What to do in Yogyakarta?
So, now that we found our rhythm in Yogya, how can we spend our free time?
First of all, you need to know what is Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta is a very old city and has played a key role in the recent history of Indonesia. For the longest part of its history, it has been known as part of Mataram and was one of the cities of the region of the same name. It separated after the ruler of Mataram decided to cede lands to the Dutch East Asia Company, and was then founded as a sultanate, and the same family that founded the sultanate still rules the sultanate. As such, it has seen long-term influences from the Hindu and Buddhist empires and has later converted to Islam. Nowadays, the city is mainly Muslim, and you will hear the muezzin regularly, sometimes, you will hear several muezzins at the same time too. Yet, you will still find many references to Hinduism and Buddhism all around. The Sultan of Yogyakarta played a large role in the independence and unification of Indonesia and is the only remaining sultan in Indonesia. He acts as a governor of the province, within the republic of Indonesia.
Wandering around the kampungs!
Yogyakarta as such has retained a traditional organization and has grown around the Kraton, its stronghold in the middle of the city, in which most of the tourist sites are. Inside the Kraton, you can still observe the organization of the city in kampungs, the traditional villages, usually occupying a few streets. There is usually still a gate for each main entrance with the name of the kampung. You can see different styles of kampungs, some having themes, like batik, or being more or less heavily decorated. People live outside, and will usually stay in the streets during the day, and you will find several stalls where they may be eating or taking a drink. They will talk to you and ask questions, and if you are not in direct proximity to touristic sites, they will just do it out of basic curiosity. We were surprised to find out that most people here do know some things about Mexico, especially the songs. We even had a nice conversation in Spanish with one of the workers at the shadow puppet theater when walking out of the Sonobudoyo Museum. This curiosity is one of the most enjoyable parts of Yogyakarta.
In the middle of the Kraton, you will find the palace of the sultan. The place is important in the history of the city but is still an official place used by the Sultan and his family, for official duties at least. The exposition mainly presents royal coaches, used by the sultan’s family, and most of them were made in the Netherlands, showing that at that time, most of the industrialization of the area came through the Dutch. There are also nice reliefs showing the history of the creation of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta, but the guides seemed to not know a lot about them and were more bothered when we asked about the history. The coaches have nothing much of interest, they are really basic. So, if you can skip it, just skip it. Walking around in the kampungs is nicer and more interesting.
People when walking in the Kraton will encourage you to go to the Taman Sari, the water castle, which are baths that were built for a former ruler of the Mataram or Sultan, for him and his family and concubines. It is highly decorated, mainly by motives based on Hindu mythology. It’s a nice place to go and visit, and it won’t take you a lot of time.
When going out, we got a bit lost in the streets behind it. We later found out we were in the Kampoeng Cyber, an area richly decorated with street paintings, of all inspirations, and with a more actual and international feeling than most kampungs. You will find here some batik shops, as well as some shops selling their own designs of t-shirts. In my eyes, it has been one of the most interesting areas to walk through in the Kraton.
Shopping for Batik
Close to here, you can also look for Batik artists in the kampung Ngasem.
Batik is a method to taint cotton cloth, and is an old tradition in South East Asia. It is practiced in several areas nowadays, but Yogyakarta is considered the center of this tradition, and usually, each motif drawn in Batik has a special meaning for the person wearing it and highlights their identity.
To taint a cloth with Batik, the artist will first apply wax on the cotton fabric, drawing the motifs and figures he wants to represent. Then, the cloth will be tainted, and the areas covered in wax will show different motifs. It was traditionally made by hand for each piece, but of course, nowadays, it can be industrialized. Handmade pieces are still the most sought-after. There are three types available nowadays, hand-drawn, stamped, and printed.
I knew about batik from a long time ago and remembered about it a long time ago. There is indeed a famous picture of Bill Clinton and several other heads of state wearing batik during an official meeting held in Indonesia during his tenure as president of the US. So, yes, I wanted to get my piece of batik here, and we went looking for some. Since we had time, we took one day to learn and look for things and went to buy them a few days later.
When we were about to pass the gate of Kampung Ngasem, we were approached by a small man, Ionah, who offered us his help. We did accept, and it was a good idea. He told us he worked for the government and helped people find their way around here. He took us to several batik artists that were in the process of creating some new pieces. With him, we could enter the houses of the artists and families producing the batiks. Some were very simple, others more complicated. It was very interesting to see how it is made and helped me understand. He also took us to some shops. He guided us so well that we left a tip, even if he did not even wait for us to give it to him before leaving us as we went on with our day. We did not buy our batik at that time yet, as we wanted to go and see other places.
