Latest news with #Javanese
Daily Maverick
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Maverick
The Fugue of Tjebolang: We're here, we're queer, we're eco-erotic and we're fabulous
It's been described as 'a mystical journey exploring Sufi culture' and as a 'sacred tale' about young 'gender fluid people' journeying 'into themselves and the world'. Its creator and director, Rehane Abrahams, says The Fugue of Tjebolang is also full of sex — and possesses the potential to heal. 'I'm very much done excavating my pain for audiences,' says actor and theatre-maker Rehane Abrahams. Despite an extensive three-decade theatre career, Abrahams is perhaps best known for playing the villain, Wendy Newman, in the popular Showmax telenovela, Arendsvlei. Earlier this year she won a Fleur du Cap for her dual role as Mercutio and Lady Montague in last year's Maynardville production of Romeo and Juliet. Her extensive career as a creator of new work has tended to focus on theatre that is ritualistic and decolonial in nature; there is inevitably an element of transformation, a desire to shift and heal. She does not make work purely for the sake of entertainment. Abrahams says she's intentionally searching for other ways of telling stories, creating theatre that lands differently. 'I want to find a way of infusing more life and more joy into the experience,' she says. There are even more curious clues as to her interests in her Instagram bio, where she describes herself as a 'Somatic Decoloniser, Eco-Erotic liberator, Performance-Maker'. While it's no simple thing to pin her down, what's clear from talking to her is that, when she makes work, she puts her heart and soul on the line. And she wants to create work that nourishes the audience, that adds to their experience of life rather than subtracting from it. This objective has led to her latest stage creation, The Fugue of Tjebolang, which is premiering at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda on 26 June 2025. It will also travel to Stellenbosch for Woordfees later this year. It's a new play that's been centuries in the making. Conceived as an immersive, multivalent experience, it's the theatricalisation of 'Cebolang Minggat' (the Exile of Cebolang), a tale excerpted from the Serat Centhini, the great encyclopaedic Javanese literary epic written in the form of suluk, verses intended for chanting. Abrahams calls the story a 'queer Islamic epic that is erotic'; she has incorporated dance, music and visual projections to create something she hopes will jolt audiences — 'bring them to their senses' — and help liberate and heal. Serat Centhini Completed in written form in 1815, the Serat Centhini comprises 12 volumes, 4,200 pages, 722 verses, and more than 200,000 stanzas. It includes expressions, verses and allusions in Sanskrit, Arabic and the ancient Javanese language, Kawi. It forms part of the Javanese babads, an encyclopaedic literary genre dealing with historic events and covering everything from art, religion and mysticism to erotic knowledge. While it describes virtues that originate in Islam, it portrays Javanese people as sexually open and recognises eroticism as part of life, rather than as taboo. Some contemporary scholars find its explicit references to and descriptions of sexual intercourse pornographic and some of the language vulgar. Reportedly, the 'pornographic' parts were written by Pakubuwono V, crown prince and then king of Surakarta, who is said to have conducted such extensive research that he died of acute syphilis after only three years on the throne. The manuscript was kept locked away in the palace and in the state's archive for almost two centuries for fear of stirring public controversy, but Serat Centhini is now in the public domain, and was popularised by the French poet-cum-journalist Elizabeth D Inandiak, after she found Sunaryati Sutanto's French translation of the work and published it as a 466-page book in 2002. Abrahams, who lived in Bali for six years, discovered the tale of Cebolang/Tjebolang by accident. 'I walked into a theatre in Central Java and the room was dripping with sex — the audience was so turned on,' she says. 'I was like, 'Oh my god, what is happening?' On the stage was a small, grey-haired French woman, reading.' Alongside the narrator Slamet Gundono, a very large, very famous and quite avant-garde dalang, or shadow puppeteer, was performing. I was like, how in the hell is everybody so sexed up? 'I was like, how in the hell is everybody so sexed up? It was the story of Tjebolang and all of the sex in the room was the result of the words. The audience was so turned on by what they were hearing that they were almost melting from the heat of it.' Her initial encounter with the story made a huge impression, but when Abrahams read it the tale simply seemed too vast, and also 'way too ridiculous' to take on as a performance. And so it sat around for many years. 'I always felt like I had to do it,' she says, 'but I didn't know when I'd be ready — or when the world would be ready for it.' Abrahams recently completed her PhD, the focus of which was 'eco-erotic decolonisation', and in the wake of all that research she says felt ready to tackle Tjebolang. Adapting the script from Inandiak's translation, she says she pared down the original, edited out some of the 'inordinate amount' of sex. 'There is a lot of it,' she says. 'I salute him for it, but the crown prince really did a lot of research.' The Fugue of Tjebolang is set to be at once hallucinatory and erotically charged, albeit with a strong spiritual core. Abrahams says it's been the kind of project that has enabled her to rediscover the 'older magic' of her childhood, when her fascination with storytelling included writing and performing puppet shows and plays for her classmates. 'There's always been like a kind of magical thread in my storytelling,' she says. That magic pervades both the type of story Tjebolang tells and the manner of its telling. 'There is a plot,' Abrahams says. 