amazing thing about jungle Borobudur is not its massive size or pyramids, but its many "Time Travel Bells" (stupas, Die Glocke) with Buddhas inside at dawn (TrevThompson). |
Buddhism in Indonesia
CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (Wikipedia edit)
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| Buddhist monastics on path under a sacred Bodhi tree, Sewu Temple, Indonesia (TJP) |
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| Buddhist Borobudur, Indonesia (TrevThompson) |
Hinduism and [Hindu-saturated] Mahayana Buddhism arrived in Indonesia from India [where Indo, or Indra (
Sakra) was a prominent Buddhist deity, one important to the
Sailendra] in the 4th and
5th century, as trade with India intensified under the south Indian
Pallava dynasty [
Guide to the Temples of Java (Indonesia), Approach Guides, David Raezer and Jennifer Raezer].
From the 7th century, the powerful
Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished as a result of trade and the influences of Hinduism and Buddhism that were imported with it (
Indonesia: Peoples and History, Jean Gelman Taylor, 2003, Yale University Press; M.C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1300, 2nd Ed., 1991, MacMillan).
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| From earthquakey Aceh in the west to Papau (not New Guinea) in the east (wiki) |
Between the 8th and 10th centuries, the agricultural Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu
Mataram dynasties thrived and declined in inland Java, leaving grand religious monuments such as Sailendra's
Borobudur and Mataram's
Prambanan. The Hindu
Majapahit kingdom was founded in eastern Java in the late 13th century, and under Gajah Mada, its influence stretched over much of Indonesia [
Peter Lewis, "The Next Great Empire," Futures 14 (1): 47–61, 1982].
Although Muslim traders first traveled through Southeast Asia early in the Islamic era, the
earliest evidence of Islamized populations in Indonesia dates to the 13th century in northern
Sumatra (
Ricklefs, 1991, pp. 3-14). Other Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam, and it was the dominant
religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century...
More
Bagan’s kings commissioned more than 4,000 Buddhist shrines and temples. On a visit to Shwesandaw Pagoda, a Buddhist temple complex that contains a series of five terraces, topped by a cylindrical reliquary (stupa), which has a jewel-studded umbrella. The pagoda was built by King Anawrahta in 1057.
It’s located roughly midway between Thatbyinnyu and Dhammayangyi temples. The temple allows a view of the 4,000 shrines and temples scattered across the sacred plain. The Dhammayangyi in the center is a very large square, a single-story pyramidal temple with six monumental ascending exterior terraces.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Pres. Obama sent an unmistakable message to Americans ahead of his historic trip to Havana: "Cuba is open for business." Punching fresh holes in the generations-old U.S. embargo, Obama's administration removed the last meaningful restrictions on travel, putting a Cuba vacation within reach for millions of Americans over the coming years. The sweeping changes also clear a path for Cuban athletes to one day play Major League Baseball and other professional sports.