We also went to Hamzah Batik, a very known tourist shop on Malioboro, the shopping avenue of Yogya. The shop is really interesting, because it also holds some traditional ceremonies for tourists, and offers many traditional items from Indonesia and Yogyakarta.
Also, we wandered a little in Pasar Beringharjo, the main market in the Malioboro area. The market is huge, and you could find anything there. We read that there, most batik shops were selling prints, and that to find if a batik has been printed or not, you need to look for small imperfections. Of course, the most traditional ones have some imperfections.
So, we decided to buy somewhere else. I bought my shirts in one of the shops Ionah brought us to, and J bought hers at Hamzah Batik. Since the shirts still have some loose thread, we can see they are artisanal.
Hamzah Batik is placed in the lowest part of Malioboro, the main shopping area of the city, with shops all along, the main market has an entrance here, and the most modern mall in the city too. If you go at night, you can observe some traditional street shows of Javanese dance. There is also one every week at the Sonobudoyo museum.
Outside of the wandering, Yogya also has several museums that can help understand the history and culture of the area and Java.
Sonobudoyo Museum and the shadow puppets!
When we went to the Sonobudoyo Museum, we looked a bit lost, and a man came to us and oriented us. The museum presents different pieces about the history of Indonesia, and some pieces about local culture, mainly shadow puppets made in leather, artisanally.
We went through the different rooms, watching batik pieces, and different objects. To be honest, it was a few months ago, and I could not remember much about what we saw. What I remember is that, while we went through the shadow puppet area, we found again the same man who oriented us when we arrived. He started to talk to us about the shadow puppets and told us that he is in charge of the exposition. His name is Ulitsyo, and he makes the shadow puppets used for the shadow puppet show that is held in the museum every Tuesday. He explained to us several of them, how to recognize the good and the bad characters. The history his puppets tell revolves usually around the Ramayana, an old tale of the Hindu mythology in which Rama, with his friend the king of the apes, Hanuman, goes on an adventure to liberate his fiancee Sita from the hold of the demon Ravana. He also makes several puppets representing the different gods and mythological creatures, like garudas and others. He spent a lot of time explaining all that, and it has been a very nice encounter. You can find him there.
The shadow puppet show in itself is quite interesting and shows a very old way for people to entertain themselves. It seems to me this art was shared in different Asian cultures, as I remember the Chinese movie To Live count the story of a shadow theater artist.
In this case, the show includes a full gamelan orchestra and a master of puppets who recounts the story and makes the voices. The shadow puppets are moved by the master from behind a screen, with a light source projected behind this same screen allowing him to play with them. The light being stronger in the middle, he uses different positions to show the puppets neater or blurred. You can enjoy the show as it should be, meaning, in front of the screen, as anyone has done for centuries. Or, you can also go behind the scene and observe how the show is done. It was definitely worth the experience in my eyes.
Fort Vredeburg
North of there, you will find the Vredeburg Museum, a museum hosted by the fortress that was built for the Dutch during their occupation of Yogyakarta. As the Sultanate of Yogyakarta was created against them, when they finally managed to occupy the city, they wanted to be able to control the sultan. So, they had their fortress built close to the palace, just outside the Kraton.
This museum is quite interesting because it goes through the history of Yogyakarta until its liberation from colonization.
The main theme of the museum is the colonization period, and how people kept resisting it. The colonization of Indonesia did not start as a colonization by a state, but rather by a private company, the Dutch East India Company. Their main objective was mercantile, and if the start is similar to the one of the colonization by the British East India Company, the Dutch from what is told here were never able to make friends with the Javanese nor showed the will to understand and develop their colonies. So, the tone is quite different from the one we can see in Malaysia, in which the British occupation is praised.
It starts with the first struggles in 1830 and ends with the independence of Indonesia after the Netherlands managed to conquer Indonesia again after the end of WW2. The most interesting point of the museum, in my eyes, is the way the Japanese invasion of Asia during WW2 is treated here. If in Singapore and Malaysia, it is presented as a horrible period, it is here presented as a positive interlude, that helped the Javanese learn several skills, especially in how to hold a modern army, that will then help them defeat the colonizer. The way the war was held by the Dutch is also presented in a very negative way. And, of course, it is a way to present things that is very uncommon for someone born in the Western world.
And next…
We also went to the smaller Perjuangan Museum, which was close to our hostel, the main reason why we decided to go there is that it is so much forgotten by tourists that it looked like they opened it just for us. It shows several objects from the resistance and has an exposition about money, showing how even after Indonesia got independent, the Dutch influence remained economically.
Here’s for our wanderings around Yogya. Of course, the most impressive stuff to see around here is not in the city, but… The should-be world wonders of Borobudur and Prambanan, the subject for the next article!