'It's a really simple story about a young person who feels betrayed by his family and so goes on a kind of fool's journey, a quest for knowledge. Eventually, he returns to his family, and to their love. So it's like the prodigal child on a fool's quest.' That journey has elsewhere been described as a 'carnal adventure' during which the 'seductive Tjebolang' (played by the artist/activist Cheshire V) encounters an array of characters — among them prostitutes, hermits, Sufi scholars and medicine men. Narrative linearity Despite the narrative linearity,'the actors create worlds upon worlds upon worlds', Abrahams says. 'There are lapses of reason, too, so the characters do in a sense penetrate a liminal space.' The show includes choreography by Ina Wichterich, with classical Javanese dance elements. And it features not only large visual projections on three sides, but an immersive soundscape by Julia Theron and Denise Onen, whose 'epic score' does 'magical things'. Audiences will be served red ginger tea upon arrival at the show, literal nourishment before their souls are fed a different sort of balm. Abrahams says that part of the philosophical substrate of the text concerns our relationship with nature. 'There's a beautiful section in the play where one of the characters says that before you write even a single verse, you have to prostrate yourself to the forest, because in order to write trees have to be cut down. So, you have to prostrate yourself before the goddess of beauty and ask her to inhabit your poetry because you've taken from the forest in order to write.' Abrahams calls this 'eco-erotic relationality' — a way of expressing our interconnectedness with the natural realm. She describes 'eco-eroticism' as an emergent way of thinking about the world in terms of the erotic relationship of storytelling with the natural world. It's an understanding of life as a kind of erotic force that permeates the entire universe. What it boils down to is a kind of intimacy with nature, a kinship so profound that it would be impossible to consider exploiting the natural world because of an implicit respect for it. That might seem like a lot to absorb, but Abrahams says she's aware that some elements of the play will only make sense in a space of reintegration. 'As with a dream, some of the things might only land later,' she says. Besides, as you'd expect from a play about a carnal adventure, much of it is quite down to earth. 'There are moments of deep philosophical contemplation and meditation, but what is also delightful about the text is that it completely undercuts that earnestness with fart and poop jokes and ridiculousness, elements to keep reminding us that we are sacred in all our humanity. That we should not become too lost in our own mysticism and self-importance and the grandiosity of our big ideas.' It is not at all lost on Abrahams nor on her creative team that the show is being created at a pivotal moment in history, amid a global conservative uprising and mainstream attacks on queer and trans identity. She says she wants this show to help heal, help liberate, provide a balm in a time of struggle. Tragic moment 'We are in a tragic moment,' Abrahams says. 'But our response is to say, 'Look at us! We've always been queer. We've always been erotic. How many genders do mushrooms have? How many fungal genders are there? Nature is queer, it's alive, it's fucky… So please can we all just come to our senses.' Abrahams emphasises that it would not have been possible to create work of this nature at such a level without the support of the Festival Enterprise Catalyst, which has helped fund it so that it can be shown in Makhanda and Stellenbosch. 'It's been a real boon for our production because we wouldn't have been able to produce this scale of work with this many artists involved without the Festival Enterprise Catalyst lending support to our particular creative vision. Without them, we'd not have been able to create the texture that is expressive of where we feel we're at right now.' And what is the 'texture' that audiences can expect to experience? 'I want the audience to be thoroughly fed and deeply nourished. But our hope is for audiences to go on a journey with us, and discover that it is their journey too.' It is, she says, a journey of healing. DM
Time Out
23-06-2025
- Time Out
It's official: these are the world's most beautiful restaurants right now
Sure, if you're gonna splash some cash on a bougie meal, the food is going to be the focal point. But when restaurants take just as much pride in their décor and furnishings as they do in their ingredients and plating, it's the real cherry on top. Handily, Prix Versailles, a prestigious architecture award, has just unveiled its annual list of the world's most beautiful restaurants, which the secretary general Jérôme Gouadain says 'serves as a tribute to the architecture and overall experience,' according to Forbes. So, where was included in the shiny new list? One of them is a place called Shell, in Nusa Penida, Indonesia, which sits on a clifftop overlooking Diamond Beach. Bamboo structures help support a huge shell-shaped roof which covers the restaurant, and reclaimed wood from old Javanese houses (known as joglos) has been used to make furniture. Smoked Room in Dubai was also included, which is a Michelin-star space with a sophisticated, moody aura. Black bricks have been used alongside mirrors and brass mesh, and its intimate semi-circular layout allows only 14 people at a time to enjoy the restaurant's Omakase experience. In Europe, Bouchon Carême, a restaurant in central Helsinki offering a Finnish take on Lyonnaise bouchon, was included. As was Lobster Club, a sleek, contemporary space in southwest Majorca with a stunning panoramic terrace and lots of wood in a nod to a traditional beach house vibe. These are the world's most beautiful museums, according to Prix Versailles Gerbou, Dubai, UAE Smoked Room, Dubai, UAE Blackswan, Beijing, China Ōrtensia, Shanghai, China Lobster Club, Palma de Majorca, Spain Bouchon Carême, Helsinki, Finland Ladurée Rue Royale, Paris, France Ducasse Baccarat, Paris, France Julie's, London, UK Shell, Nusa Penida, Indonesia Coro, Orvieto, Italy Seven Island, Busan, Republic of Korea Kimyoa, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Another Smith, Tha Sai Luat, Thailand Beefbar, New York, USA Japón, Miami Beach, USA Did you see that this South American restaurant was just crowned best in the world for 2025?
