Tag: Java
We went to the island of Java in Indonesia to visit Gunung Padang, an enigmatic archaeological site that some have called "the oldest pyramid in the world". From the โOut of Sundaโ theory to the recent surveys with the carbon-14 method, we will try to give a historical location to the โMountain of Lightโ, between (fanta) archeology and folklore.
Kasenian Rรฉak: the Sundanese horse dance between artistic performance and ceremonial possession (II)
Luigi Monteanni spent a year in Indonesia to study the Kasenian Rรฉak, the traditional Sundanese horse dance, during which the participants in the ritual are possessed by spirits. Whatโฆ
Kasenian Rรฉak: the Sundanese horse dance between artistic performance and ceremonial possession (I)
Luigi Monteanni spent a year in Indonesia to study Kasenian Rรฉak, the traditional Sundanese horse dance, during which the participants in the ritual are possessed by spirits. What we propose in two episodes is a full-bodied extract from his master's degree thesis born from this experience.
Kawah Ijen: Hell & Heaven
We made an excursion, among the indigenous sulfur collectors, on the slopes of the only volcano in the world that erupts blue lava: the Kawah Ijen on the Indonesian island of Java. The nocturnal catabasis and the morning ascent, similar to those of Dante in Dorรฉ's illustrations, gave rise to meditations in us on the power of the cataclysmic events that have always affected the Pacific "belt of fire", and on the necessity on the part of the man to accept them and to come to terms with them.