The Star
15-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Trump vs a united Asean
US President Donald Trump's tariffs – especially the ultra-high 'reciprocal tariffs' that he says will be reintroduced on July 8 for any country that has not struck a trade deal with his administration – have sent countries around the world scrambling to respond, adapt, and limit the fallout. Asean's 10 members – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam – have been among the most proactive. Their leaders quickly recognised that, after decades of spectacular gross domestic product growth, Asean is an economic force that the Trump administration would have to reckon with in a serious way. In 2000, Japan was the world's second- largest economy, some eight times larger than Asean; today, it is only 1.1 times larger, and by 2030, Asean's economy will overtake it. From 2010 to 2020, Asean contributed more to global economic growth than the European Union did. Asean owes much of this progress to open trade. Between 2003 and 2023, its trade with the rest of the world exploded, from US$618bil to US$2.8 trillion (RM11.9 trillion). But the real secret to Asean's success is strong and competent leadership, exemplified, in the grouping's early years, by Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, a Cambridge-educated lawyer, and Indonesian President Suharto, a Javanese military leader and mystic. It was their unlikely partnership that kept Asean together. Today, such leadership is exemplified by another group of seeming political opposites: Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Vietnamese General-Secretary Tô Lâm, and Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. Anwar and Prabowo both experienced prolonged periods in the political wilderness and became friends during this time. Asean's leaders have upheld relative peace and stability in their countries while cultivating a culture of consultation and consensus (musyawarah and mufakat in Indonesian) in guiding regional relations. This stands in stark contrast to the experiences of many other developing countries and regions. Just a few weeks ago, neighbouring India and Pakistan narrowly avoided full-scale war. The Middle East remains gripped by instability and violence, with Israel winning wars and losing the peace. The leaders of Latin America's two largest economies, Brazil and Argentina, are barely on speaking terms. After 48 years of regular Asean meetings – with over 1,000 ministerial and lower-level meetings taking place annually – constructive engagement is a deeply engrained habit in the region. To be sure, Asean is often accused of lowest-common-denominator cooperation. But without such a measured approach, one guided by pragmatism, consensus-building, and compromise, Asean's member countries would not have managed to remain united through multiple shocks, including the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 and the global financial crisis a decade later. Asean is now bringing these strengths to bear in its response to Trump's tariffs. To be sure, the individualised nature of the tariffs – which vary widely within Asean, from 49% on Cambodia to 10% on Singapore – limits countries' prospects for true collective bargaining. But Asean's member states are well aware that they are stronger together. That is why, at the just-concluded Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur, hosted by Anwar, the group proposed a summit attended by Trump and Asean's 10 national leaders. This builds on Asean's April declaration that it would develop 'an enhanced, robust, and forward-looking Asean-United States economic cooperation framework', which strengthens 'constructive engagement' and drives 'innovative initiatives' to deliver a 'mutually beneficial economic relationship', with 'particular focus on high-value sectors'. The statement reflects Asean's awareness of its value to the US, which runs a significant trade surplus in services with the region. It is no coincidence that the US invests heavily there – nearly US$500mil (RM2.350bil) in 2023. Asean's value is set only to grow, owing not least to its efforts to deepen its ties with other regional organisations and economic powers. Its just concluded summit with China and the Gulf Cooperation Council – the first of its kind – sent a clear message: Asean is not pinning its future on its relationship with the US, but it is not turning its back on open trade. This aligns with the global mood: while Trump continues to brandish tariffs as a weapon against America's trade partners, other countries have refrained from raising tariffs unilaterally. Asean is also seeking to boost internal resilience by strengthening trade among its member countries. While intra-Asean trade has been declining as a share of total trade, from 25% in 2003 to 21.5% in 2023, this is only because trade with the rest of the world grew so rapidly. In any case, the group is now seeking to dismantle non-tariff barriers – more than 99% of goods already flow through Asean tariff-free – and exploring other measures to boost trade within the bloc. The US economy is formidable, and Trump's tariffs may well undermine Asean's growth in the short term. But by spurring the Asean countries to deepen cooperation with one another and with others, US tariffs could bring about an even more prosperous – and, crucially, resilient – grouping. This is especially likely if Asean makes the most of existing arrangements – for example, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which could seek to negotiate a new partnership with the EU. Fortunately, Asean has the kinds of leaders who can spearhead such an effort, beginning with the bloc's current leader, Anwar. — ©2025 Project Syndicate Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, is the author of many books, including The ASEAN Miracle: A Catalyst for Peace. This article was first published by Project Syndicate.
The Star
13-06-2025
- General
- The Star
Malang resident discovers structures believed to be ancient temple
JAKARTA: A resident of Landungsari Village in Malang Regency, East Java, has discovered a brick structure believed to be the remains of an ancient temple, possibly dating back to the 10th-century Medang Kingdom. The structure was discovered last week by Rudi Harianto, the head of Bendungan Hamlet, while preparing a tent for a local event on farmland. 'When I tried to drive a bamboo pole into the ground, it struck something hard. As I dug to remove it, I uncovered a brick,' Rudi said in a recent interview, as quoted by Tribunnews The following day, the 40-year-old reported the discovery to the Indonesian Archaeology and Cultural Conservation Society (PPBI), which later sent a team to conduct further excavation at the site. The PPBI members and local residents excavated a hole approximately one meter deep and two m wide around the brick Rudi discovered. The dig revealed more bricks arranged in what appears to be a tiered stone base. Some of the bricks are believed to contain andesite, a volcanic rock commonly used in the construction of ancient temples in Java. One brick was also found to have markings that resemble ancient Javanese script. Rudi said he contacted PPBI immediately after finding the brick because several ancient artifacts, such as clayware and statues, had previously been found in the village. He said that in 2023, he discovered two bricks believed to be part of an ancient temple structure. The following year, he also uncovered what appeared to be the foundation of a similar temple structure. He reported the findings to local authorities in Malang, and several archaeologists were sent to inspect the site. However, no further excavation has been carried out to date. PPBI member Aulia Akbar said the structure discovered by Rudi last week is suspected to be part of a temple dating back to the Medang Kingdom, specifically during the reign of Mpu Sindok, around 929 to 949 CE. 'However, we don't have the authority to conduct a full excavation. Our role is limited to cleaning, safeguarding and preserving ancient relics,' he said. The Medang Kingdom, also known as Hindu Mataram, was a powerful ancient kingdom founded by Raka I Mataram Sang Ratu Sanjaya on Oct 6, 732 CE. It lasted until the 11th century and left behind a plethora of archaeological remains across Central and East Java, including more than 150 temples. Among its most renowned legacies is the Borobudur Temple in Magelang Regency, Central Java. Recognised by Unesco as one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world, Borobudur was designated a World Heritage Site in 1991. Mpu Sindok is known for relocating the seat of the Medang Kingdom from Mataram, in present-day Yogyakarta, to an ancient city named Tamwlang, in East Java. However, archaeologists remain divided on the exact location of Tamwlang, with some estimating it was in modern-day Jombang Regency, while others believing it was in present-day Malang Regency. Some archaeologists argue that the move was motivated by East Java's more favouable geographical conditions, including the presence of the Brantas River, which offered better economic prospects for the kingdom. Others theorise that a Mount Merapi eruption and internal power struggles prompted the relocation of the royal capital. Head of the Malang Tourism Agency, Purwoto, said that a thorough investigation by cultural heritage experts from the East Java Cultural Heritage Preservation Center (BPK) is needed to verify whether the structure found in Landungsari Village is indeed an ancient temple. 'We cannot conduct excavations or make determinations about the site ourselves. That responsibility lies solely with the BPK, and we are currently awaiting their assessment and further instructions,' he said. Purwoto expressed hope that the BPK would promptly investigate the site, noting that the Malang Tourism Agency has reported several suspected archaeological findings in Landungsari Village since 2023. However, the BPK has yet to conduct a full excavation or thorough research on these discoveries. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
Economist
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Economist
Suriname's chaotic democracy just chose its first woman president
His finger ink-stained from voting, Wagirin Tjokrosetiko, a 62-year-old driver of Javanese descent, has a simple reason for wanting a woman to run Suriname, a multi-ethnic former Dutch colony of under 700,000 people on the north-eastern shoulder of South America. 'Male presidents only fill their pockets,' he says.
